What is SOI?

It’s a way of implementing real change in a business, allowing sustainability to be put into the core of a business strategy and to become the beating heart of it.‍

How did you conceive the idea of SOI?‍

I actually read a book that everybody in businesses reads called ‘Good to Great' by Jim Collins and I was reading about hedgehogs and foxes and a sentence stood out to me. ‘A hedgehog has a single organising idea as opposed to a fox that has many of the ideas and is an opportunist.’ Those words just got into my head, and I realised that these three words put together are really powerful. ‍

How are businesses poised to be the catalyst for change and a better tomorrow? ‍

Firstly, I think business got us into this trouble in the first place. It’s down to the pursuit of growth, making as much money as possible. Humans are about progress, it’s in our DNA. The problem is, that we have to redefine what progress and success is, we seem to think that success is growth and growth at all costs. The cost to the environment, the cost to society... However, we need to be able to understand that thriving is as good as growing, that being the biggest, having the most, is not a good thing. This is an idea adopted by newer businesses, who are being a catalyst for change. We need to celebrate the idea of thriving and progress but the right kind of progress, one of the things we often talk about is how amazing it is that we’ve progressed and how humanity has progressed, but it’s the wrong kind of progress. We need the right kind of progress. We need the right kind of growth. Growth that makes sense, growth that we can manage, growth that is frankly sustainable. 

What will be the impact of SOI being incorporated into business practises? ‍

It has completely changed the shape of businesses that we’ve worked with. People now know the reason why they go to work, what they are a part of, it makes business more meaningful. Traditionally it’s the people at the top that can make the change, the CEOs and board members, but we can’t wait for millenials to get onto the boards, which are frankly dominated by people who have grown up in the system and I feel like I think there lot of people like me that feel trapped in the middle. As we have these people who are protecting the status quo and I've got these people who are like me saying we need to get on with it. So my vision is radical, I know it is, but I'm not on my own. There are lots of people thinking like this now, it has to be radical and that means rethinking what a business is about and clearly there are some businesses that can never change, and don’t want to change, and they won't change. But they won’t last forever. ‍

How have you found it launching something completely new in lockdown?‍

I’ve always worked with teams but I’ve got to say if it wasn't for my co-founders, I wouldn't have been able to do it. It’s about supporting each other, supporting the business and supporting your colleagues. But also you need that internal resilience that I think is built into every entrepreneur, having resilience when things aren’t always going well, being determined and passionate about the business also helps massively. Overall, I think some people just are lucky and they fall on something right but the vast majority of entrepreneurs succeed by working hard, determination and having a big idea.