How to Win Business with Human Sense

There are two ways to win in business: you can win by “taking”, or you can win by “giving”. In other words, a business can implement a Survival of the Fittest strategy, or they can implement a strategy of Kindness.

Humanizing business

As a marketer, Christophe Fauconnier soon realized that businesses can easily de-humanize by applying the first strategy: “how we start to think of the consumer as our target, of the competition as our enemy and of the market place as a battle ground”.

This will result in businesses competing against each other, rather than creating value together.

However, we could also aim to unlock more meaningful growth by humanizing businesses. In order for this to happen, you have to define success for business as the latter: winning by giving.

Giving can be a very successful strategy to win. As purpose has a human nature instead of a corporate one, people are motivated to take on the giver mindset when they humanize the people they serve.

This is also where Christophe Fauconnier steps in. As the CEO of Innate Motion a business humanizing company, he wants to create happiness with business.

Christophe and his team help people in business grow brands and companies with positive impact, through human ideas, insights and strategies in order to reach scale.

Together, they apply more human sense to business, in a world that applies too much business sense to humans.

The rise of B-Corp businesses

Christophe also sits on the board of B-Corp Europe (www.bcorporation.eu), a global non-profit organization that issues private B-Corp certifications to for-profit companies that use profits and growth as a means to a greater end: positive impact for their employees, communities, and the environment.

Certified B Companies are thus a new kind of business that balance purpose and profit. Their rise over the last years indicate that people more and more desire working for and buying from companies, that have a purpose and positive impact.  

 During his presentation at the 2018 BAM congress, Christophe referred Ben & Jerry’s as one of these B-Corp companies.

Ben & Jerry’s: Getting socially involved

Ben & Jerry’s accidentally became a social justice brand to avoid a legal battle. In 1984, Häagen-Dazs initiated actions to keep Ben & Jerry’s pints out of stores.

Although Ben & Jerry believed that their actions were illegal, they didn’t have the time nor the money to start a legal battle.

So they confided in their consumers and the media by spreading the slogan “What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?” on their ice cream pints, together with a hotline number.

Callers could then get bumper stickers and t-shirts with the same slogan. Ben & Jerry’s customer-centered approach was a massive hit and Häagen-Dazs backed off.

At that moment they redefined themselves as a social justice brand, which is something they still are up until today.

They have shown on several occasions that business can operate to serve something bigger than ourselves, something bigger than the consumer, unlocking the power of contribution.

Putting their pints of ice cream as an activist tool in their “If It Melts It’s Ruined” campaign for example, urged people to join the global climate movement is another great example of their social involvement.

Ben & Jerry’s is not the only good example, but they are proof that is possible to create value as people, not just as experts; with people, not just as suppliers; and for people, not just as consumers, so that we can make a difference together.