Simon Mainwaring

We First provides consulting and training to help companies tell the story of their good work in ways that build their business

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Davis Smith, the serial entrepreneur who cofounded the outdoor gear and apparel brand Cotopaxi with Wharton Business School buddy Stephan Jacob, and outdoor industry veteran CJ Whittaker seven years ago, had an idea that one could use a powerful company purpose to attract talent and continuously better the brand community. “Having a strong and authentic […]

Davis Smith, the serial entrepreneur who cofounded the outdoor gear and apparel brand Cotopaxi with Wharton Business School buddy Stephan Jacob, and outdoor industry veteran CJ Whittaker seven years ago, had an idea that one could use a powerful company purpose to attract talent and continuously better the brand community. “Having a strong and authentic …

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XOMA Superfoods is a new brand and subsidiary of NEXE Innovations, based in British Columbia, CN. Its president and director, Ash Guglani, who co-founded NEXE in 2015, after more than a decade in the capital markets, spoke with me about the company’s Lead With We purpose thinking.

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Liberty Mutual Insurance operates in 29 countries and economies today. But it didn’t begin as the household name it eventually became. With roots in Boston, it opened its doors just before WWI to provide worker’s compensation insurance. It offered its first automobile insurance policy more than a century ago—when there were only about five million …

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Starbucks Corporation, the American multinational headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is the world’s largest coffeehouse chain. Celebrating its 50th year in business, it boasts 400,000 associates at more than 33,000 stores in 80+ countries. Trinidad and Tobago? Yes. Uruguay? Yep. Andorra? Bahrain? Kazakhstan? You’ll find Starbucks. It famously opened two stores every day on average for …

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They didn’t set out to become cultural titans—or even to revolutionize their own industry. At the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. 34 years ago, Amy’s Kitchen founders Rachel and Andy Berliner debuted what they considered an imperfect vegetable pot pie prototype developed in their own kitchen. The response was prodigiously encouraging. But as …

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While diversity, equity and inclusion are paramount to attracting and retaining top talent, many companies miss the mark. When brands do implement a program, it may not actually be effective. “For so long, we looked up at largely white men and asked them how the organization is doing on diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Michael Munoz, …

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