Chris Baker is an award-winning advertising and social change strategist turned entrepreneur. He is the Founder & CEO of Serious Tissues, a toilet roll brand that fights climate change and deforestation by planting trees with every sale. Over 1.2m trees have been planted in just three years. He is also the Co-Founder of Change Please, a coffee brand that has helped hundreds of homeless people off the streets by training them as baristas, and is available in 23 countries. Change Please was named the World’s Leading Social Enterprise in 2018 and in Marketing Week’s 100 Most Disruptive Brands in the World. He has spent 20 years working on the world’s biggest brands including Unilever, Pepsico, Boots, Sky and Alpro whilst winning over 100 strategic and creative awards along the way.
Find out more about Chris' book, Obsolete, here:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/obsolete-9781399416658/
00:00 - Intro
02:09 - The premise of his book
04:27 - Why Chris called the book Obsolete
06:41 - Making positive change with small businesses
18:32 - Being inspired by change brands
21:53 - How to win against established brands
27:03 - The advantages of purpose
29:31 - How Chris started Change Please
32:48 - Measuring the impact of Change Please
36:28 - How change brands can be distinctive
40:14 - Why Tony’s Chocolonely are making an impact
42:06 - Putting change ahead of profits
47:06 - Applying a change mindset to other industries
49:37 - Making an impact commercially and with purpose
52:55 - How Serious Tissues started
55:53 - The power of partnerships
57:49 - Chris’ biggest takeaway from writing Obsolete
