Why Business Matters in System Change

We exist in a world where the ultra-rich are getting richer, powered by a system we call 'the economy' which is serving to funnel power and value up to an ever-shrinking core of wounded individuals who then project their trauma out on the rest of the world in a doomed attempt to feel better about being caught in a system that doesn't promote human wellbeing.

So far, so very obvious.  The system is clearly dysfunctional and the cost of failure is the sixth mass extinction. The stakes could not be higher.  So how do we create the unity and clarity we need to coalesce around a common cause? Explicitly, how do we create a system that aims for the longterm wellbeing for all - where 'all' is not just all of humanity now and for generations to come in perpetuity, but all of the web of life, the human and the more than human worlds?

How, in fact, do we persuade at least a critical mass of our existing system, that we as humans exist to transform our selves and our world for the flourishing of all?

This weeks' guest has wrestled with these questions for all her adult life.  Victoria Hurth is an Independent Pracademic who works at the cutting edge of theory and practice to help the world clarify its consensus on foundational issues.  As you'll hear, she firmly believes that we need to agree that our goal is the longterm wellbeing of all, and then co-create the governance system to frame the strategies that will take us there.  We don't need everyone to sign up, but we do need a critical mass of people at all levels of our organisations from government, to NGOs to industry and beyond. 

To this end, Victoria co-led the five-year development of the global ISO standard in Governance of Organizations (ISO37000), was Technical Author for the first national standard in Purpose-Driven Organizations and is currently Project Leader of the development of an equivalent ISO (ISO37011). Victoria is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Director at the Soil Association Certification Ltd and advises Planet Mark, UnaTerra Venture Capital, and formerly Creatives for Climate Collective and SACE – Italy’s national export credit agency. She advised the UN on the SDG methodology for the business reporting target 12.6.1 and has over 25 years’ global experience in business transformation and as a full time Associate Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business.   

Alongside all this, she is a practicing Stoic. How inspiring is that?  She is also co-author of a new book called 'Beyond Profit' which is one of those potentially world-changing books that lays out in explicit detail why the old system is dead, how slight tweaks to make it 'more sustainable' are never - were never - going to work - and how instead we might craft a new system of governance that allows us to step forward into a world that does prioritise the longterm wellbeing of all life.

Beyond Profit book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/beyond-profit-purpose-driven-leadership-for-a-wellbeing-economy-lorenzo-fioramonti/7895496

Victoria's website https://victoriahurth.com
Victoria on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-victoria-hurth/
'Beyond Profit' Book Community https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13085230/

ISO37011 (Purpose-Driven Organisations) community  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13091442/

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