When Beauty & Business Collide

Weary from the ‘transformation’ we have endured in work, life and in our society at large, we are experiencing a shift in values, the environment, diversity, and social responsibility.  We are questioning how we want to work, how our lives blend with work and really think about how we want to live. 

Endless growth and pursuing profit alone are no longer solutions that are enduring, resilient or desirable on their own. Business can be a force for good and with a redesign and a more nuanced set of measures we can rethink the role business plays in our society, environment, consumers, employees, and investors. It is time we consider beauty, (beauty being, the qualities that give pleasure to the senses) to the way we do business.

Beautiful businesses invest, cultivate, and nurture the organisation, its relationships, and partnerships with the same or even greater effort than it takes to create and deliver its products or services. Built to be beautiful inside and out, they stand out, delivering profit in a way that is sustainable, enduring and have opportunity for growth if desired though scale isn’t mandatory.

Creating a beautiful business isn’t easy, yet the pleasure derived for all involved can be immense. 

Designed with a different mindset and hand, it requires the art of balancing divergent and convergent thinking, the delicate dance between masculine and feminine energies around areas of leadership, the workspace, product and experience design, language, gestures, and rituals. Those that think and design for beauty, consider qualities that give pleasure to the senses and mind, and they apply this for all involved, not only their customers. 

Each of our senses helps build memory through evoking emotion. It’s only when as many of our senses are activated do we experience depth of engagement. This supports memorability and when done well, translates over time to meaningful value creation. Sight and sound are most thought of however touch, smell, and taste also leave an impression. Beyond the five senses there are other senses less commonly thought of including temperature, balance, acceleration, kinesthesis, and sense of time. How often do we consider these senses in our investor presentations, corporate strategy, arrangement of our places of work or even more simply how we design our meeting with key customers or our teams?  

Years ago, I was invited to work with LVMH owned Cloudy Bay.  

Led at the time by the laconic Kevin Judd I had been advised I was entering an unusual and revered environment and culture and was set on a mission to scale and globalise.  Spending time with this incredible group of people, I quickly observed that this place was not the norm to the many I had encountered at that stage, over some 15 years of work. 

A workforce that was quiet, methodical, meticulous, witty, dry, and yet in most ways very laid back and unassuming, I began to realise and understand that working with the senses and creating a beautiful business was so much more than the packaging and communications.  

This group of people were divergent from the wine category and yet convergent in spirit.  What they created could not be easily replicated or explained on any ‘strategy on a page’.  However, it could be felt viscerally through the thoughtfulness, care, diligence, and execution of every key moment of interaction with its intended recipient, anywhere we hosted around the world or at home in Marlborough. 

This team intuitively understood what it meant to create an experience and engage the senses no matter the means of delivery. 

It goes without saying that there was immense pleasure derived from what we were creating, making, selling, and experiencing and this translated to being a hugely innovative, sustainable, and profitable business that was loved globally [so much for ‘globalising’ what was in fact global ‘by design’]. 

Was it the ‘brand’ or was it ‘the people’?  A commonly asked question of beautiful businesses.

The other day I read that the wine Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2021 was named in The Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2022. Ranked 13 and the top scoring wine from New Zealand [As an aside, Australia’s top-ranking wine at 26, was First Drop Mother’s Milk Shiraz 2020, Barossa Valley]

I’m not surprised.  It’s delicious.  I’m thrilled for Kevin [Former, Founding Winemaker of Cloudy Bay] & Kimberley Judd and team Greywacke. 

I’m confident that this will be another ‘cult’ wine brand and a ‘beautiful business’ in the making. Very little ‘global best practice’ conversations going on here, however a whole lot of beauty.  

There are no hacks to give if this is what you are waiting for.  In fact, quite the opposite.

What is a recurring theme where business and beauty collide is a commitment to creating, nurturing, and protecting the right conditions for beauty and an inherent belief and vocation to ‘good intention’ in every aspect of the organisation.  

Art & science working together, not in competition; conviviality and courtesies that we would offer friends and family in the home demonstrated in the workplace; environments of work that inspire; restoration of civility - acting with respect, fairness and compassion, mutual value creation with all partners and community, a preference for less not more, focus on replication over efficiency of process and an intuitive understanding of how to contribute to sensory pleasure and well-being.  

It goes without saying, that behind most beautiful brands exists good humans with strong values, solid intentions, and a healthy dose of what I will politely describe as fierce determination.

 I recommend you find yourself a bottle or three of Greywacke [The Wild Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are my personal favourites] and consider these thoughtful questions Alan Moore outlines in his excellent book ‘Do/Build how to make and lead a business the world needs.’ 

Does it matter?; is it transformative?;  is it regenerative?;  is it useful?; can you create a joyful experience?; is what you create elegant?; are you making a thing of quality?; how will the language we use define us?; is it truthful?; does it feel inevitable?; would you want to sell these products and services to your family?; will you enjoy the process?; how will you create legacy?. 

Lastly, as with everything I think is so relevant to beauty and business is possibly one of my most favoured quotes from Nicolo Machiavelli.

“Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great” 

Here’s a toast to creating a beautiful business in 2023.