Brand Principles For The 21st Century with Kevin Finn (some explicit language)

the logo doesn't make the brand the brand gives the logo its value and that is probably where I see the strongest evidence for when designers create or design logos and branding that's what becomes the canvas and the brand over time and our associations with that business and brand over time that's what gives it the value [Music] [Applause] my name is Kevin Finn um I am a designer by trade a I live in Brisbane Australia have you ever heard of a designer a design studio a branding firm or Ad Agency say we build Brands I see this regularly on websites I see firms say this regularly and it frustrates me because this isn't what we do as designers what they're referencing in fact is logos websites Communications assets oftentimes when I go to a graphic design website there'll be a page that says our brands or this heading Our Brands and beneath it is is a bunch of logos that they have designed and this is frustrating for me because we cannot claim the entirety of a brand because we've designed a logo I'll give you an example do you recognize this symbol this logo for our American audience probably more so it's the Chase Manhattan Bank um symbol but do you know what it means it's a fascinating backstory and it was designed by the very influential design for foreign guys and this is what Tom geismer said when he was talking about where the symbol itself came from so when Chase National Bank merged with the bank of Manhattan company to create Chase Manhattan Bank the new company became the second largest in the United States the new organization needed a new graphic identity to represent it effectively banks at the time generally used trademarks That Grew From their initials or an image of the bank's headquarters building Chase Manhattan briefly used an awkward combination of a map of the United States a representation of the globe the name of the bank and the phrase worldwide banking the may as well throw in the kitchen sink there's kind of everything pulled into one so what they decided to do they became convinced that the bank would benefit from a simple symbol that could not only unite the two newly merged corporate cultures but also come to stand in for the company's long unwielding name in the public mind however there's no symbol that really means Banking and no symbol that represented chase at the organization so they turned to the idea of using an abstract symbol since they knew that Chase Manhattan had tremendous advertising resources that could quickly establish the symbol in the public mind now that's a a lot of texts and apologies for that but it's really worth just seeing from the designer's point of view where the symbol came from and what was going on essentially this symbol meant nothing the symbol became a canvas for meaning that over time and decades began to absorb all of the associations that we have and as individuals have into this symbol and that's what became and has become chess National Bank the symbol itself the designers Tom they didn't build the brand they built the canvas they designed the platform and everything around the brand came after now I'll give you another example and this is on the other side of the planet it's for a company called Canterbury which is a clothing apparel company it's based in New Zealand and in 1904 three English gentlemen moved to the south island of New Zealand they set up their business and their life in in a region in in New Zealand on the south island called Canterbury and they loved it so much they decided to call their company after the region Canterbury and because they're a clothing company they call themselves Canterbury clothing company and they started out designing and um producing uniforms for the Australian New Zealand military they progressed over time into Sporting apparel we generally know them for their logos on the um was on the All Blacks New Zealand Rugby Powerhouse and we know Canterbury is very much embedded in the sporting World their tagline is committed to the game they changed from Canterbury clothing company to Canterbury as I said earlier so all of this is is sort of where the business started where it progressed and and where it is today but what does the logo mean it doesn't mean any of the stuff I've just really talked about other than the fact that there are three founders and there are three circles that overlap in this symbol they're based in New Zealand and they use the silhouette of a New Zealand bird called the Kiwi which isn't really a symbol that would be recognized internationally but it references their Locale and then it's also three c's for clothing a Canterbury clothing company but none of that is really evident in when we see the symbol if we recognize the kiwis sort of silhouette we go oh New Zealand if we see that there are three C's we got maybe it's Canterbury clothing company but all of these things again the logo itself the designer did not build all of the associations all the meaning and the brand that Canterbury has become into this symbol so again I question when I hear designers say oh we we build Brands because they've done logos we have to remind ourselves that what we are doing as designers is designing canvases for meaning to be applied to it over time from Individual associations with an organization even when that organization changes what it does I'll give you another example I'm sure many of us will recognize this the name of the companies in the actual logo and supreme started in 1994 in Brooklyn as a sort of a skateboard shop and was very much in financial trouble it was broke in the early days so much so they decided to create or develop some T-shirts and print them and sell them for for some extra cash flow now when we think of supreme today that's almost laughable that an organization in a business and a brand like Supreme which is an international Powerhouse at one time needed to produce t-shirts to get some extra cash a fair bit of context in 2018 the supreme logo was ranked the most powerful logo in the fashion industry as that just symbol that we're looking at right now it was also valued at one billion dollars so we think that you know at one point they're struggling for cash in 2018 worth 1 billion the next year 2019 they're worth 2 billion so again we look at this and we think that's the sort of story in a snapshot of supreme but what does the logo mean if we look at that logo and we think well we understand what Supreme is as a brand and as a business where does the logo come from it doesn't say all the things we just discussed and in fact it came from a bit of an appropriation from uh an artist called Barbara Kruger whose work addresses topics of culture power identity consumerism and sexuality which of course is perfect for Counter Culture skate culture youth culture all the things that we we kind of would know from Barbara Kruger's work but when we look at that logo they're not really the things that we think of we think of what Supreme is we think of all of our associations we think of what we see in in the actions behaviors the products services that that it does so again we've got a question when a designer or an ad agency or a firm says we build brands that isn't the case and there are three examples as to why now there are some exceptions I have to say I've thought about this deeply and I've sort of pulled it into these three very key areas where I think that designers can help build Brands and I use that word help they're not doing it they're helping in the first case if the designer is a long-term strategic partner and they're in a position to influence strategy and planning and product development and processes and systems and all that stuff in an ongoing Manner and regularly engaging with the executive and the board and possibly even having equity in the business they are in a position to help build that brand because they're doing it over a long period of time on a day-to-day basis in an ongoing Manner and engaged in a very deep way with that business another way is if the designer is the the founder or the owner and that means that they're working in the business on a daily basis anyway and they're helping to deliver the services the products and the offers and the experiences to customers and they're using their design skills to do that or to help do that but again it's in a long-term whole of organization effort it is not a short-term external engagement and it's not just doing a logo working with them for six weeks or six months and then stepping away and then thinking you've built the brand it's a long-term effort the third is is when they're working in-house now there was a time and maybe Chris you will recall this but there was a time when in-house designers were kind of frowned upon laughed upon and you know if you sort of if you're an in-house designer you couldn't really make it as a designer what happens today is when you're working in-house you're in a position to contribute and to challenge and to shape the country as it grows and evolves from the inside and this also happens on a day-to-day basis the trick there is though it often depends on the designer's seniority do they have influence in the business how it operates does the executive or the board value design and from my research and experience you know there are a lot of design-led businesses out there but not enough and it often dilutes the designer's input and it excludes them from these critical decisions if a company either isn't designed late or says it is but doesn't act that way it's a powerful position for designers though to be in-house and be in a position to help build a brand over time now the key Point here is the logo doesn't make the brand the brand gives the logo its value and that is probably where I see the strongest evidence for when designers create or design logos and branding that's what becomes the canvas and the brand over time and our associations with that business and brand over time that's what gives it the value Nike is a good example a swoosh in 1973 meant very little today amazing huge now there also is a lot of confusion out there and when we talk to various people and about Brands and branding and you know what definitions are we're going to get lots of different sorts of takes on on what's what I I always laugh and think it depends on who we're talking to or who's saying it it depends on what business we're talking about sometimes it depends on what position the sun is in the sky AI it's just really kind of random and so I've sort of thought the way that I see all of this over the almost 30 years in in the business how do I Define um Brands and branding so for me a brand is is who you are it's how you perceived it's how people feel about your business it's the core value of your business offer and it's a promise to your customers or the value they should expect it's the sum of all the experiences someone has with your business it's what you live and deliver every day it cannot be manufactured created or invented by an external consultant because then you'll be required to live up to someone else's Vision rather than your own so that to me is what I feel a brand is and then there's branding which is how you articulate and appropriately communicate your business to your customers and to the world across a variety of channels and this is where designers are useful there is also another phrase or Trend kicking around and that is about being Purpose Driven which I think is amazing you know we should very much have purpose at the heart of what we're doing but I've again depending on who I'm talking to and who's saying it and businesses that I talk to the idea what this means is really vague and when I talk to businesses when I'm working with them and I say hey you know what what is the purpose of your business they often say to make money you know isn't it to grow to make money and I go yeah oh fine but the reality is that making money is a function of business it's an objective none of the staff really are going to benefit from all of the revenue you create the the money that you make as a business owner they're going to get the salary that's fine so if making money is your purpose It generally is just about the executive and the people who are going to benefit from that but it's an outcome it's a function it's not really anything bigger than that and yet money has become incredibly powerful it's become powerful because if we think of it this way as Anna Lapeer who's an influential American author and educator once said every time you spend money you're casting a vote for the type of world you want to live in that is an amazingly powerful thought that if we see ourselves as consumers and individuals who are engaging with businesses and Brands all over the world when we spend money we dictate what kind of world we want the future to look like that's that's the reality of it today now there are some critics out there and Skeptics that go well Kevin that's wonderful and let's all hold hands and getting unicorns and head off into Utopia over the horizons and the rainbows because this is you know Anna lape amazing but educator author how much power does she really have and then you see the other side of the Spectrum which if you're familiar with the gentleman called Larry Fink who's the CEO and uh and chairman of BlackRock who's the world's largest asset manager with 9.5 trillion in assets under management as of October 2021. his view is that without a sense of purpose no company either public or private can achieve its full potential it will ultimately lose the license to operate from its key stakeholders the incredible thing about this is that Larry Fink has been on this sort of soapbox if you like but on this mission for over two decades it's not like he's thought I should say it now because it's popular and it's trendy he's been saying this for a long time he's just doubled down on it recently and he sent out he sends out every year letters to CEOs of of their portfolio of businesses he's put them all on notice that if they aren't acting and behaving in a purposeful manner in a way that has purpose at the center they're going to be rethinking whether they're still in their portfolio so we've got from Anna Lapeer to Larry Fink and everyone in between saying that this is Shifting this is moving the point is here my definition of being Purpose Driven means putting something incredibly important something that has a bigger and wider positive impact in the world above and before making a profit now that does not mean that we have to stop thinking about money that does not mean that money isn't important we'll come back to this later in the presentation but what I'm saying here is that traditionally businesses have put money as the metric and the objective and I'm saying that no longer is that either required or expected that we need to be putting that to the end of the process to the where it should sit the outcome the objective and we know to see how how does that help us as organizations as businesses as Brands as individuals and as a society move forward in a much more Equitable way so we'll come back to to money and purpose um shortly but over as I say that almost 30 years of being in the industry I started to question myself and say look Kevin if you're looking at Brands and branding and businesses and design is there a framework for what it means to be a brand what what could that be and I don't mean we look at Nike or Supreme and say you're a brand I mean is there a framework a mindset A system that we could think about they would say whether we're a brand or not can we think like a brand is there a mindset that we could adopt or is there a structure that we could look at and I came up with um 15 what I call Brand principles and I'm going to share five of them with you today but in order to do that I'm just going to start with with this little exercise think of a brand one that you know very well and that you're very familiar with you understand what they do where they sit in the market or whatever products or services but also one that you are not a customer of you were never likely to be one like you might even hate them you might be like oh God I know them but I hate them I'd never be a customer got one brand principle one a brand is the most valuable real estate in the world a corner of someone's mind and a relevant place in their life so here we are in our incredibly busy world with stuff thrown at us every day visually already audio you know the works ads offers and we have given a brand a space in our mind which we do not like or we are not a customer and are never likely to be one the power that they have had to squeeze into a very very overcrowded Minds and allow us to say we see that business or brand either as a benchmark in the industry or or as a reference point or at least we know them and recognize them when we see them that is the is one of the most powerful things and I should also just uh shout out here that the first three quarters of this sentence was not mine it's from a gentleman called Sir John hegerty who's a very influential advertising man uh from the UK and he did say that a brand is the most valuable real estate in the world a corner of someone's mind I add to that an irrelevant place in their life because we're going to come back to relevance later but relevance to me is is another vastly vastly valuable asset that Brands can can have and should have brown principle three a brand is internal before it's external your staff need to be your greatest ambassadors the mistake is to think that branding is purely about external branding now I see this all the time when I'm working with businesses or organizations or Brands and they just constantly think that it's external broadcasting marketing how do we get out how do we talk to the customers in the market and all that stuff the reality is that if everyone inside the business who's tasked to deliver on everything that's been broadcasted externally if they're not aligned then it's actually a waste of time a waste of money and I laugh at when I think the worst case scenario is that if staff inside a business or a brand start to understand the business around their work for purely through external brand uh broadcasting and marketing if that's where they're getting their information and go oh is that who we are oh because I'm seeing it out in advertising that muscle here that's like that's a mess that's just sitting in your business waiting to explode so we need to understand that Brands and branding are internal before they're external another big sort of um sort of pattern that I've seen is uh is that this view that a brand is a department it is not it is the responsibility and representation of your entire organization from receptionist to CEO and I'll give you an example if if you know we see this regularly businesses and Brands they they talk about brand and they sit in the marketing department and that's where brand happens and that's and that's probably kind of not surprising given the beginning of this presentation where we talked about designers and advertising agents saying we'll build your brand for you of course you're going to sit it into the marketing department so if you do that and if your brand sits in the marketing department what does that say about the CEO and what does that say about every other person in the organization who isn't in the marketing department this is something that I I do get a little bit of pushback on but I'll explain how it works so Mission Vision and value statements are great internal guide but no one outside the organization really cares they will however be interested in the value that these statements deliver I've had people push back saying but Hey Kevin Mission back they're all really important and I say yes they are internally staff and the team use these statements to get an understanding of where the business is going what we stand for what we're about but I challenge you our viewers and our listeners think about your most favorite brand the one that you engage with most regularly do you know what their mission statement is what their vision statement is what their values are you know in in the statements that they make do you care I wager you you don't but I do feel you will have a sense of what those statements represent through the products and the services and the experience you have so this is why I say that Mission Vision value statements are really really important for the inside of a business and a brand but no one outside needs to know that if you put it on your website that's great it's a public pronouncement of what you stand for great if a customer feels the need to go and look at your website and read it and remember it great what that does do you though is say that we if we do want to look and find it we will hold you accountable because you've stated it but other than that we want to see where it shows up Brian principle 12 a brand is a long-term and evolving objective it requires dedication and commitment building and maintaining your brand cannot be outsourced it's not a short-term exercise and I have three sort of examples of that Chase Manhattan Bank Canterbury Supreme long term over decades you know that's how you build a brand not by doing some logos and some Communications and some websites my view and Chris you and I've talked about this a little bit previously we might talk about it afterwards but this is my view I don't think that every business is a brand and I think in fact most of them aren't I also think that's okay so what I'm talking about here and what I see in in this space that we're talking about if we can apply this mindset then it doesn't matter if we're a brand or a business or vice versa it matters about the mindset that we're bringing if we're running a business it also matters if we're a designer what kind of mindset we bring when we're engaging with these businesses we don't have to go and say give us a marketing exercise in six months we'll build your brand and we'll move on we that is that is misleading I think that's disingenuous I think it's dangerous in some cases and I don't think it's fair on the designers or on on the business owners I think we need to go and say we can bring a brand mindset and we can create tools and assets for you that over time because it's a canvas for meaning the associations can be built into it and that's why I say that designers and Consultants are the assist we don't build it we don't we assist in how that happens now I've also thought you know long and hard about if this is this is what I feel Brands and branding and businesses are you know historically and up until now what's the future looking like where are we heading what are the signals that I'm seeing and the patterns that I'm observing I actually spent a long time really trying to um Wade through all of the the trends that are seeing and all of the the things that are happening and I had to just put them to one side because one word kept coming through that told me where things are going and that one word was impact now thank you Kevin what does that mean I'll give you an example um and as an example from a gentleman called Dr Edward de Bono who if you don't know him he invented the phrase lateral thinking and the tools and he actually spent 50 years plus creating a body of work that was helping people to use thinking as a skill and how creativity as a skill can be taught and learned um so he's a giant in the space of I actually call him the forefather of design thinking um but he's got this really really cool example of a factory on a riverbank um and the factory is bringing in water into its uh into its um building and then they do what they're doing and then they spit out the Wastewater and the pollution Downstream and don't really care about who is Downstream or the health of the River or the communities that rely on it and you know who really cares we've got what we want um and unfortunately it's a familiar story right people get what they want and they don't care what our impact is so Edward said how about we just do this how about we swap the intake and the outtake what what impact would this have if you took water in Downstream which meant that the water that you push out the Wastewater the pollution if you like has to be clean because you're taking that back in Downstream now a really simple idea beautiful little you know conceptual flip which is phenomenally difficult to do if you think about the outputs and the inputs and how you clean water and how all that stuff goes on this little simple idea um has a massive massive impact on on the actual organization in the business and how it operates so you know people might be looking saying oh thanks Kevin that's a nice little example but really you can't really do that and yet the bonus Downstream pollution example later became law in some countries I love this because it is the beauty of an idea that can change in very very critical ways how we engage with the spaces we are either existing in or engaging in are part of and the idea that Edward put forward was so simple and so difficult but made so much sense that can then become a law I just love that as an idea now what does that all mean that all sounds lovely again Kevin it's great well for me purpose is motivational impact is measurable so without purpose impact is kind of scatter shot it can kind of it could either be purely utilitarian functional practical just numbers but no real Direction but purpose or that impact it runs the risk of becoming a bunch of lovely words on a poster that sit in the staff kitchen or the boardroom and everyone goes great that's as far as it goes we have to see how that purpose gets measured so the these two together for me is where we are um moving into the future and there's lots of you know examples that we're very familiar with like the patagonies of the world that we can immediately go Oh yes this is this is what's happening but there aren't that many Kevin so what are you talking about well the research that I've been doing is is really really really incredible what's happening in the world if we look back to 2015 there's a there's a study Millennials where 91 of them said they would switch Brands to one associated with a Kohl's and more likely to purchase a product with a social or invent environmental benefit and volunteer for a cause supported by a company they Trust 91 percent now we can all laugh at Millennials a lot of people do they bash them and it's like but these people these millennials they are working companies some of them are setting up their own companies and many of them already are or very soon will become leaders in companies and if this is what they're thinking and this is what's important to them this is what the future is going to look like because they are the ones who are going to be in power some already are but this is coming another study which was reported in the um Harvard Business Review in 2018 there are researchers uh said that nine out of 10 people that they spoke to were willing to trade a percentage of their lifetime earnings for greater meaning at work this is across age and salary groups workers want meaningful work badly enough that they're willing to pay for it now what does that mean pay for it how did they do that so the researchers literally asked them if you put a value on meaningful work what would that be the researchers were surprised to hear that of all the people they spoke to they wanted to or they were willing to Forfeit 20 percent of future salary for Meaningful work what what does that mean in terms of tangibles in America 21 of an individual's income goes through a combination of rent or mortgage and these people are willing to what forfeit 20 for Meaningful work it led the researchers to feel that a definition of the 21st century kind of needs needed an update and they said it now is food clothing shelter and meaningful work this is not only is this coming this is here and this is here to stay so how does this now show up in you know that's lovely Kevin research and speak to people great how is this now impacting with these Trends and these signals from these patterns of people shifting of all of us shifting our priorities how are the businesses and Brands responding Lego is trying to refashion the product it's best known for it wants to eliminate its dependence on petroleum-based Plastics and Builders toys entirely entirely from plant-based or recycled materials by 2030. now they want to do that without impacting the color of the of the bricks the durability of the bricks or the smooth click of the bricks and they're also doing it just quietly they're not up there going hey we're wonderful we're doing this you should love love us because they're doing it because they see the amount of plastic they produce is at a gargantule level and the impact that that does have reminds me of the of the factory that Edward Bono said on the on the riverbank we need to change because the impact Downstream is having such a bad effect and it's on us and they're stepping up to do it another one McDonald's according to them their new purpose will mean more support for farming communities and aim to Source 100 of packaging from renewable recyclable or certified sources by 2025 donating millions of pounds in weight of food from the supply chain and restaurants to people in need and reducing barriers to employment for more than 2 million people worldwide if you think of the reach and the scale McDonald's has and that's now their mentality it is a phenomenal impact huge now I also recognize that there's a lot of us who might kind of look at McDonald's skeptically and say yeah but your McDonald's you could do better and yes all these organizations could do better for sure we all could but the fact that they're doing this the fact that they're starting and the fact that their impact is going to be hugely scalable we should be there saying we recognize we acknowledge we support what you're doing and yes you could do better we want to encourage you to do better but we must first upload that you're doing these things first that this is the step towards where you're heading now I also think you know maybe they're doing this because it's the right thing to do or maybe if we look at the statistics and the research they're doing it for business Revival because if they don't do it customers will go somewhere else so they're either doing one of the other the right thing to do or business survival doesn't matter what they're doing it in the UK Aldi CEO Charles Hurley sent a letter to suppliers informing them about the supermarket chains pledge for own Brand Packaging to be 100 recyclable reusable or compostable by this year 2022. and warning them that all other products will need to meet the standard by 2025. significantly Hurley was blunt about the fact Aldi's request was non-negotiable and that the future decisions would be based on our suppliers on our supply Partners ability to lead and adapt in this area this is like uncompromising you do it or you're out it's black and white and this is Aldi massive supermarket chain there's a there's a small startup in in Australia in in Melbourne so we're talking about the Aldis and we're talking about the McDonald's and the Legos but then the startups and this is called great wrap um and it's a plastic free plant-based alternative to Kitchen Brands like glad wrap and they've designed their product in such a way that their impact is already built in once used the wrap can go straight into your home compost system or green waste bin where it breaks down quicker than orange peel so again the businesses that are coming up that the starting are building impact into what they do from the get-go this is also reaching into the highest Financial systems in the world for example in late 2020 the European Central Bank said that it will start conducting in-depth assessments of how bank balance sheets account for climate risks in 2022 banking you know all about money but they're like well okay we've got responsibilities too and so do businesses and Brands investors this is again from the horror business view there's a feeling that firms with greater negative impact generate less investor interest which reduces their stock market valuation and raises their cost of capital so we are now looking at incredible tangible impact into how businesses and brands are operating from a financial point of view if they're not thinking about impact if they're not thinking about how they are engaging with the world that we all are part of in Europe nine of the biggest investors wrote a letter that included it would not be consistent to emphasize climate risks in the Strategic report but not consider these same risks in the accounts the letter the letter said if a cans leave out material climate risks too much Capital will go towards activities that put shareholder Capital At Risk whereas still this puts all our futures at risk from investors to banking right through to countries so this year 2022 in June to August Germany made unlimited travel on trains just nine euro per month and that said 1.8 million tons of CO2 emissions and that's equivalent to 350 000 homes what they produce in a year of CO2 emissions which is incredible and also dropped air pollution by seven percent but they didn't do that necessarily for climate they did that because the program was devised to reduce the impact of inflation on German citizens so they came at this and and thought how do we reduce the um the impact of inflation we could do this because it helps cost of living it helps a whole range of other things and when we talk about impact we're not talking about one thing we're talking about what is the Ripple of that one thing doing elsewhere and this is a great example so the Ripple of approaching a problem about cost of living and inflation also tackles an incredible environmental issue the program was also um funded by a windfall tax on energy that amounted to 231 million once again impact these energy companies are having a some of them having a negative impact on the world they're getting taxed on it I look at it almost like an impact tax and that tax that they that the organizations that the companies the governments are getting they're putting it into these impact um Solutions it was so successful that Spain decided they'd follow suit but they'd do it for free not nine Euro a month all of this tells me that impact is where not only the future of businesses and brands are us where all of our connected future is is heading towards we need to be thinking about this and how do we then go to organizations and Brands and businesses and say hey we've got to talk about impact we've got all hold hands no we gotta go and talk to them with incentivized conversations that motivates them to see the upside of taking an impact mindset and I look at it this way impact equals relevance equals Revenue now you could swap out revenue for return because return could be reputation could be measurement could be reach whatever but revenue is a metric for business and as we said before when we ask an organization what's their purpose they say to make money well the incentivizer there is to make money let's put it at the end where it should be if you have impact and a positive impact you become relevant in the world that you were a part of and then people decide to transact with you and that gives you your revenue or your return and then that just goes around the more impact you make the more relevant you are the more Revenue you generate that Revenue goes back into impact which increases your relevance which increases your transactions which increases your so around it goes that to me is an incredibly simple incentivized model where we can go and talk to businesses Brands organizations and say here is a reason why you can put impact at the heart why you should put impact of the heart of what you do because either one it's the right thing to do or two it's going to be business survival because not only is this coming it is here the problem sometimes is companies go let's do that and let's go talk about it and let's go they tell the world that we're doing great and this is what we're doing okay fine and as designers we're all engaged to craft beautifully written copy and talk about this is in the best terms possible and this is the reality no one cares about your well-crafter story what they do care about is where your story shows up in their story and that's about relevance and we need to flip out when we're talking to organizations and as designers and copywriters and creatives we need to be able to show why these companies and these brands are relevant to the people who are within their audience or the community and we can only do that if we show that Community or this organization or this brand shows up in that Community story my belief is that Roi in the 21st century will evolve to become return on impact and I don't think it's an unreasonable belief I think that if we see where the signals are going if we see where Society is Shifting towards and if we can move the needle away from revenue as the starting point and push it to the outcome where it should be impact can drive in a way that is going to absolutely reshape our world and it's happening but I think that to me is is sort of where I feel that things are moving now I will finish up on on a little personal story and it's personal but it it gave me some incredible life lessons in 2013 we lost my mum to cancer she had a four-year battle with cancer um she was 64. and um she had plans for the future she didn't know she was going to pass away age 64. and yet I I was there when she had her last breath and in her last moments and I thought to myself we none of us know how much time we have so we need to be very very clear and deliberate about what it is we do with our time we just want to make sure we do it consciously um and it really got me thinking about that which unfortunately was reinforced a few years later when we lost my dad to cancer he was 70 and he had plans for the future and I I realized that me as an individual as a as a creative as a designer as a person in the world I need to really decide what it is I want to do and I came to the conclusion that we don't have time to [ __ ] around because we don't know we don't know how much time we have now I mean that if if any of us out here listening to this or watching this have an idea that we want to do that we've been too scared to pursue or haven't had the courage or we're doubting ourselves just do it what's stopping you if we're a business and we're thinking that we just want to sell Widgets or grow our money or you know grow a revenue to what end I mean what are you doing in the world what is the meaning to that other than more and more when does it stop again we don't have time to [ __ ] around because the future relies on our decisions so this to me has become a bit of a mantra a bit of a a guiding thought for myself and I I put her on myself to say what do I want to do and I made a very conscious decision with my work only to work with meaningful organizations doing meaningful things and work with good people and I turn down work because I didn't fit with them or didn't they fit with me because of these few words so much so I I thought I needed to phrase something a bit more positive and so what is it that I want to do this is what I this is my driver not having this time but what do I want to do and I thought what I want to do is have a positive impact at scale that to me is underpinning everything I do and those few words on screen are my reminders to why I'm doing that so much so that I pulled everything into a book and I know I even said this to myself that that sounds a bit arrogant and a bit presumptuous that hey I should write a book because I know stuff but I wrote a book because I've been talking about this stuff for over a decade maybe 15 years it's been just me in a room with an audience or with a group of people or with a business and if I think that I want to have a positive impact at scale I needed a medium that could scale and a book to me was one way to do it it also meant that I could go into these principles and these This research and and how my observations have led me to where I am in way more detail so I felt for better or worse I will write a book and I'll see where that goes if I leave the leave you with this thought every day we are designing our future no matter who we are but particularly in the design field and history is watching so we need to be thinking about our impact we need to be thinking about what kind of meaning we're bringing into the world if not for us for the next Generations it's so important foreign