LEAD WITH WE reveals how brands survive in a crisis, thrive in a fast changing market, and accelerate growth in a challenging future.
Discover how the world's top companies and entrepreneurs are driving growth and impact that employees and customers now demand. What worked, what didn't and what you need to do to get everyone to build your business.
Your host, Simon Mainwaring, CEO of We First and New York Times bestselling author, dives deep with CEOs and CMOs to reveal the mindset and actions that put them ahead of the competition.
Whether you're a start-up, high growth company or large corporation, you'll learn how to build your reputation, increase employee productivity, and inspire customers to promote your brand. Engaging, entertaining and actionable, this is your chance to listen in and learn a lot about how business does well and does good.
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Latest Episodes
The Role of Business in “Conscious Capitalism”: Dr. Raj Sisodia, Author & distinguished professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey
July 18, 2023
Rethinking and re-engineering business is a constantly evolving process. Companies have been talking about and acting on the concept of business transformation for many years, but many have yet to achieve the full benefits. Dr. Raj Sisodia is Co-Founder of the global phenomenon “Conscious Capitalism”– an economic and political philosophy that believes businesses should operate ethically while they pursue profits. In this “Point of View” episode, he reveals what that process looks like, what progress we’re making, and how we can move even faster to generate the key critical business impact we need.
Fashioning a Better Future: Stacey Boyd, Founder & CEO of Olivela
July 11, 2023
It’s hard to live in today’s world without seeing the tension between lives of luxury and so many people going without even basic human needs. It provokes questions of what is fair, right, and conscionable– and the role of business in creating this problem. It would be naive to assume that this tension could be simply resolved. But what if one could serve the other, so that luxury items provide for the basic needs of others, creating a halo effect for the things people want, and critical support for those going without. Stacey Boyd is the Founder & CEO of Olivela, an online luxury retail platform with a philanthropic business model that makes giving back part of every transaction. In this episode, she explains how what consumers want for themselves can drive impact at scale for others, and how today’s top luxury brands are showing up to answer new stakeholder expectations and drive business success through positive impact.
Elevating Imperfection in Business Leadership: Charles Conn, Author
June 28, 2023
In today’s business climate, authenticity and purpose take center stage. Few companies have so wholeheartedly embraced this concept – and set new standards for business responsibility in the process – as Patagonia. As one of the world’s leading environmentally-friendly clothing brands committed to teaching and training the next generation of environmental activists, the company is deeply committed to using business to activate solutions to the climate crisis. In this episode, Board Chair Charles Conn tells us how to find balance between being uncompromising in terms of your principles – while also not allowing perfection to get in the way of progress. He’ll explain why businesses should adopt an “imperfectionist” mindset to deliver on the promise of improving lives and nurturing our planet– while building thriving companies in the process.
The Science of Scalable Sustainability Solutions: Catherine Roggero-Lovisi, CEO of Modern Meadow
June 21, 2023
Whether you’re on the front lines of the corporate world or behind the scenes in a lab, companies and organizations of all sizes have a role to play during a time of challenges and transition for business. For companies like Modern Meadow– that means solving for the most pressing enterprise challenges with new, innovative and sustainable solutions– and bringing them to market through expansive and meaningful partnerships. In this episode, Chief Executive Officer Catherine Roggero-Lovisi tells us how “biofabrication” can create materials and ingredients to transform industries and better serve the planet, and how biotechnology more broadly will unlock enormous marketplace opportunities through rapidly evolving and widely applicable innovation.
The Business of Healing Trauma: Dr. James Gordon – Director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine
June 13, 2023
The challenge of addressing and healing trauma is no longer just contained to the medical world. Perhaps more so than ever before, we can now see the effects of trauma in every aspect of our daily lives. For businesses and the people who lead them, there is now a greater responsibility to step forward and help employees live more full and productive lives, by providing tools to help cope with obstacles big and small. Dr. James Gordon is a psychiatrist and director of the nonprofit Center for Mind-Body Medicine, as well as director of mind-body studies at Georgetown Medical School and Georgetown University, and world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression, anxiety, and psychological trauma. In this episode, he shares how each of us can emotionally navigate these very traumatic times and share that with our employees and across our companies so that businesses at large can foster healthy cultures and best serve our companies by best serving our people.
Leveling the Playing Field: Ilze Melngailis – Senior Director, Business Council for the UN at the UN Foundation
June 8, 2023
Uniting all nations on Earth around a common cause is a daunting task– and with a hotly-debated issue like the global climate emergency, it can lead to questions about the best path forward for all people. Ilze Melngailis is Senior Director for Global Partnerships at the United Nations Foundation, an independent charitable organization created to work closely with the United Nations to drive global progress and tackle urgent problems. In this episode, she reveals the progress business is making to address those pressing challenges – and how we can work together in new ways to accelerate and scale those efforts to course-correct our future.
Meet Your Host
Simon Mainwaring is the founder and CEO of We First, a strategic consultancy that accelerates growth and impact for purpose-driven brands. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Conscious Capitalism LA, the Advisory Board of Sustainable Brands, The Forbes Business Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London.
Simon was a finalist for Global Australian of the Year in 2015 and interim CMO at TOMS, received the MAKE CHANGE, ‘Conscious Leadership’ Award for 2016, a finalist for the Conscious Company Leadership Awards in 2017, and a Real Leaders Top 100 Visionary Leader in 2018. His company We First was included in Real Leaders list for the Top 100 Impact Companies in the United States for 2018 and a We First was a B Corps ‘Best for The World’ Honoree in 2019. He is a Jury Member of PRWeek’s ‘Purpose Awards’ in 2020 and a Jury Member at the Cannes Lions Festival for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2021.
Simon’s book, We First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller. It was named an Amazon Top Ten Business Book, 800CEORead Top Five Marketing Book, strategy+business named it the Best Business Marketing Book of the Year, and Sustainable Brands listed We First as one of their Top Sustainability Books of the decade. It has been translated into Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean. Simon also writes of the popular ‘Purpose At Work’ blog in Forbes.
Simon is a sought after international speaker with engagements including the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Royal Society of Arts, SXSW, TEDxSF, NAB, Promaxbda, Conscious Capitalism, Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, Aspen Institute, Sustainable Brands, SOCAP, 3BL, Social Good Summit, National Speakers Association, 1440 Multiversity, National Press Club, Harvard, USC, UCLA and the United Nations Foundation. He has delivered keynotes at Google, Coca-Cola, General Motors, VF, Samsung, VSP Global, Toyota, SAP, Gucci, JP Morgan Chase, Timberland, VW Group, the NHL, and Patagonia. He has presented at the Harvard Business School Association, UCLA, USC, University of Oregon and University of Chicago. He was interim CMO at TOMS, voted a Top 5 Marketing Speaker by speaking.com for 5 years in a row and featured on the cover of the National Speaker’s Magazine.
Prior to starting We First Simon spent 15 years as an award-winning writer, Creative Director, and Worldwide Creative Director at many of the world’s top creative advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy, and Ogilvy working on brands such a Nike, Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Motorola, as well as consulting on dozens of F500 brands for leading advertising, production, and digital companies. He was the writer on the U.S. launch of the first three generations of the Toyota Prius, the largest national service campaign for the Entertainment Industry Foundation that brought together all four major TV networks for the first time in U.S. television history, and multiple award-winning campaigns for Nike. He has received over 60 awards at major advertising festivals including the Cannes Advertising Festival (Europe), the One Show (U.S.), the Clio’s (U.S.), the Kelly Awards (U.S), British Design & Art Direction Awards (U.K.), and AWARD (Australia), among others.
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