influences, coupled with an unprecedented access to capital, have given rise to all sorts of new businesses and ventures; from personal genomics and artificial intelligence to mobile food delivery and on-demand entertainment, we are provided with more opportunities to change our life experiences every single day. For example, now is the first time in human history that, in some countries, nearly anyone can take a convenient DNA test through the mail to check for potential diseases, hereditary traits, and family lineage, or simply in hopes of uncovering hidden family secrets.
Technological and scientific advances have also led to higher standards of living in many parts of the world as our needs continue to be met with greater efficiency and on a wider scale. Meeting our advancing human needs can be seen as a societal challenge, and societal challenges always lead to innovation. In return, innovation leads to solutions and even more change still, creating a constant cycle.
Innovating for a Higher Purpose
The innovation-change cycle can be illustrated by the work of Abraham Maslow. If you’re not familiar with Maslow, he was a twentieth-century American psychologist, best known for developing the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, typically depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels that address our material and immaterial human needs.
At the bottom level, we have our most basic physiological needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing. The next level up is safety, covering aspects like personal safety and financial security. Level three is that of friendship, family, and a sense of connection, known as the love and belonging level. The fourth level is esteem, including self-esteem, status, and the feeling of accomplishment. And the top level is self-actualization, basically a level that’s all about being the best people we can be, focused on a sense of morality, personal development, and creativity.
This pyramid shows that as one set of needs are met, others arise, and they always will until we reach the self-actualization zone. And though self-actualization is an excellent concept we should all strive for, it seems that for most people, more material desires will continue to replace any that have been met. (I’ll leave whether or not this is an endless cycle to the psychologists and real therapists.) The point is that, depending on time, place, and circumstances, fulfilling all of these needs presents challenges, especially as we move on up the pyramid.
Maslow’s hierarchy can actually be seen as one of innovation in practice. Innovation solves the issues society faces at each level, meeting demands of our physical safety, human collaboration, and social, cultural, and economic change. It’s a forward-looking mindset and attitude, and it can’t exist on its own, but only in relation to the world around us.
This concept can be illustrated by observing the earth at night. In 2017, NASA scientists released new global maps of the earth after the sun goes down around the world.32 Produced almost every decade for the past twenty-five years, these “night light” maps contribute to a better understanding of our world, including changing economic, social, and environmental implications. When looking at the map, the first thing that jumps out is how dark it actually is throughout much of the globe despite a number of bright clusters. The dark areas are mostly spread out in developing countries, many of which have yet to begin experiencing the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
While some of us are living in smart houses, with amenities like connected irrigation systems, and are sending off cotton swabs of DNA to learn about our personal genomics, almost half of the world has yet to get connected to the Internet.33 While we’re playing on our smartphones, swiping left on Tinder, or watching YouTube videos, one-third of the world population lacks access to clean water34 and half of the world population doesn’t have access to basic healthcare.35
I don’t make these comparisons to be flip or to embarrass or shame anyone—there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s opportunities to pursue a variety of experiences. I bring these issues up because I firmly believe that we all have a responsibility to improve the living conditions for people everywhere. Such improvement can only happen through innovation and economic opportunity. Organizations that are leading this change by investing in making the world a better place end up benefiting more than just their shareholders—they benefit everyone.
The Rise of Purpose-Driven Businesses
Thanks to a younger generation’s increasing focus on greater purpose in their work besides income, social and environmental concerns have come to play a pivotal role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As we move higher on Maslow’s pyramid, we are no longer just trying to improve life conditions for ourselves, but to ensure a better life for all, not to mention the planet’s survival. Thanks to globalization and hyper-connectivity, the environments in which many organizations exist have shifted from local to regional to global, meaning that their products and services, as well as actions and values, can now affect people all over the world.
We are witnessing the emergence of companies that are as passionate about social impact as they are about profits. These “benefit corporations,” which are popping up in the US and all over the rest of the world, are for-profit companies that produce a social or public benefit. While this definition could hypothetically be applied to a vast array of companies, those that receive Benefit Corporation designation must first meet a number of requirements, based around their impact on their community, customers, employees, and the environment.
Globally, this is turning into what’s called the “B-corp” movement, with purpose-driven companies aimed at creating benefits for all stakeholders—direct and indirect—not simply shareholders. As of 2019, there were more than 2,700 certified B-corp companies across 64 countries and 150 industries.36 These companies range from household names like Kickstarter and Patagonia to others such as Animikii in Canada, a web services company owned and operated by indigenous people working to develop better economic and social outcomes for indigenous communities, and Brazil’s Natura Cosméticos SA, a publicly traded multinational worth $3 billion that has more than 2 million employees and advocates for the Amazon forest and produces carbon-neutral products.37
Many of the technological, economic, and societal changes that are taking place today are truly earth-shattering, but as with everything else under the sun, they’re also somewhat temporary—there’s already talk of a fifth Industrial Revolution right around the bend. There’s no certainty about when it will begin or how it will evolve, but one thing is for sure: it will require innovation as the most crucial element for success. This is why we must always seek to understand the environment in which we live and how it’s changing. The world’s most competitive organizations, cities, and even countries have had one thing in common—they were able to anticipate and shape what’s next, while delivering value to themselves and their stakeholders. The writing is always on the wall, but if we don’t read it and act upon it, then it’s not going to do us any good.
Know When to Take Action
I often work with people who try to wait for the stars to align in perfect formation before taking action on a project or initiative. They feel as if everything must be just right or else there’s no reason to begin. While the expression “timing is everything” is somewhat true, there will never be perfect alignment. Instead of waiting for perfection, we must have the confidence to execute, even if a few components are less than certain. Considering how fast the world moves today, we can’t sit on our hands and wait for everything to line up, because this will never happen—things are in constant motion. Urgency is real, and it defines what an organization does both right now and in the future. With the rate of change today, delay and hesitance are our worst enemies as climatic shifts can take place in the blink of an eye.
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