Fabrik – Maximizing the positive impacts of brands
We firmly believe that companies can save the world and that we can help them succeed. That is why responsibility is more than a way for us to act. It is the foundation on which we have built our entire business.
Purpose
We create a future where companies use their influence to make the world a better place. That’s what people expect from companies, so the direction also produces the desired result in terms of business growth and competitiveness. We strive to make the biggest positive impact by helping our customers succeed in their good endeavors. The question is not so much why we focus specifically on positive impact – rather why use our skills and passion to promote irresponsibility and human suffering? In a perfect world, there are no companies other than those that make a positive impact on the world around them.
Results
Our tool to maximize positive impact was piloted at the end of 2019. By March 2021, we have kicked off strategic development work to ensure a better future with more than ten eagerly committed companies. Concrete effects of our work can be seen widely, e.g. transition to renewable energies, new products with a lower carbon footprint, support for more sustainable consumption patterns and the promotion of health and well-being or equality. The pivotal part, however, is the enthusiasm within companies and their staff for continuous development to increase their own positive impact.
Implementation
Our quest to maximize the positive impact of companies guide the direction of our entire business. A significant role in our success is played by a tool we have developed with our international partners. The tool helps us scan the impacts of a company’s business, classify the various levels of impacts and focus on those that have the greatest positive effect – and thus differentiate the brand in the market.
The impacts of business operations are derived from the perspectives of personnel, stakeholders, the environment and society. Examining one’s own significance from many different angles, clarifies the picture not only in terms of themes traditionally associated with responsibility, such as energy consumed, emissions produced or resources used, but also in terms of what employees and stakeholders perceive to be important. To determine and to define the aforementioned effects we use, for example, existing research and new market and customer research, online surveys, interviews, group workshops and desk research based on various data sources including literature and Internet resources.
Responsibility is a broad concept that, in its all-encompassing nature, easily suppresses a company’s belief in its own strength and ability to make a change even before they have taken their first steps. By creating the most comprehensive picture possible of one’s own role in the lives of others during our scanning phase, it is easier to see how to take others into account when making choices. In order to clarify the planning of the measures, we classify the impacts into three categories: low, compliance, high. All the impacts found will be taken into account in future development work, but the main focus will be on the impacts that are the most relevant to the company in question and to with which it is possible to achieve the most positive impact. The themes brought into focus create the core for the positive influence that runs through all the activities. It defines a thread for future planning in terms of product and service development and investment, as well as marketing and communications activities.
To ensure that the clarified goals do not remain only as good intentions, we will also work to build clear steps from the abstract to concrete goals, actions and metrics. In carrying out the change, we either utilize the management system already in use in the organization or support it with the help of tools such as the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal management framework or a straightforward impact chain model.
We are constantly refining the model together with our customers and scaling it to be even more versatile in its ability to serve holistic brand management.
Supporting brands to incorporate meaningful sustainability aspects to their business with the help of a scanning and focusing tool enable companies to start their sustainability journey from those aspects that matter the most. Giving brands visibility to the different level of impact their actions can have further emphasizes the value of strategic prioritizing. This Planet act is partly scalable as it requires relatively deep competences on sustainability combined with strategy, brand and marketing.
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