Uncommon Spark
By Alex Diaz
So what’s the trigger? It’s the question I ask myself whenever I approach a story, initiative or brand project. What is that thing or moment or piece of music or whatever that will trigger the response action we want from a consumer or target?
And then COMMON changed — reinvented, actually, last August. I had followed the firm for a couple of years — Marketplace, Pitches, MBAs. Even spoke with Mark Eckhardt about a year ago on the possibility of doing another Pitch event in Latin America, to add to Pitch Chile 2012.
We got lost after that and reconnected as if by providence in late July, right ahead of the August reboot. Mark was gracious enough to bring me into the process as it was happening. It was like getting an exclusive, backstage preview of some momentous, game-changing event.
Little did I know that that’s exactly what I was in for. Less than a month after the relaunch, I wrote a column in Medium highlighting how genuinely game-changing I believe COMMON to be. I’ve spent a lifetime looking for change triggers, these sparks of transformative action and inspiration. I like to think I kinda know one when I see one, and in COMMON, I see one.
My trigger journey began at DePaul U in the early 80s. The neoliberalism that reached its zenith back then at the University of Chicago across town had found its way to the North Side and to the textbooks and lessons we were forced to call truth.
So I rebelled. Capitalism is fabulous, yes, essential for human progress. But not that version. There had to be a better way, one more welcoming of well-being, more harmonious with human aspirations beyond Friedman’s shareholder gods. Even Adam Smith spoke of a moral/ethical invisible hand, not a hand that is blind to social externalities, climate impacts, human pain and the injustices of rotten states.
Growing up in the streets of Pilsen and Humboldt Park, I had learned a thing or two about pain. It was the land of Leroy Brown, though to Chicago Hispanics that would be more like Pedro Navaja. I saw too many broken families. Too many broken souls. Too many kids saddled with the shackles that come with opportunity-killing poverty, debilitating peer pressures, demoralizing skill gaps, and infuriating racism. It’s the stuff inequality is made of.
It is also the stuff business has the power to do something about, not least because it carries much of the responsibility for the way we live. And so my search was on, in my studies and early journalism career, for ways to turn business into a force for good.
Fast forward to the 1990s and the blossoming of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability movement. Talk about a change trigger! I jumped in fully dressed, and it has been my life mission ever since. In 2000, I pivoted from journalism to marketing because I wanted to be in the ring, not simply report from the sidelines — to work on and lead corporate and brand transformation from within. Then it was back to journalism, then back to marketing the last two years, and now onto the new field of content marketing which gloriously merges the two.
In all my tries at social and environmental change, I’ve learned one thing above all else. Real, enduring social change can’t be dictated from above. Even when it looks like it was decreed, the change was the result of years of percolation in the subatomic, largely invisible movement and transfusion of ideas. Change takes minds to open, including minds in companies of all types and sizes.
Which brings me back to COMMON and its very uncommon change model. The neoliberal model opens markets without a) empowering the middle and lower strata of society and b) protecting the planet, two tasks that are supposed to fall on but are not adequately fulfilled by the state. The result is undue concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy few — today’s 1% — whose riches are supposed to trickle down to the 99%, and whose business practices ought not harm the environment. But, of course, they don’t, and they do.
Needed, then, is a new generation of ethical and social businesses — ethical in the choices they make without the need for decrees from above, and social because they take care of people and planet, many as a core business purpose. These are the companies bred and strengthened by COMMON. It is capitalism redefined, conscious, sustainable, precisely the change we need to percolate from below, the one that makes Adam Smith smile in his grave.
An ethical, social business is itself a change trigger, because it sparks inspiration and mind opening among stakeholders and therefore accelerates change at great speed. And that’s why I said yes to Mark’s invitation to join. Because we have no choice; we must accelerate the redefinition and transformation of business in every corner of the planet.
Every country.
Every city.
Every community.
Right now.
COMMON is excited to announce that Alex Diaz, Founder of AlexDíazEco, joins COMMON as a Lead Insurgent in the US and Latin America. Based in Puerta Rico, Alex’s passion and enthusiasm have bred a special form of communication that we call “journalistic marketing.” He is a father of two and husband of 27 years, who’s helped brands like Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Yum Brands, and Miller Coors connect to environmental and social change. He was instrumental in helping Doral Bank achieve a ranking of 35th on the Business Ethics’ Top 100 list of green companies, and has innovated, strategized, and executed comprehensive sustainability & CSR platforms inclusive of green loans, LEED certifications, green IT, integration in governance, and engagement with communities and key external stakeholders.
“Alex brings the firepower of world class journalism and deep knowledge of the dynamics COMMON exists to transform. As a Lead Insurgent and part of our marketing team, he will contribute greatly to building our community, and pointing the brand at important issues that we are uniquely positioned to address. I expect him to turn up the disruptor in all of us.” — Mark Eckhardt, COMMON CEO
About Alex
Title: Founder
Company: AlexDiazEco
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdiazeco
Medium: Alex Díaz
Twitter handle: @alexdiazeco
Contact Alex at COMMON: alex.diaz@common.is
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COMMON is a creative accelerator for social businesses and projects, designed to cut through the clutter and catalyze products and ideas that take care of the planet and all the creatures on it. To learn more visit www.common.is, or write us at: itmatters@common.is
