For Love & Money

EPISODE 5: Paul Tierney on starting a new business unit and brand in the age of climate change

My guest on this episode of For Love & Money is Paul Tierney, General Manager of Business Development at TPG Telecom (previously Vodafone Australia). Paul has spent 15 years in the telecommunications industry in a range of roles from Finance to Strategy to Sales and Marketing. In his current role he is responsible for the Lebara and Felix consumer brands. Paul also recently led a piece of work which led to TPG Telecom committing to power their operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2025. The felix brand is the newest brand in the TPG Telecom family having launched in November 2020 and has a strong focus on sustainability and on driving positive impact.

 

One of the things I want to achieve with this podcast is to share a diverse range of stories from businesses and brands at different stages of their purpose journey; as well as from different perspectives - small, medium and corporate.

 

This episode is a good one for getting an insight into how a new business unit and/or brand can start their purpose journey within a corporate organisation.  Clearly there are challenges, but also potential opportunities. A great message comes out of this episode for me - it's all about just getting started and recognising that perfection is the enemy of progress.

 

Here are some of the areas my interview with Paul covered:

• The secret that our mobile phones are hiding
• How TPG Telecom’s new brand felix started their journey that led them to becoming a brand driven by a higher purpose
• How the personal beliefs of the start-up team influenced the decision to become a purpose-led brand
• Navigating the challenges and opportunities of being part of a big corporate business 
• How felix is contributing to the momentum within the movement to broaden commitments from the telco industry
• Balancing the need to be financially-stable and driving impact
• How Felix uses partnerships to ensure that the supply chain of tree planting is authentic and effective
• felix’s 2-year social impact goal and Paul’s 5-year ambition for the business 

EPISODE 4: Simon Sheikh, co-founder of Future Super

My guest on this episode is Simon Sheikh, founder of Australia’s first fossil fuel free super fund, Future Super.

 

Before starting Future Super, Simon led GetUp for six years. Getup is a member based independent movement to build a progressive Australia and bring participation back into our democracy. 

 

In 2014, Simon co-founded Future Super with his business partner Adam Verwey. The company has a rapidly growing member base and is successfully disrupting the Australian superannuation industry, by proving there is demand for high-impact, sustainable investments.  

 

This interview delivers some great insights for those interested in how to navigate their path to purpose. Future Super’s clarity of purpose is second-to-none. They consider themselves more a movement for change than a business. The discussion was wide-ranging but reveals Future Super’s depth of purpose. Here are some of the topics we covered. 

 

• Simon’s view on the role of love and empathy in business
• Why Simon and his business partner Adam Verwey started Future Super 
• Future Super’s theory of change. (It’s simple, but super powerful)
• The financial argument for ethical superannuation investments
• The shared narrative of the type of people who are Future Super members
• Where the large players of the superannuation industry are investing (I suspect you’re going to be shocked at one of these) 
• The move to transparency and what this will mean to the superannuation industry
• Future Super’s investment performance and why ethical investments have lower volatility than non-ethical investments
• How the “employee value proposition” has changed and how purpose and identity are central to competition for people
• The #notbusinessasusual campaign
• Future Super’s unique “for-purpose” ownership model
• The similarities and differences between building a not-for-profit organisation and a purpose-led for-profit business

Contact Simon https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsheikh/

Future Super Website https://www.futuresuper.com.au

EPISODE 3: Nina Mapson Bone - Beaumont People

My guest on Episode 3 of the For Love & Money Podcast is Nina Mapson Bone. 

 

Nina is the Managing Director of Beaumont People, a specialised recruitment business that truly believes in “placing people first”. She is also President of the RCSA, the Recruitment Consulting and Staffing Association of Australia and New Zealand and she is Chair of the Development Committee for the NORTH Foundation, a charity which supports innovation in health research and patient care. 

Nina helps business leaders with their people problems and delights in bringing talented people together to drive value, build vision and realise opportunities.  

 

With extensive leadership experience, she has built and restructured high-performing teams with a focus on talent attraction and retention.

 

As a non-executive director and managing director, Nina understands the challenges and complexities of driving growth and ensuring a customer-first approach in large, diverse businesses that have multiple service lines. 

If you have a business problem, complex tactical challenges with your employees or organisational structure, you can be guaranteed that Nina has helped others navigate through similar issues.

 

Nina has an MA (Hons), is a Fellow for the RCSA (Recruitment Consulting and Staffing Association) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 

Nina and I had a great discussion on Beaumont People’s purpose and how it has guided their actions before and during the pandemic and positioned them strongly for success. Some of the things we covered in this conversation include:

• Nina’s personal purpose and how it inspires her in her work
• Beaumont People’s purpose and how it inspired their investment in an Australian-first research initiative and the world’s first meaningful work profiling tool
• How the GFC inspired an initiative to support Beaumont People’s people; that has gone onto become a big part of Beaumont People’s strategic success and enhanced their reputation and culture
• The architecture of Beaumont People’s brand purpose positioning and how their ‘how’ contributes to their ‘why’ and shapes their decision lens
• What the Australian research on meaningful work reveals about organisations in Australia and the expectations of Australian employees
• How everyone’s path to meaningful work is unique and how understanding what it means to individuals and organisations can be game changing
• The trap of assumptions around meaningful work
• The psychological and sociological aspects of meaningful work
• How Beaumont People’s purpose around meaningful work guided their actions during the initial stages of the pandemic and accelerated some of their longer term plans and positioned them for success
• How purpose has reinvigorated the Beaumont People team
• The balance between purpose and profit at Beaumont People

 

So many insights in this episode about “meaningful work” that I hope will challenge some assumptions and get people thinking more deeply about their work and the kind of meaningful work that can be offered through organisations.

 

Contact Nina

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninamapsonbone/

 

Beaumont People Website

https://www.beaumontpeople.com.au

 

Explore the Meaningful Work Research and Profiling Tool 

https://go.meaningfulwork.com.au/home?r_done=1

EPISODE 2: Geoff Manchester – Intrepid Travel

For our very first podcast interview I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Geoff “Manch” Manchester, co-founder of Intrepid Group and Director of the company’s not-for-profit The Intrepid Foundation. 

 

Globally recognised as a pioneer in responsible travel, Intrepid Group are the world’s largest provider of adventure travel experiences. Geoff and his best mate Darrell Wade founded Intrepid Travel in 1989 with a vision of creating small group adventures that travelled the local way, benefiting both travellers and the places that they visit.

 

More than a quarter of a century later, Intrepid Travel has grown to become Intrepid Group, a portfolio of specialist tour operators and 23 destination management companies taking over 400,000 travellers to more than 120 countries on all seven continents, and employing more than 2000 staff in 29 offices around the world. 

 

As a former leader of Intrepid trips in Asia, Manch has firsthand experience of the issues effecting developing nations. His experience in marketing for Intrepid Travel has given him insight into the value placed on such issues by both clients and travel agents. Manch has ensured Intrepid delivers on its sustainable and responsible ethos as the company has grown rapidly over the past 27 years, from championing practical, on the ground decisions involving low impact travel, to setting and implementing company-wide responsible travel strategies.

 

In 2000, Intrepid Travel established the tourism industry’s first dedicated responsible business department, then in 2002 launched The Intrepid Foundation to enable travellers to give back to the communities they visit. Since its creation the not-for-profit has raised over $10 million for more than 70 conservation and community projects around the globe, supporting initiatives in environmental conservation, wildlife protection, human rights, health care, child welfare and gender equality. 

 

Manch is especially proud of the connection that The Intrepid Foundation creates between their own local leaders and the projects that they support; they learn about the projects and community issues, and in turn are able to educate their travellers and inspire them to make a donation. Manch is an Ambassador for Conscious Capitalism Australia and is a regular speaker on sustainable business issues in Australia and around the world.  

 

This interview offers some great insights to people in business who are curious about what a truly purposeful organisation looks like and the relationship between purpose and profit.

 

Please forgive my enthusiastic use of the words “I love...” throughout this interview. Appropriate, given the podcast theme, but I realise I may need to measure my genuine love for the actions of these businesses who are leading the way, so I don’t end up inspiring the eye-roll effect!! Bear with me as I develop my podcast interviewing skills please.

 

We cover a lot of ground in this interview and there are some great topics we get into. Some of these are highlighted below.

• Core Purpose vs Higher Purpose of Intrepid Travel
• The origins of Intrepid Travel and their “Responsible Travel” approach 
• Intrepid’s approach to animal welfare in tourism and how they’ve become “the elephant experts”
• How women’s-only tours in Iran, Morocco and Turkey help to change the way people see the world
• The impact of the pandemic on Intrepid Travel’s business and Geoff’s view of the impact of the pandemic on the travel industry long-term
• Intrepid’s leadership, advocacy and support for climate action within the travel industry
• Regenerative tourism, the evolution of sustainable tourism
• How Intrepid’s purpose and approach to business attracts likeminded people to their team who are invested in the organisation’s success
• The direct correlation between Intrepid’s purposeful activities and their growth and profit

 

Here are the links I promised in the interview:

• A link to Intrepid’s Annual Report – enjoy! https://www.intrepidtravel.com/au/intrepid-annual-report-2020
• World Travel & Tourism Council and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Sustainable Leadership Case Study on Intrepid Travel https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2021/WTTC%20Case%20Study%20-%20Intrepid.pdf?ver=2021-05-05-102941-497

I really hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed having a yarn with Geoff. 

For more information on Intrepid Group visit www.intrepidgroup.travel; for more information on The Intrepid Foundation visit www.theintrepidfoundation.org. For more on Geoff, you can find him on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-manchester-b953702/

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THE FOR LOVE & MONEY PODCAST

 

Hosted by Chief Purpose Activist, Carolyn Butler-Madden, The For Love & Money Podcast is a show where business and social purpose meet to inspire a movement for positive change – business as a force for good; brands driving profit through purpose.