Meaning is a new currency
More people than ever before are seeking to live meaningful lives and expressing that in their economic decision-making.
Against a background of a global economy that has tripled in size since the 1980’s and the impact of the Millennial generation, with a new set of values now entering their prime spending years, we are changing what we buy and from whom, how and where we work, what we do with our capital and how we design and run our organisations.
As a result, this is something to pay attention to if you aspire to be relevant in the future and to find new opportunities to create value. To ignore it, could be to risk your business model.
Our findings are based on two years of research and analysis informed by many more years of engaging in the spaces and places and with the people who are shaping the future. In our quest to make sense of the way the world is unfolding we were looking to provide a narrative which could inform and inspire others. What we found was a picture that added up to a meta-narrative — a much bigger story than any of the component parts. This is now published as The Rise of the Meaningful Economy and co-authored by myself and my colleague and CEO of The ForeSight Group, Björn Larsson. We have stress-tested our findings with thought leaders and practitioners around the world and incorporated their feedback into our work.
“ Finally a framework for our economic future that we can all embrace.
A must read for everyone in business and politics.”
Richard Barrett, former values-co-ordinator at The World Bank and Founder and Chairman of The Barrett Values Centre
What we found is an emerging megatrend and a new lens through which companies and entrepreneurs can look to create value.
While the search for meaning is nothing new, the Meaningful Economy is something new. In short, meaning is a new currency.
In our analysis, we looked at the four primary economic roles which people play as customers, employees, investors and managers. In each role, we found many examples of new behaviours driven by meaning. Here is a flavour:
- As customers, we are changing what we buy and from who. We want craft, we want local, we are happy to share, we are influenced by what companies do in their approach to fair wages and fair taxation.
- As employees, we increasingly want more meaningful work and this is the battleground for a new war on talent. Imagine being the HR lead in a large professional services firm in London which now looses 40% of its top talent before they make partner compared with 20% historically!
- As investors, there is growing congruence between our values and where we put our money. We have reached a tipping point where 10% of all global investment now has some form of Environmental, Social and Governance criteria. New norms are emerging at hyper-speed powered by meaning-based decisions such as the growth of the movement to Divest (in fossil fuels) and Invest (in clean energy). In 3 years the movement has grown from almost nothing to a commitment by organisations controlling more than US$ 5 trillion of assets under management. Imagine what that means for the boards of major oil companies.
- As managers and owners of companies, we are shifting in growing numbers from profit as purpose, to profit as a hygiene factor. This is the driver behind initiatives such as Unilever CEO Paul Polman’s setting corporate goals to decouple revenue growth from negative environmental impact. The growth in the number of Benefit Corporations globally which have purpose enshrined in their articles of association is another example.
The Meaningful Economy is not only about opportunities to create value, its also about threats as businesses which lack meaning will be vulnerable to competitors that have the magic of meaning.
Consider the discussions in the executive committees of major footwear brands confronted by their market share being taken by TOMS with their brand commitment “With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need. One for One.” Imagine how those competitors laughed when they saw this company entering the market place with a relatively low quality product that they probably thought would only appeal to a niche market — imagine how that changed as in just a few years Toms has risen to be a major global player. And now the company is taking the same commitment to eyewear.
In another context, meaningful businesses are a threat to meaningless ones because they will often play a longer game. Their board meetings are likely to be less dominated by a focus on quarterly returns.
Why is the Meaningful Economy happening now?
There are three driving forces which through their simultaneous presence and interaction are creating the Meaningful Economy.
The first is choice — not only the fact that the global economy is three times larger than it was a generation ago (see graphic below), but also the way in which the absolute cost of almost everything has fallen and the extent to which everything is accessible to anyone with the money to buy it in every country bar a few.
The second driver is our fears — this is our shared sense that the world we have built is not the one we want. This realization ranges from the economic (jobless growth), through the environmental (climate change), to the social (mass migration and our sense that we are increasingly less able to support the weak and the vulnerable).
The third is our connectedness — digitalisation and the internet allow us to find our tribe and to create economic solutions that are more meaningful and offer those at scale.
These three driving forces are set against a background of accelerated psychological development amongst millennials.
A critical mass of millennials are making meaning-filled choices earlier in their lives (from 25 years of age) than prior generations (who typically made such choices in their 40’s and beyond).
This is especially relevant as Millennials are the largest generation in US history and in the age bracket 25–40, are firmly in their prime economic years.
The Meaningful Economy is an emergent megatrend and we recognise that it will take some time before meaning becomes the dominant paradigm.
And of course there are many arenas where meaning is not driving economic behaviour — the rise of the experience economy did not mean there were no more commodities, products or services but it did change the focal point where maximum value was realised.
The Meaningful Economy is a grass-roots development that is changing how the economy functions and what it values — from sharing to localism, to new forms of business design, to new ways of working — it’s a quiet revolution in the making to which we should all pay attention.
From the personal to the societal — meaning delivers new possibilities
In addition to its impact on organisations, at the personal level, the Meaningful Economy means an economic system which supports ever more people living meaningful lives through our economic choices.
In a wider context, for societies at large, the rise of the Meaningful Economy offers the potential for human progress and the accelerated achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Our insights, based on big data, are a story for our times. Beneath the surface and amid the sense that is shared by many that our economic system is broken, we are reaching a tipping point towards a new narrative where people are using their economic power to create a more positive future.
You can be part of this story in a myriad of ways ranging from being aware of the choices you make to changing the conversation in and around the businesses you are part of or engage with. Challenge them to make what they do more meaning-filled!
To get the ball rolling you can start by sharing this post. And if you have great examples of meaningful business, or are interested in how to use the lens of meaning to create value, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
The Rise of The Meaningful Economy by Mark Drewell and Björn Larsson is available at Amazon.
