Highlights from the conversation:

Purpose defines what you do when nobody's looking. Unfortunately, we're seeing a lot of posturing and gesturing

What I've seen in the last three years is an obsession with the startup culture. On the other end of the pendulum, you've got an obsession with people who can now globalise and take their brands beyond national boundaries, but there's this missing middle. 

The narrative of business is growth, you know — you need to keep growing. And I think there's a very interesting conversation that I've started to hear of people going — well, what if we didn't need to grow? You know, what if we needed to grow to a certain size, and then that was okay, like that's enough?

If we started measuring the profitability of purpose-led brands at a level which is at the scale of the JSE then you would start seeing businesses take this stuff seriously

The data is there that shows how, if we truly can support the efforts of female entrepreneurs, we can see the parallel effects and the growth of communities and families.

The persuasion that is still left, and particularly in this country: One is to reverse businesses' obsession with hiring CAs as CEOs. Two is having brand builders on board, because if you don't have the voice of the consumer represented at board level, then you're just speaking to each other about beans and numbers

More about Sizakele

Strategist and creative problem solver Sizakele Marutlulle has over 23 years’ experience in leadership, business architecture, brand building, innovation and people development. She works at the intersection of commerce, creativity and culture to design solutions to help female-led and pro-Africa businesses compete, win and prosper

She is a disruptive thinker, cultural creative, business architect, ideation activist and public speaker with experience across various sectors and geographies. She has the rare talent of having worked in the public and private sectors, with small and established businesses at various stages of development. She has also founded, turned around and/or accelerated several ad agencies. She applies this deep and diverse knowledge to unlock sustainable commercial and reputational success for her clients.

Find Sizakele here:

Website

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Show Notes

People:

Bruce Mau

Wanda Lepohoto

Companies and Organisations:

Black Lives Matter

Unilever

Aunt Jemima

B Corp

MaXhosa

Burton

Kingsley Cola

Tom’s of Maine

Miscellaneous:

Lady Antebellum

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