It is true that bravery demands more of everything. It is a decided departure from the beaten path and the deliberate pursuit of that which you believe.
Most of us believe when we're young and just embarking on our careers that the journey that lies ahead will entail climbing a ladder - making our way from a lower rung to the next one above us, getting higher and higher as we go, which I guess corresponds with greater responsibility, influence and income. If we take wise decisions, we may experience a 'trampoline' scenario, where we enjoy an exponential leap upward. This is something I've been fortunate to enjoy at various points in my life.
However, when I was working at Facebook, as it was then called, Sheryl Sandberg (then the company's chief operating officer) spoke of a 'jungle gym career' as opposed to the conventional ladder approach. She attributed this idea to Fortune magazine editor Pattie Sellers.
In a speech to Harvard Business School (HBS) graduates, Sandberg said, 'As you start your post-HBS career, look for opportunities, look for growth, look for impact, look for mission. Move sideways, move down, move on, move off. Build your skills, not your résumé. Evaluate what you can do, not the title they're going to give you. Do real work. Take a sales quota, a line role, an ops job. Don't plan too much, and don't expect a direct climb. If I had mapped out my career when I was sitting where you are, I would have missed my career.'
This idea has stuck with me because I too have had what I would call a non-linear career. I didn't progress from a junior role to more senior ones. I moved between industries; from entrepreneurship to the corporate world; from technology to banking. The way that the world works today is different from how it was for our parents and grandparents, and I think the jungle gym model is often more applicable to working professionals today than the ladder model, but our thinking has lagged and we still often feel like we need to follow a linear structure in our career journeys.
I hope my story will encourage others who dream of being entrepreneurs, or who feel like they occupy almost random spaces in their career - there is room to move from one sphere to another and sometimes back again with competence and success. I have seen that for myself.
There is also room to change our minds or to build on our thinking as we go. For example, I am currently the group CEO for Brave Group - a holding company comprising several marketing, advertising and related agencies. My younger self would have laughed at this idea. I had worked in marketing and advertising agencies and my experience of their business model was not particularly positive. The idea that I would choose to invest in and work in agencies again seemed far-fetched. Yet here we are, and I feel I am living out my purpose.
In Brave Group, I have found myself challenged to move past criticising the traditional agency model to articulating a better alternative, and building towards it. Our team is building a model for a shared-value agency, which is something I once would have considered an oxymoron.
I believe our journey with shared value, stewardship and transparency have applications for other agencies, but also for other industries and for the way we think about business, no matter the sector.
What is shared value?
There are many different definitions of shared value that you can find today and that is because the idea has become a buzzword in business circles, but for good reason.
In the broadest sense, shared value is the age-old idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. That's possibly the most succinct way to summarise what shared value is, but how we give expression to that may look different in a business and personal context.
For me, the starting point is an appreciation that we all live in ecosystems of different compositions. You may have an ecosystem in the business context that is different from your social ecosystem, your religious ecosystem, your educational ecosystem.
These various environments, ecosystems, or 'pods' are each composed of a collection of stakeholders or players. Every person needs to work out who the key players are in their various pods and then we each need to ask ourselves, 'How do I play a role that makes this ecosystem or pod better?' or 'How do I identify people to bring into the pod that can benefit everyone inside it?'
That's how we realise shared value - by recognising that the ecosystem exists to serve everyone that is in it, and everyone that is in the ecosystem exists to serve the ecosystem.
That might seem like a very academic definition, but it also gives rise to being able to unpack it quite specifically.
That's the core of what we're trying to do in Brave Group - to build a shared-value creative enterprise (SVCE). We hope to pioneer a model that can be replicated elsewhere, in other agencies and in organisations outside of the advertising and marketing sector, creating a ripple effect that amplifies positive impact and facilitates real change. We view this as our massive transformative purpose (MTP), and much of this book will deal with that.
What does shared value mean?
The paradigm of shared value is gradually shifting the outlook of the media, advertising, and communication sector. This concept signifies a commitment to creating economic value that also yields value for society, addressing challenges while concurrently stimulating progress.
The shared value creative enterprise model
My goal with Brave Group, which started out with Motherboard, is to create a model for a shared-value creative enterprise (SVCE) that can be replicated and used as a foundation for other agencies and enterprises.
In my mind, this all began with the concept of the 'massive transformative purpose' (MTP), which I heard about through Singularity University. The idea is that social movements, rapidly growing organisations, and remarkable breakthroughs often have something in common - they come about because of a deeply unifying purpose, an MTP.
Singularity defines an MTP as a 'highly aspirational tagline for an individual or group, like a company, organisation, community, or social movement' or a 'huge and audacious purpose statement'1.
If we start with the idea that you have an MTP at the core of your business, we can draw concentric circles outwards from that to express how that purpose radiates from the core. The second circle is the people in your organisation who take on the MTP. Each of them commits to the purpose, but it will take on a different 'texture' depending on their personality and role.
The way I visualise it is almost like Kente cloth, which is a West African fabric printed with different patterns. Often, the parts of the pattern are similar and work together, but if you look closely, you'll see they are quite different.
In an SVCE, you want people to take on the MTP in ways that are aligned but look slightly different, so that together, you're all weaving this magnificently patterned cloth.
The third circle is how we equip people for the outworking of the MTP and how we reward and recognise them for their roles. That, therefore, speaks to incentives, rewards and wellness. At Brave Group, we're working to ensure that each layer protects the one beneath it, so we focus on developing incentives that are fair, transparent and logical. When people feel they are rewarded and recognised, you make it easy for them to commit to the organisation and the MTP because you are all moving in the same direction.
Then you can move to building the fourth circle, which builds on the notion of equality - where people start to 'pay it forward'. This is about increasing the levels of participation not only within the business, but in the communities we're part of.
Once people have bought into a purpose and are taken care of, the idea is that their impetus or desire will then be to make a meaningful difference - as a citizen of the world - in whichever pods or ecosystems they are part of.
The final circle speaks to sustainability, which is the impact of the MTP from a planet perspective.
And this model shows how shared value starts with the simple expression of a purpose and radiates outwards to create ripples at a global level.
Shared value and stewardship - ancient African ideals
I believe we have successfully built the foundation of a shared-value agency with Motherboard, which we're now developing in the wider Brave Group. This is a deep-seated theme that runs through all the businesses and entities in which I'm involved. For example, we're also pioneering a shared-valued business with Bridge Labs, while African Tech Roundup is anchored on the premise of shared value and stewardship (more on these a bit later).
Why are all of these things important? Stewardship in a commercial context refers to the responsible management and oversight of resources and assets, with the aim of maximising their long-term value and sustainability. It involves taking a long-term view and considering the impact of business decisions and practices on all stakeholders, including employees, customers, shareholders, and the environment.
In a commercial context, stewardship can involve a range of activities, such as responsible investing, ethical business practices, sustainable supply chain management, and environmental conservation efforts. It...
