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iF
So tell us, how was stakeholder centered strategy born?
Michael
Fundamentally, stakeholder capitalism is a different way of thinking about the role that business plays in our society, and what it takes to actually lead and operate truly successful companies that generate value in many forms.
Stakeholder-centered strategy is iF’s approach to that value generation: giving companies the tools, the processes, the strategies and measurement systems to create new forms of value for all the stakeholders in their ecosystem. We think it’s the future of business, and a powerful way for businesses to stay accountable while winning sustainable competitive advantage.
iF
Great! Tell us a bit about the title of this podcast. Why’d you call it “The Hunt for the How”?
Michael
As we dug into our research, we found that there’s been a lot of increasing interest in stakeholder capitalism over the past several years. We also found some pretty inspiring stories of companies finding really innovative ways to collaborate and create value for their stakeholders–companies like Microsoft, AirBnB, Autodesk, Starbucks–all had stepped up to center creating value for the planet, their employees, their community, as a core part of their business.
But we also saw in this excitement there was no roadmap or toolkit for leaders who may be interested in stakeholder capitalism to help them actually put it into practice, to operationalize their stated purpose in a measurable, demonstrable way. So “The Hunt for the How” names the journey we're on as a company. We think it’s the journey all businesses will be on in the next century. In essence: what are the concrete, actionable steps that will enable businesses to align their purpose with their profit? How can we make creating value for stakeholders not only desirable from a business standpoint, but doable and sustainable?
"'The Hunt for the How' names the journey we're on as a company. We think it's the journey all businesses will be on in the next century. In essence: what are the concrete, actionable steps that will enable businesses to align their purpose with their profit? How can we make creating value for stakeholders not only desirable from a business standpoint, but doable and sustainable?" –Michael Dix, Intentional Futures CEO
iF
And why a podcast?
Michael
This podcast is in many ways a natural extension of how we’ve approached this work from the beginning: in deep, thoughtful conversation with people we trust, respect, and want to support. The way we work has always been very relational, and so when we were thinking about how we could share what we were learning, this felt like the most authentic way to do that. Much more true to who we are and how we work than a report or deck.
And we also chose a podcast because we didn’t just want these ideas to collect dust on a shelf in a binder (or in a folder on the cloud). We want people to engage with us, push our thinking, challenge it even, and help us share these ideas within the broader business community. Honestly, in our ideal scenario, every consultancy would have some kind of a stakeholder-related practice or service. Because that’s how the entire world of business improves, that’s how business as a whole transforms to serve a much broader set of constituents. This isn’t about some kind of proprietary promotional push: this is about inviting people into an ongoing conversation, an evolving discipline.
Curious? Send a message to malia@intentionalfutures.com or michael@intentionalfutures.com to learn more, and listen to the Hunt for the How here.
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