Green Business With Impact

Is sustainability just something that salespeople shy away from? Or is it more something that can be an asset in sales? Yes to the final question, according to my guest today. Sustainability presented and packaged correctly is a major potential sales superpower – if they can communicate it correctly to the customer. My guest today is Amanda Downs, who has more than 35 years of experience in sales. She works with commercial leaders and their teams on strategy and one of her key points is: Sell to the customers “why”. For a sales department, this does not necessarily come easy and without training. All teams in fact, from product development, procurement, marketing, management to sales, need training to understand and communicate about their company’s sustainable products. Get great tips from Amanda Downs in this season’s final episode. You can hear: That unless you can sell to the why, people are not going to buy About the cycle of “understand, plan, sell, negotiate and execute” That today, people buy before they have even met you and therefore it's key to make sure you sell value That a business needs to educate their salespeople That all departments need to have a joint vision of success That selling is not about negotiating. It's about selling the value story About the process called “the seven C's” Mentioned in this episode: Amanda Downs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandadowns2/ Email Amanda: [email protected] Uspire Group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uspire-ltd/ Uspire Group website: https://theuspiregroup.com/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com   International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.   Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

What is a good partnership and are they easy or hard to obtain? Do partners with a sustainability approach have advantages over “traditional” partners? And what is the D-A-N-C-E framework? Lots of questions and just as many amazing answers when I partner up (pun intended) with the knowledgeable Dave Plunkett on the topic. He is the founder of the company Collaboration Junkie and has developed hundreds of partnerships since the company started in 2020. Dave walks us through his five step D-A-N-C-E framework that will help the listeners be strategic towards partnerships. Because you need a strategy behind your partnerships to be successful, whether your business is focused on sustainability or not. If you do have a brand with sustainability at its core, you have an advantage over your competition. So, join me and Dave and learn about D for Dance, A for Assembly, N for Nurturing, C for Connection and E for Engagement and much more. You can hear: Dave thinks it’s not our natural way to be in competition. It's our natural way is to collaborate and work together When you're speaking to potential partners, you should talk about how you can help them deliver the result that they want to deliver It’s important to schedule strategic reviews of your partners Some great examples of partnerships - for example Spotify’s deal with Uber and Danish textile company Gabriel’s deal with Boeing That partnerships are not about being in competition with other people. It's about being just where there's a right match  Mentioned in this episode: Dave Plunkett on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveplunkett/ Collaboration Junkie: https://www.collaborationjunkie.com/ Danish fabric company Gabriel: https://www.gabriel.dk/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com   International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.   Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the connection between innovation and sustainability. My guest on the show today is Aileen Boyle who is the CEO of Fortro. For more than 20 years, she has helped companies innovate and create impactful businesses. A key take away is that sustainability and circular economy are effectful platforms for innovation! Aileen also breaks down the concept of innovation and gives a lot of great tips about driving a sustainable business. For instance, we discuss the basic rules you must look at when you bring a new product or a new service to market and you can hear Aileen’s take on the steps that well-established companies wanting to innovate their existing products or services can take. You can hear: Aileen demystifying the word “innovation” The questions any business should ask themselves, whether new or existing and wanting to bring a new product/service to market: -How do you know that this is exactly what people are looking for? -How will they use it? -What will they do when they're finished with it? That it’s important to design “the sustainable element” in from the start The importance of bringing in an external perspective - somebody that has grown businesses before, who has been involved in developing products and services Mentioned in this episode: Aileen Boyle, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aileenboyle-ceo-fortro/ Fortro: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortro-ltd/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability: greenprofit.scoreapp.com International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores. Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

How can we change the world for the better if we’re burned out and stressed? How do organizations make sure that they take the wellbeing of their employees serious? And what does being a “force for good” company do to create an organization where people thrive and perform?   All these questions and a lot more will be answered on today’s episode where I have Charlotte Stebbing-Mills as my guest. She is the co-founder of the company The Wellness Theory, a multi award-winning team specializing in stress relief and collaborative wellbeing solutions. She is also a podcast host herself of “Thrive in the Workplace and Become a Force for Good” and tries generously to answer all my million-dollar questions about wellbeing in today’s (sustainable) organizations.  **You can hear about: ** Values mismatch as one of the reasons why people leave organizations or don't join them in the first place  Understanding the state of the business and the employee's wellness being a good indicator of what's going on at a deeper level within the organization  That people will go a bit further for purpose driven businesses than for just a regular organization or a regular business  The difference between healthy and unhealthy stress  What organizations can do about stress – also stress coming from the top  The huge importance of an organization’s recruiting and onboarding process to secure value alignment  A recent study that shows how “force for good” companies is having a positive impact on wellbeing on the individual  **Mentioned in this episode: ** Charlotte Stebbing-Mills, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-stebbing-mills/  The Wellness Theory: https://www.thewellnesstheory.com/  The podcast “Thrive in the Workplace and Become a Force for Good”: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thrive-in-the-workplace-and-become-a-force-for-good/id1710561815?kuid=be8825a3-4b4a-4634-b372-fc56484823df&kref=2hlk1Q0PewdT The Deloitte Study, Charlotte mentions: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ca/Documents/about-deloitte/ca-en-about-blueprint-for-workplace-mental-health-final-aoda.pdf Looking for a competitive edge? ** Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com    International Bestselling Book:  ** If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.    **Contact Green Business With Impact: ** If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/  **Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: ** Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

Why is operational excellence so important and what does it take to achieve it, especially in a sustainable company? All this and more will be answered when I have a great conversation with an expert on the matter, namely Marianne Page, author of several books on the topic. To Marianne, operational excellence can be as simple as “doing what you say you will, when you say you will, and to the standard expected”.  And however easy that sounds, it's not always easy to deliver.  With fast-food restaurant McDonald’s as a recurring example of what it means in a practical sense, Marianne takes us through several aspects of how to practice operational excellence. You’ll hear about “sticky systems” and why a leader's values and the sort of business they want to build is key to getting and maintaining the right people to your (sustainable) business. Because however you may have a fantastic vision to impact millions of people, the first people you need to impact positively are the ones who work with you.   **You can hear about: ** The importance of hiring people who share the values you have about being a force for good company and how the right people can help your company achieve being just that  That trust is the glue that holds a business together – both the business to its customers as well as the leader to the team within the business  How you make a connection between having stability and systems and at the same time wanting to develop and change  The “3-1-90” system and how your business also can use this system to prepare for what’s coming  That you should start thinking about, implementing, and building your operational excellence from day one, whether you are a sustainable business or not  Why communication – both internally and externally is important  **Mentioned in this episode: ** Marianne Page website: https://mariannepage.com/  Marianne Page on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariannepage/  Marianne’s books: Simple Logical Repeatable, Process to Profit and Mission: To Manage: https://mariannepage.com/books/  The onboarding system Trainual: https://trainual.com/  Looking for a competitive edge? ** Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com    International Bestselling Book:  ** If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.    **Contact Green Business With Impact: ** If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/  **Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: ** Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

Is it a superpower to be a company with a “force for good” mindset when it comes to attracting investors in today’s world? Yes, says my guest on the show – as long as you’re not using it as a substitute for good, sound commercial business modeling. But if it is in addition to a sound business model, then it's a superpower and quite a massive one too, he says. My guest is James Church, author of the international bestselling book, “Investable Entrepreneur”, and co-founder of the multi-award-winning investment readiness agency called Robot Mascot. James generously shares his great tips about investing, both seen from the investors’ side and from the businesses point of view. For instance, James takes us through the “two investment killers” as he calls them and the three critical fundraising assets you need to know about. You can hear about: Why the business plan, the business case, the financial projection, the pitch and the narrative are key factors to attracting investors Whether or not it’s difficult to attract investments for sustainability if investors do not understand what it means  Examples of businesses that have utilized their sustainable impact to get access to some form of capital Investment in businesses who are doing some good to the planet or society as well as delivering them a commercial return, will become more and more important Female founding teams who deliver twice the return of male founding teams. Yet females still only seem to get 1% to 2% of total investment worldwide Mentioned in this episode: James Church website: https://www.robotmascot.co.uk/james-church/ His book “Investable Entrepreneur”: https://www.robotmascot.co.uk/investable-entrepreneur/ James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescchurch/ The VC power law: https://govclab.com/2023/08/09/the-power-law-in-vc/ Check how investor-ready you are by going to Pitchready: https://www.robotmascot.co.uk/pitchready/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com   International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.   Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

A great company brand is clearly highly valuable. As sustainable companies they got a huge advantage in this game. There are numerous examples of how sustainability can be part of leveraging and growing such a company brand. But how important is branding for a business to have success in the world of today? This is the topic I am discussing with my guest, Jeremy King from King Campbell and Friends. He has 30 plus years of experience with branding and will share some vital tips for you today. One of the most important points, Jeremy makes, is the window of opportunity that you have right now as a business leader: If you are authentic, if you are taking a leadership role, if you are not just doing the minimum to comply with the EU regulations, you can build a brand and take a really strong position. If you sit back and wait, then you'll lose that opportunity, and the window will close! Jump on board now and listen to this episode, where we also discuss: How important Jeremy thinks branding is for a business success in the world of today Focus on the smarter and better part in your solutions rather than the “green” part - examples used being Tesla, IKEA and even Ryanair The risks of not meeting the own standards that you have set for sustainability That you'll never have a bulletproof shield and it's never going to be perfect, but you can perfect it as you go – the key is what you announce and what your goal for sustainability is What it takes to leverage your sustainability effort into a strong company brand The internal change that will happen on the back of external change The difference between brand and marketing strategy Mentioned in this episode: The Sustainability Brand Index: https://www.sb-insight.com/sbi ** **please note that at new report is coming out for 2024 soon and that is the one that is on display at their site Jeremy King on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyking-execcoach/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com   International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.   Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

Most business leaders have a focus on recruitment and very often it is a bit of an issue – sometimes even the limiting factor for growth and success. We kick off Season three of Green Business With Impact with a great guest and super experienced expert named Alan Furley. He is the co-founder and CEO of ISL talent, which is a British recruitment company. Alan has worked within recruitment for “loads and loads of years” using his own words and says he’s from an era where the issue of sustainability wasn't front of mind. But that has somewhat changed and today we discuss the connection between working seriously with sustainability in your company and recruitment of the right talent. What does it take to attract the right talent? Is sustainability a factor for talent or is it still salary, rewards and job title? We talk about: What business leaders should think about when they want to attract the right people for a sustainable business Aligning recruitment to sales and marketing for a good result The three key factors - Compensation, Career progression and Culture, that have flipped a bit when it comes to retention Autonomy, mastery and purpose that according to author Daniel H. Pink is what motivates people to work and how purpose is becoming increasingly important Startups and scale ups that are a big part of job creation compared to bigger businesses Mentioned in this episode: Kelpi: https://www.kelpi.net/ Daniel H. Pink: “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452796-drive Alan Furley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanfurley/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick simple questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability: greenprofit.scoreapp.com International Bestselling Book: If you want a recipe for how to work with sustainability in a way that is good for business and for the world then check out my Amazon international bestselling book “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place”. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores. Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

What does it take to build and scale a circular business? What kind of mindset is needed? What are some of the dilemmas and discrepancies you will be facing? These are some of the questions I talk about with Director and Co-founder Wickie Meier Engstrøm from Kvadrat Really in this final episode of the second season of the podcast Green Business With Impact.   Kvadrat Really creates solutions made from textile waste and their bigger purpose is nothing less than wanting to create a waste free society! But can a relatively small company like Kvadrat Really save the world from waste? Listen to my talk with Wickie Meier Engstrøm and learn why thinking big is key to helping save the planet.   In the episode, you will also, once again, learn a lot about circularity and what you need to consider when wanting to drive a circular business. Wickie Meier points out that you cannot just decide that your company is “going to be circular”. Circularity is a different mindset, and you need to think it into all aspects of your company: Procurement, Supply line, customers, and the financial department.   You can also hear: The story of how having a company with a strong circular mission can be the ticket to being acquired by a larger company and thereby catapult your growth and reach About the contradictions in being an innovator – you both need to be very structured but also anarchistic How you ensure that you get everybody on board your mission, both those who are in favor, but also the naysayers. Mentioned in this episode: Kvadrat Really: https://www.kvadrat.dk/en/really/solutions Kvadrat: https://www.kvadrat.dk/en Wickie Meier, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wickie-meier-8347732/ Kvadrat Really, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kvadrat-really/ Looking for a competitive edge? Invest 3 min answering some quick questions about your business. Discover how well you are suited to get business success with sustainability:  greenprofit.scoreapp.com   New #1 bestseller book out: “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place” is the name of my new book. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.   Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Please help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show on your podcast app.

Today’s episode will underline the good old learning: That investing in quality pays. But here you get a different understanding of what is understood as quality. There is much more to the company Stykka than just another story about a company with a circular mindset within the kitchen manufacturing industry. I guarantee you, that when you hear about how Stykka works with data, traceability, replacement and makeover, you will be blown away!   Stykka designs and manufactures circular furniture, kitchens for instance, for homes and buildings. But they regard themselves more as a tech-company than as a kitchen company. Listen to my conversation with founder Jarl Engelbrecht Vindnæs and learn from Stykka’s success!     In the episode, we discuss: That Stykka wants to rethink the role of furniture for the benefit of people, planet and climate Their mission and why they wanted to create a company that takes responsibility for all the raw materials we use and consume That the biggest advantage of their model is internally but also helps attracting investors That their mission feels like an “inner superpower” that aligns with planetary goals Stykka’s three main advantages over their competitors: -Fully digital backend system -Less SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) than other companies -All products are designed for disassembling The two opposing attitudes towards the “great green transition”: Is it a burden for the business community or a huge opportunity to create new and better solutions that are both cheaper and better for the planet? Mentioned in this episode: Poka-yoke means "mistake-proofing" or "error prevention" or as Jarl mentions it “Idiot proof” refering af slighly older verssin of the expresseion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke https://www.stykka.com/ Jarl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarl-engelbrecht-vindn%C3%A6s-a328b52/ Do you know your Impact Business Score? Answer a series of simple questions in five categories based on what we’ve found are common markers for the understanding of sustainability in a business context, and the ability to turn it into business value and impact. When you completed the scorecard, you got an Impact Business score – a quantified rating of your approach in a sustainable business context, based on how you answered the questions. It takes just 3 min and will give you customized suggestions to next steps for you: greenprofit.scoreapp.com   New book out:   “Making sustainability profitable – a leaders guide to growing a thriving business that makes the world a better place” is the name of my new book. You can get it from Amazon and other major bookstores.    Contact Green Business With Impact: If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcast episodes please contact me at [email protected] or reach me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsteinhausen/ Like what you hear? Please rate Green Business With Impact: Help me spread the word about Green Business With Impact by sharing and rating the show in your podcast app.