In conversation with... Pascal Finette
Pascal is Co-Founder at be radical, and Singularity University’s Chair for Entrepreneurship & Open Innovation. Pascal is also a Venture Partner at BOLD Capital Partners, Peter Diamandis' $250M VC fund.
Previously he held leadership positions at Google.org, Mozilla and eBay, built technology startups and launched a Venture Capital firm. He is the posse leader at TheHeretic.org, and is a general upstart when it comes to creating meaningful change.
Looking to the year ahead, what is shaping the trends that businesses and consumers can expect to see more of?
Without a doubt we will see more and more applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the technology keeps maturing at an unprecedented rate. Andrew Ng, one of the world’s foremost thinkers in the field, described AI as “the new electricity” – and I think he is spot on. As was the case with electricity in the 19th and early 20th century, where everything became electrified and with it, everything became a little bit (and sometimes dramatically – point in case: the lightbulb) better. The same is true for AI. The question we ought to ask ourselves for every product and service is: “How does this change, once we apply AI to it?”
In addition, we will see a series of frontier technologies further mature and make progress toward their respective tipping points in terms of usefulness, impact, market acceptance and commercial success. Technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality, Robotics (and with it Automation), Synthetic or Digital Biology, Quantum Computing and many more – each one of them carrying the potential for disruption not only in their narrow industry but well beyond.
How does purpose and business for good play into these future trends?
We experience significant socio-demographic changes all around the world: The baby boomer generation is on its way out, millennials are taking over leadership positions and the next generation(s) are beginning to make their mark. Without a doubt the younger generations are demanding a different focus and behaviour from companies (and their governments) – the 1980’s maxim of shareholder value lost its appeal in a world dominated by conversations around climate change, rising nationalism and a widening gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% of the population. People – in their roles as consumers, citizens and employees, increasingly demand organizations to exist for much more than generating profits. An organization without a purpose will soon become irrelevant.
There is a lot of confusion around purpose. How do you define purpose and how is this different to a business mission? How can one compliment the other in helping drive a business forward?
In my view purpose and mission are related but not the same. Purpose is the raison d'être, the reason for an organization to exist. It is the essential “Why?” question. Organizations with a strong purpose unify and rally their stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders) behind a singular common view of the world and create enormously powerful connections between these groups. The mission then translates the purpose into an actionable framework. My friend and Managing Director of Mulago, a world-leading philanthropic fund, Kevin Starr uses a simple eight-word structure to define the mission of an organization: Verb / Target / Outcome. Verb: What are you doing? Target: For whom? Outcome: To what end? Once you formulate the mission of an organization in this form, it becomes a highly clarifying North Star for the organization which helps guide strategy and tactics for the long run.
Why is it important for brands and organizations to have a social impact?
I believe organization could get away with ignoring their social responsibility in the somewhat freewheeling last couple decades. This has clearly changed, and will only become more prevalent as the younger generations gain more power and influence. An organization is, and always was, embedded in a social context – they employ people, operate in a geographic community, use resources and create outputs. Communities around the world increasingly demand from organizations to take this responsibility serious and expand their approach beyond just satisfying their shareholders.
In the past, companies had the ability to be late-adopters, plan their approach, watch what others were doing and still be successful. In today’s world, the pace of change means that the risk of late adoption could mean loss of business. How can a business stay on top and engage their audience in such a fast-paced world?
The rate of change itself is accelerating. Largely driven through the breath-taking pace of change brought about by technologies, organizations find themselves in competition with a much more diverse and broader set of competitors (who are often startups, which – due to their size – are nimbler and can act much faster than incumbents). Incumbent organizations need to change their very structures, from their organizational structures to the way decisions are being made, processes are being run and capital is being allocated to stay competitive in this new reality. Some companies can do this by changing their core, others are better served by setting up projects and even companies at their edges and allow them to operate unencumbered from the old core. I don’t think there exists a one-size-fits-all answer to this fundamental challenge, but rather each organization needs to identify a set up which works for its specific DNA.
How can brands stay competitive, future proof and grow through being purpose-led?
As Simon Sinek so eloquently and succinct lays out in his seminal TEDx talk and book “Start with Why”, it all starts with identifying the true purpose of an organization. Once this is clear, the rest flows from here – your mission as well as strategy and tactics. The role of management then becomes that of a custodian of the purpose. Strong purpose-led organizations invest time and energy in identifying and empowering stakeholders (which often are customers) who become fans and oftentimes then do the bidding for you. Purpose transcends trends and lays the groundwork for long-term sustainable growth.
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