Smarter Impact

Join the Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and I for this deep discussion on our changing world;

".. There are a lot of areas in public policy where government really struggles; keeping people out of prison, keeping children out of care, homelessness.

My view is 'Come on we're failing, let's open the door and try to find new, better solutions'

It's not easy, but it's really worth it, if you push through the difficulty and strike that partnership between the elements in society where everyone brings what they're good at."

In the first part 1 of this conversation we look at;

- Moving beyond simply asking "What's Government doing about it?" or "What's the role of business" ?
- Admitting when you don't have all the answers
- Whole of Society approaches to a collaborative future
- Achieving cross-sector Impact Partnerships
- The challenges of accountability and trust

Doing less harm is not good enough

What would it take to have a mindset that got up every morning, asking 'how can I combine sensible, adequate financial return, with measurable, positive, intentional impact?'

In this section, we discuss:

- The spectrum of ambition in the $40BN ESG movement
- The rise and necessity of regulatory taxonomies
- Social and environmental impacts of externalising cost
- Integrating a third lens into investment decision making
- Inertia, human impulses and leadership
- Setting frameworks, culture and expectation
- Establishing spaces for others to thrive and fullfill their potential in
- Creating signals of approval and encouragement that people leap at

The plan to break through systemic inertia

".. We need the money the flow; if we're serious about the SDGs and climate, if we accept that there are big, important emerging economies that have to transition to clean energy, if we accept our responsbility in that, and we are alive to the huge economic opportunity attached to investing in support of these transitions, then why wouldn't we try to put all our brainpower and energy behind thinking 'okay, how do we make this easier? How do we make this flow?' - because it's urgent, right? .." - The Rt. Hon Nick Hurd

In this section we discuss

- Globalisation and Geopolitics
- The rise of the Global South
- The African Union and the BRIC networks
- Trillion dollar annual gaps and the challenges of humanity
- Complexities, barriers, problems and risks
- Transforming the landscape of investible supply
- The distortion and magnification of risk
- Demonstrable investment success
- Mindset and system inertia
- Dismantling barriers
- Reducing the cost of capital
- Accelerating copycat culture

It's hard to argue against impact transparency

With over 40 countries having setup their own National Advisory Boards, and a dozen or more countries wanting to join, how does the GSG build ecosystems that enable impact transparency and the flow of investment?

In the final part of our discussion;

- Questions the GSG poses to catalyse change
- Transparency as the great disinfectant
- How Board behaviour is changing
- Methodologies to put monetary values on impact
- Changing the standards used to assess company performance
- The popularity of French Solidarity pensions invested for social benefit
- This is real. It's inevitable and it'

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

".. Companies are saying data is the new oil - a lot of companies have really, really cool data that they just need to learn how to put into a story. And that's what Digital PR is, putting that data into a story to then get publications to pick that up and link to you, not mention you, link to you, because that builds your brand." - Harry Sanders, Founder of StudioHawk.

Join me for a quick chat and a pile of insight, with a dominant force in Australian digital, that is expanding the StudioHawk #SEO magic globally.

You'll also get the full transcript of this in my Smarter Impact Newsletter later this week, so make sure to follow my profile and subscribe to the newsletter (https://lnkd.in/grXqMebK).

Harry and I get excited about Digital PR, take a look at 'how things are done these days' with a focus on treadmills and placing in Glamour, news.com.au and Nine, and how this all ties into Google's E-E-A-T score (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

Ultimately, I'd suggest you do everything you can not to waste tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in effort and wages, and come out with a mediocre outcome, because you don't have a digital expert in your team.

If you want great outcomes that work, you MUST ensure there is continuity and ownership of the final result, and that you give decision making power to the person leading the process.

I regularly see companies using different providers at each stage, without someone leading the process, and critical things are always missed.

- Business strategy
-- Inc. defining your preeminent strategic driver, critical issue resolution and accountabilities
- Digital content strategy
-- Articulating that strategy into stories, Digital PR & SEO
- Brand / website design / collateral updates
- Website development
- Completion of the Customer Journey Marketing loop
- Team training for best use of new tools

These all tie together, and this IS a hierarchy for a reason. You can work on any part of it as a individual project, though it must happen in context if you want effective results.

Ignore this and you'll simply create greater drift in what you've already got, and expensive rework when you're sad at the mediocre outcomes.

As my dad would ask me; why not DIRFT? Do It Right First Time!

Reach out if you'd like to chat about your plans for 2024, and how to ensure you take effective steps towards them, whilst avoiding what could derail you.

And if you've got all of this nailed, and you're confident to manage the integration of SEO with everything else, StudioHawk are the way!

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

Q. What is the problem you want to solve, what's the impact you want to have in the world, and how does entrepreneurial thinking help you?

Join Julia Spicer OAM and I as we discuss the challenge and opportunities of our time, and the similarities and shared understandings of community, whether you are in America, Canada, Uganda or Zambia.

Julie takes us into;

- her passion for alternative investment opportunities for female led startups and First Nations people
- how the KPI's of Government align with that of Entrepreneurs
- the research showing rural business requires 2 years and $150,000 to get to the same starting point as city-based startups
- her recent visit to an island in the Torres Strait and their micro business innovations focused on the survivability of their next seven generations

I know many amazing people working to bolster the engagement and funding support for female entrepreneurship, in the past month alone I've seen Irene Tsang (LIFTwomen® Group), Tracey Warren (F5 Collective) Vicki Stirling (The Startup Network), Sangeeta Mulchandani, Nicole Stewart (The Deeply Satisfied Woman) and Vicki Saunders (SheEO™ ) leading from the front!

Julia is active in many roles, including Network Lead at The Connection Table, as the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Chairperson of the Global Entrepreneurship Network Australia, Member of the Innovation Advisory Council with the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport and Director of Engage and Create Consulting.

This was filmed at the Global Entrepreneurship Network #GEC2023 in Melbourne, and thanks again to Jessica Grattan and Kate Elks Zadel for their support so that I could bring you this conversation!

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

"We're on the threshold of a paradigm shift in our economic system - within 2 to 3 years companies will be mandated in some countries to publish impact statements that show their revenues, their costs and their impact.

When that happens the whole economic system will shift. Consumers, talent, investors and government will know which companies are delivering positive impact."

Join Sir Ronald Cohen and I from The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) #GSGSummit, where we discuss the great work of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the recent International Foundation For Valuing Impacts (IFVI) that have got us to this point.

If you are a company leader, investor or simply and most importantly, a citizen of our planet, transforming capitalism to genuinely increase prosperity and social progress for all is the necessity of our day, and you can be a part of it.

How can you get involved?

In addition to the GSG there is The Global Impact Investing Network, in Australia we have the Climate Zeitgeist Climate Investor Forum, the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific, the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA), and guides working directly with Foundations and Family Offices such as Kylie Charlton and the team at Australian Impact Investments

If you want to learn via courses, I've completed and recommend;

Catherine Clark's Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business 'Impact Measurement & Management for the SDGs' is excellent, Durreen Shahnaz and Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) series of learnings including Measuring Impact for Sustainability and Innovative Finance Solutions for Resilience.

My deep dive with David Carlin on the ISSB S1 and S2 frameworks is well worth your time, you can grab 'No More Greenwashing - Driving evidence-based practice in ESG & Impact Investing' via my website http://bravocharlie.global

And, Sir Ronald has a book called 'Impact' :)

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

".. We wanted the world to know Silicon Valley didn’t have a monopoly on entrepreneurship, and that we wouldn’t judge the citizens of a nation based on their geopolitics - the raw talent in Silicon Valley is not genetic or unique, it was a combination of factors untapped in large parts of the world, and we set out to create that globally - this was our theory of change.." - Jonathan Ortmans, President and Founder of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, speaking with me at Global Congress in Melbourne.

Find out what he's changed his mind about recently when it comes to #Entrepreneurship, the factors needed to foster innovation, and what he learnt about striking the balance between a fast-paced world and ensuring the continuity of culture, by having a Father who Captained the Royal Yacht, the HMY Britannia!

I'm always keen to talk to change-makers, investment funds and Government leaders seeking to improve their strategy and outcomes, and tell the right stories to the people who matter to them - if that's something you'd like to discuss, do reach out or have a browse of my website at http://bravocharlie.global to learn more.

If you want to stay in touch with the latest from these communities, make sure to follow or connect with me on LinkedIn and get my weekly Smarter Impact newsletter.

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

How would the Head of Climate Risk for the United Nations get to Net Zero by 2035? Find out, and lots, lots more.

"In the same way we don't give people medals for not robbing banks, the goal is to drive impact, avoiding greenwashing means that what you're saying and what you're doing are consistent." - David Carlin, Head of Climate Risk & TCFD for the United Nations Environment Programme.

Together we go through many fascinating insights;

- the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
- Aggregating emission reducers rather than looking for the silver bullet
- Success for smaller countries without a $200bn Inflation Reduction Act
- Pro-action over reaction and my recent whitepaper No More Greenwashing: A regulatory guide to ESG & Impact Investing (which you can get in the comments)
- The Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
- The high, justifiable fear of business towards regulatory fragmentation
- The strength of adoption with TCFD, and the challenges of comparability, transparency and completeness.
- Not having unadjusted & adjusted financial statements for climate change
- Climate as a threat multiplier
- Volatility and the cost of capital
- The information that matters
- Weaving this into your operational strategies
- The lack of transition finance for developing and emerging economies
- What you need to be doing if you actually want the world to decarbonise
- His recent address at the ESG Investor Stewardship Summit
- the $60BN AUD committed to fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement was signed, by the ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac as outlined by Market Forces
- Markets moving in rapid and volatile ways
- Decarbonisation commitments & transition risk
- Net zero becoming law of the land

*****

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If you're a CEO, Business Owner / Leader or Impact Investor, do take 3-5 minutes to get your FREE Investor Trust Score at http://bit.ly/InvestorTrustScore - Answer 33 quick questions, and see how you perform across the critical dimensions the world's leading businesses & investment funds score highly on.

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Don't forget to join me on LinkedIn via http://linkedin.com/in/philipbateman, sign up for my weekly newsletter at https://philipbateman.substack.com/ and there is much more of my client work on http://bravocharlie.global.

Philip Bateman - Strategist & Communications Advisor

"Helping funds tell the right story to investors"

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

I'm pleased to introduce Professor Durreen Shahnaz, discussing her soon to be released book 'The Defiant Optimist - Daring to fight global inequality, reinvent finance and invest in women' - it's a deeply personal tale of challenge and family dynamics, a childhood marred in protest and war during the birth of a new nation (Bangladesh), and a growing awareness of the power of supporting business and seeding change .. "(My mothers) only requirement of the shop owners and entrepreneurs she assisted was that they agree to educate their daughters".

In 2020 and 2021 I had the opportunity to learn directly from Prof. Shahnaz by certifying in Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) 'Measuring Impact for Sustainability' and 'Innovative Financing Solutions for Resilience', both of which I'd highly recommend.

Also look up the "Women’s Livelihood Bond" - the world’s first gender-lens impact investing security listed on a stock exchange - "To date, the WLB™ Series has mobilized US$128 million and is empowering over 1 million women and girls across Asia and Africa."

You can pre-order the book by visiting https://defiantoptimist.com/

As her bio goes;

Durreen Shahnaz is a global leader of social impact and pioneer in impact investing. She is also the founder of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) and IIX Foundation. IIX is the home of the world’s first social stock exchange and one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms for impact investing. IIX is also a leader in impact assessment methodology and innovative financial structures such as the world's first gender focused social bond, Women's Livelihood Bond Series.

The company connects the Back Streets of underserved communities to the Wall Streets of the world by changing financial systems and innovating solutions for women empowerment, climate action, and community resilience, thus driving forward the Sustainable Development Goals.

IIX and IIX Foundation’s work has unlocked over US$288 million of private sector investment capital and impacted over 159 million direct household lives.

Shahnaz is the recipient of UN Women’s 2020 Asia-Pacific Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) award, the 2019 Sustainability Superwoman award from CSRWorks International, 2017 Oslo Business for Peace Foundation Award, often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize for Business’, the 2017 The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) Market Builder of the Year award, the 2016 Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award, in addition to the prestigious 2014 Joseph Wharton Social Impact Award given by The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Recently, Shahnaz was named in the Forbes 50 over 50 list as a notable leader in the financial industry.

Shahnaz holds a BA from Smith College and a joint degree, an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a MA from the School for Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University.

If you enjoyed this content, please give it a like and leave a comment - if you're keen in helping me continue this independent journalism, you can support the show from $5 a month at https://www.patreon.com/SmarterImpact - it really means a lot to see your support coming in :)

Smarter Impact is hosted by http://linkedin.com/in/philipbateman and produced by http://bravocharlie.global

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

"There is no doubt in my mind that if we continue on the path we are going, there will come a time when we will have no choice but to come together to deal with climate change, but by then it would be far too late." - Mr Anote Tong, Former President of the Republic of Kiribati.  

Join me from the conclusion of the Climate Investor Forum, held by Climate Zeitgeist, for this short interview with the Special International Guest, having just completed his keynote and on-stage discussion with Peter Castellas, the dinner session being opened by Sally Capp.  

Regularly speaking on the world stage, Mr Tong has been a stalwart of bringing climate change onto the global agenda, calling for a moratorium on new coal mines in 2015, saying "Let us join together as a global community and take action now" - though well before that, hosting Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General in the atoll nation of Kiribati, speaking with Pope Francis, Former US President Barack Obama and at the COP meetings.

Kiribati is an average of 2 metres above sea level, to which the IPCC has stated with many other pacific islands, will likely be submerged within coming decades.  

To this end, Mr Tong has brought 'Migration with dignity' into discussion, being quoted as saying "We are being told that we may have to abandon our islands, the places where our ancestors have been buried, where our children have a home."

Anote is a passionate believer in family and respectful collective action, his work includes overseeing the creation the largest protected marine area in the world, 480,250 square kilometers, known as the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), and later adopted as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

".. so as long as we continue on the path that we are heading, then we will continue to be headed towards this catastrophe. And I can assure you, once that catastrophe comes around the corner, there will be no politicians, there will be no partitions, there's no division, because it's going to be a rush for survival. And we'll all be together on this.." - Anote Tong.

Thank you to the sponsors of the Climate Investor Forum, and Michele Hartz for supporting Peter in the organisation:

Major partner:  Pollination
Diamond:  Trawalla Group | Kilara Capital | Wollemi Capital | Adamantem Capital 
Gold: Investible | Gaia Natural Capital | Ndevr Environmental | GHD Advisory | Silva Capital | Virescent Ventures | Sentient Impact Group | Mo Works | Small Giants Academy
Ecotone Partners | City of Melbourne | CO2 Australia Limited | trace

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

Welcome to the final conversation in my contributor series to our recent report 'No More Greenwashing: Driving evidence-based practice in ESG & Impact Investing', with Dr Jodi York.

Jodi is the Chief Impact Officer at Kilara Capital, Principal of ImpactAbility Solutions, Chair of the Climate Impact Committee with the Climate Venture Capital Fund in New Zealand, part of the Social Performance Advisory Committee for Impact Investment Partners Pty Ltd and a Tutor and mentor in Social Impact Strategy and Management with the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP).

Generally as all-round awesome human adept at juggling many competing priorities whilst doing her best for the world, I've known her as a constant source of striving and inspiration, having a top-quality meme game for most situations, and being a global impact leader.

Diving deeper into due dilligence, the continuation of gates that support your theory of change and the give and take of investees partnerning with specialised investors

We go into the push-pull of market forces, access to skilled labour, data that shows up in The Global Impact Investing Network surveys, impact verification and its limitations from folks such as BlueMark and Tideline, and close on waste and circular economy.

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!

Introducing Rosemary Addis, Founding Partner of Mondiale Impact and Ambassador for The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG), in the next of my contributor conversations for 'No more greenwashing: Driving evidence-based practice in ESG & Impact Investing'.

We discuss the idea of perfect being the enemy of good, which came up during my conversation with Cliff Prior quoting Elias Masilela, and the reality that we've always been making decisions based on imperfect information.

Moving into the trajectories of fund flows, market volatility and fiscal conditions, we discuss the step change occuring in impact methodologies, my discussion with Kristin Siegel and the Impact Management Project.

Q. Where are all the skilled people? What does this labour transition look like and where is it coming from?

In answer we talk through various channels including the excellent and very accessible course from Catherine Clark and Duke University on Coursera; 'Impact Measurement and Management for the SDGs', and the work of Tideline and 'Bridges Insight' by Bridges Fund Management Ltd.

Additionally, I ask questions that you need to be able to answer as a Directors or Business Leader;

How do you go from being reactive to perceived risk, to asking “What would good look like? What would it look like for us to be able to manage this risk well and to move forward in ways that we're also using impact as an identifier of different types of opportunities to differentiate ourselves in the market?”

If you haven't yet got our free report 'No More Greenwashing: Driving evidence-based practice in ESG & Impact Investing' you can download it at http://bit.ly/nomoregreenwashing

For the latest insights on leadership, impact investing, global challenges, business strategy and storytelling, make sure to join me on LinkedIn, and get the newsletter, Smarter Impact - Every Thursday!