In this article, Belinda Li explains what a social enterprise is and how it differs from most businesses. When I tell people our consulting firm has a passion for helping social enterprises, I’m sometimes met with the question, “what do you mean by social enterprise?” Or I might get a knowing look, yet the response is, “oh, so you do social media!” or “oh, so it’s about social networking!” Hmm… I suppose that’s not totally unexpected. After all, not many…

  For everyone who has ever struggled with identifying a clear, concise, and compelling value proposition, Barry Horwitz shares an article that clarifies the issues and identifies the pitfalls.  In his book, Your Music and People, Derek Sivers addresses a problem faced by musicians: being asked to describe the kind of music they play. Saying “all kinds,” doesn’t help. That, according to Sivers, is like saying, “I speak all languages.” Nor does claiming to be unique, since all musicians rely…

  Susan Meier shares a recent interview where she explains the importance of humanizing your brand, and steps you can take to make sure your branding reflects your values. Creativity and strategy: Two words that seem vastly different but oftentimes go hand in hand. Right and left brains must balance in the world of branding, leveraging intuition and data. And when you have the right branding strategy,  you’ll attract your ideal audience, and build their trust in your company. So…

  While many companies pay lip service to company values, and many more don’t pay attention past the brand development and marketing stage, Xavier Lederer shares an evergreen post from his company blog that explains why establishing and maintaining core values are integral to a company’s direction, growth, and success. ‘Corporate culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.’ – David Cummings, Co-founder of Pardot The #1 thing I wish I had…

  Kaihan Krippendorff provides a framework that can be used to address and adjust the paradigm of your organization.  At Outthinker, we have been tracking a sea change in the idea of a corporation’s shift for two decades. We have witnessed a slow but determined march away from the view that corporations exist to serve shareholders toward one in which corporations recognize they serve many masters: employees, communities, the environment, the world. In our 2012 book, Outthink the Competition, we…