The voice of Humanity, Inc /

The SoulBrandingSM Institute 

 

 

 

Trust expert argues for "wet, warm metrics" for a new, more ethical capitalism

NPR's the Marketplace Report, 14 million weekly listeners

 June 2, 2021

 

 

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, some of the largest corporations in the U.S. –– most notably those members of The Business Roundtable –– made statements renewing commitments to advancing racial equity and justice.

 

It’s one thing to make such statements and it’s another to deliver on them and make progress. A new and more ethical capitalism requires new metrics that go beyond just dollar values, according to Elsie Maio, consultant and founder of SoulBranding. 

 

Below is an edited transcript of David Brancaccio’s interview with Maio on how we should be gauging companies’ environmental and social impact using new, “wet and warm” metrics.

Transcript

 

 

 

 

Humanity Rising Day 105: Mindsets for Change

Stopping the Next Pandemic by Creating a Safer Future for People and the Planet

September 29, 2020

 

 

 

An excerpt featuring Karen Buckley and Elsie Maio from Day 105 Humanity Rising, Mindsets for Change: Stopping the Next Pandemic by Creating a Safer Future for People and the Planet.

 

Today’s leaders face an unprecedented opportunity and responsibility to protect the planet and people from a future pandemic. We have created environmental, economic, and business practices that put all of us at risk. Knowing that we are interconnected, part of a living system we can rebalance our relationship with nature and consciously change the future for the generations to come.

 

Karen Wilhelm Buckley, Communicore Consulting

Karen Wilhelm Buckley is an international consultant, executive coach, and speaker, specializing in personal transformation, complex change, and developing conscious leaders who generate substantive results while evoking wisdom and love in their organizations. As a pioneer in the field Karen has published work on transformational leadership for over three decades. Her long-term client retainers expand the rich potential of people, products and services, build thriving cultures, create sustainable enterprises, and establish high leverage collaborations. Based in San Francisco, USA

 

Elsie Maio, Humanity, Inc/The SoulBranding℠ Institute

Elsie and her team walk shoulder to shoulder with the movement-makers and disruptive business innovators transitioning from profit-primacy to wellbeing for the web of life today. They are grounded in both the high-performance metrics of Wall Street and the heart-centered ethic of feminine wisdom – the twin stepping stones on this transformative path. Elsie anticipated and helped usher in the sustainability movement. Now, with democratic capitalism over-ripe for a systemic flush, she shares some guideposts to help folks prepare for the coming waves of change. Chief among these is to Repurpose the Marketing function, and to empower the cultural shift to System Identity. All while society collectively explores a new equilibrium in the wobbly line between profitability and love of the whole living system. The SoulBranding℠ System lends stability to this chaordic process: for the individual leader and for the whole stakeholder ecosystem. 

 

The full program includes commentary and conversation with: 

Co-Moderators: Jim Garrison, President, Ubiquity University, with Sabinije von Gaffke, Entrepreneur, Change Leader, Founder, Impactfullness Ventures 

Jan Vertefeuille Senior Advisor, World Wildlife Fund.

Lisa Rafel, spoken word artist performs Now is the Time

 

 

  

AWAKENING |Elsie Maio’s Audacious Vision for Maker Growth and Success in These Challenging Times

Apr 20, 2020  By Kathleen Willcox

"...people who start with The Golden Rule of mutual enhancement, who want to make a legacy contribution while performing at a level of excellence -- those are the leaders who interest me...

If there is a silver lining in anything involving this pandemic, it’s the knowledge that we humans need each other to survive.

This is pushing us out of our comfort zone. That’s where we all find our hidden assets, those gems we didn't realize mean so much to others.

That vulnerability is a step toward creating a shared destiny for a world we want to live in.

"

When Elsie Maio graduated with honors in Classics from the City University of New York, she went to Wall Street to earn a living, content with Homer on her night table. There, and later at McKinsey & Company, the logic, discipline, and communication skills she garnered studying ancient Greek helped her translate complex analyses into winning strategies for investment and corporate strategy. 

She enjoyed her stimulating colleagues and career immensely, but knew that the business world could do more, be more. Twenty five years ago, Maio went out on her own to build a framework designed for corporate executives and other leaders committed to business brilliance for social good. That cadre has grown exponentially, the leaders who want a more human and humane approach to achieving excellence themselves, and a way to help members of their teams to do the same.

Now, she’s using her years guiding businesses to breakthrough results to help CEOs, impact investors, and creative entrepreneurs find their way through the unprecedented time of individual and world disruption we find ourselves in because of the coronavirus pandemic. More here

 

 

 

Gita Wisdom

A Yogi in the Boardroom: Elsie Maio

March 20, 2020

 

 

 

A candid and practical discussion with renowned business consultant Elsie Maio about dramatic changes occurring in business and finance. This is a Gita Wisdom program for professionals and non-professionals alike, an open-ended dialog about how real people are dealing with real-world shifts in priorities.

Topics include:

• How to know if the time has come to change careers
• What to do when our work conflicts with our values
• The new spirit rising in our culture and opportunities it creates
• Where to go for practical ideas about rethinking our place in society

***

Resources for viewers from Elsie:

In finance and investing

Future Capital Conversation featuring Elsie Maio, Joe Lopardo and Lene Rachel Andersen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0YsAFCCKpU&t=2798s

Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) https://www.iccr.org/

The Lumen Society https://lumensociety.com/

 

In teaching the new finance

Teaching guide for The Purpose of Capital, Babson College

https://www.blendedvalue.org/the-purpose-of-capital

 

In cultivating personal agency and leadership

The Danish Secret, Lene Rachel Andersen

https://www.lenerachelandersen.com/

 

Communities of thought leadership/policy and practice

 Humanity Rising  https://humanityrising.solutions/

 

Future Capital/World Academy of Art and Science

https://futureofcapital.org/    http://www.worldacademy.org/

 

Wellbeing Economy Alliance

https://wellbeingeconomy.org/

 

Culture

The Story of Stuff

https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/

 

 

 

 

GOVERNANCE : the neglected G spot in ESG

Boards have yet to formally account for the essential corporate asset:  Trust-worthiness. Now that metrics have fallen to 'distrust' it's essential that Boards step up quickly to preserve license to operate, no less marketplace advantages. Traditional techniques for 'faking it' with sophisticated branding techniques ring hollow. This calls for deep, transformative shift to a new reality.

The trend that we identified a decade ago has accelerated: People's distrust of their institutions has frayed the very fabric that holds society together. And rightly so: our institutions have failed us, some to the point of betrayal. Now, as the one institution with a slight trust premium,  Business has an outsized role to play here, in its own self-interest and for the stability of our world. 

There are two transformative actions leaders can take to stem the erosion of trust-worthiness and begin to earn the added value hidden in meeting the needs of our systems-dependent lives. 

1. Personally embrace your own system-identity. This is a deep leap from the individualistic hero model.

2. Empower a new "Congruence" function, a Triad of Corporate Marketing/CEO/Muscular Stakeholder Advocates.

A bad system will get the best of a good person every time, as W. Edward Demings said. So build a Governance function that stewards the intersection of: 

• • In-Real-Life needs of all stakeholders, including the non-human living system.
  • the corporate impacts on their wellbeing, and
  • ethical truthtelling.

 

More on this elsewhere, including in my essay in the book, EmPower Us! From Crisis to Strategic Harmony, by Ira Kaufman and Velimir Srica, Kitsap Publishing, 2020. #Governance 

 

IFEES/IUECC Webinar Series

The Personal Challenges and Emergent Opportunities for Engineers and Their Educators

 August 28, 2019

 

 

 

 

In this seminar, Elsie Maio touches on relevant forces at work and specific opportunities for engineers to help knit together our generative future. Her featured guest, Mila Popovich, illustrates one of those with a topical update on the collaboration among ecosystem actors, IEEE and the World Academy of Art and Science.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFtSE...

 

 

 

Tough love for Jamie Dimon as The Golden Rule reboots,                         plus milestones for CEOs who are restoring capitalism for the demos 

Elsie is interviewed by Christian Sarkar for the book Activist Brands 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Fe — you’re doing it right

 

  

The Peace Engineering Conference hosted by the University of New Mexico (UNM)

Commentary broadcast on NPR's Marketplace Morning Report  

November 16, 2018

 

 

Commentary on Marketplace 

 

Deans and faculty of the Schools of Engineeering worldwide gather annually. We helped curate this year's discussions around social impact aka #Peace Engineering; engineers' role in the UN Sustainable Development Goals; ethics and tech innovation; and introduced the tandem keynote, "Waging Peace through Commerce," with Time magazine's Hero for the Planet Bill McDonough and Kim Polman. They'd also launched Kim's book Imaginal Cells together at the World Economic Forum. 

 

Now to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the biggest global gathering of engineering educators is taking place -- Deans of University and College Engineering Programs, students, businesses, government officials.

The theme this year is “peace engineering”…training engineers to consider ethics, social good, biases and unintended consequences of the technology they build.

Helping to guide the discussion there is Elsie Maio, a sustainable business consultant and founder of the SoulBranding℠ Institute. 'Peace Engineering,' this is an emerging idea. Give me a sense of what’s behind that,” David Brancaccio opens this Marketplace Morning Report interview on November 16, 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

Invitation to Shape Peace Engineering

The purpose of this paper... is to encourage key contributors in the ecosystem of purposeful enterprise to engage with each other...to shape the requirements and co-create solution directions for a sustainable future.

 

 

 

 

 

"Getting Businesses to Operate as One with Societal, Environmental Ecosystem" -- by Katerina Kapernarakou

 

Kathimerini,  Greece's daily newspaper, interviews Elsie on the emerging influence of ES+G in investment markets and, hence, on decisions made in the C-Suite

Της Κατερίνα Καπερναράκου | Kathimerini February 2018

Έλσι Μέιο: «Εάν οι επιχειρήσεις δεν λειτουργήσουν ως αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι του οικοσυστήματος της κοινωνίας και του πλανήτη, δεν έχουν μέλλον»,

English translation 

"Larry Fink, American BlackRock’s chief executive officer, the world's largest institutional investor which manages $6 trillion, made an unprecedented statement. He warned corporate giants that he is ready to stop investing in them unless they take responsibility for profits as well as the impact their actions have on both society and the environment. If they do not know how to do so, they can ask Elsie Maio for help...  "

 

 

 

 

GOT SYSTEM-SOUL?

T.C. Lowrie at the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce in Athens interviewed Elsie for a feature article in Business Partners Magazine -- just before her keynote at the Chamber's annual Women in Business luncheon.

They talked about the relevance of corporate soul, breakthrough leadership and the outlook for new paradigm business.

"Authentic corporate soul is the springboard to the next evolutionary step for business."

In this twentieth anniversary year of the SoulBrandingSM System,  Elsie also responded to T.C.'s questions about what the practical application of corporate soul looks in businesss, and the role of women in evolving a truly inclusive, soul-ful capitalism.

"I am optimistic about women reclaiming their personal sovereignty.

"In turn, everything is possible as women join with millennials in a

critical mass of committed action for systemic wellbeing. Some of the most vibrant new paradigm businesses are born this way, including social-impact disruptors in major business sectors."

Stay tuned for more on that in her upcoming book!

 

 

  Generating True Customer Loyalty?  

 

Noting recent moves by TJX,  the CMO of marketing company Harte Hanks quotes Elsie Maio on the practice of brand activism.

 It is an exponential shift for the identity of companies into something she calls SoulBranding℠ . A thought leader in this area for 20 years, she’s cited by [Phil] Kotler in his new autobiography for her of work in social-values-based corporate transformation.

She explains that:

"it requires brands to embrace their heartfelt social role and look beyond financial gain and shareholder value. ...consumers today are demanding that brands be 'generous, generative citizens' that solve real world problems... like Patagonia and Unilever.

 "I hope the CEO is alert to the exponential value of the occasion. If so, TJX will use this opportunity to step ahead of the pack and launch the company’s authentic transformation as an agent of people’s wellbeing."

+ Insights, November 2017

 

 

 “The Trust Gap Diagnostic” – by Elsie Maio

“As millennials assert their values in the marketplace, the opportunities to be the preferred brand in your category will depend on how quickly you authentically embrace the broader good…

‘Do no harm’ was yesterday’s standard for corporate citizenship. As alarm rises in global populations over issues that transcend governmental jurisdictions — such as environmental threats, and food and water supply problems — corporations will be held accountable for their contribution to those problems.”

+ The Marketing Journal, July 2017

 

 

 “What CEOs Can Learn from Uber” – by Elsie Maio

One of the main barriers to corporate performance is a lack of clarity of how corporate goals and corporate strategy translate into employees’ roles – and more to the point, their consistent actions.

…CEOs who pay attention to values-alignment in their organizations feed a virtuous cycle of outstanding creativity and business performance

+ The Marketing Journal, June 2017

 

 

 “SoulBranding in the C-Suite: Eight Guidelines for Values Branding” –                   by Elsie Maio

CEOs now see how the corporate brand can: transform business performance and
 more effectively support their boards.

+ The Marketing Journal, June 2017

 

 

 "The Impact of Social Media on Customer Experience" - Interview with Elsie Maio

"What makes the leaders [in social media] lead? I went back to ask a few experts:

Elsie Maio, the CEO of Humanity Inc and Soulbranding℠ expert, had this to say: ‘It comes down to companies living their human values….Leaders use the power of social media to surface those shared values and engage customers.

Organizations will make a quantum leap in trust and creative collaborations when they legitimize, and even celebrate, their motivating social values. These are the deeply held human and social impulses that move people to act in their own and their communities’ best interests.'"

+ The Marketing Journal, April 2017

 

 

  “Can Wall Street Win in Sustainable Investments? The Social Function of Marketing for Good” – by Elsie Maio

Yes! The [$50Trillion] market for so-called responsible investing, sustainable investing or impact investing is waiting for Wall Street to step forward with three initiatives:

• Authentic Leadership [like NORDEA]
• Clarity [to complement what SASB is doing]
• Co-opetition [to build the marketplace, like other industries have done]

+ The Marketing Journal, March 2017

 

 

 "How to inoculate your brand from political backlash: Interview with Elsie Maio"

The spotlight of political criticism is swinging in an arc, somewhat wildly these days. There’s no protecting from the vagaries of random public attention. The best way to ‘inoculate’ your business … is to strengthen your immune system from the inside out.

Let’s be clear: CEOs cannot inoculate their companies from attention, nor from criticism. But they can be prepared to turn that spotlight to their advantage.

There is really only one way to inoculate from the negative effects of criticism about not being a contributing citizen. That is to be a contributing citizen in the way that matters.

[That also means] knit the CMO’s activities with the COO’s activities and make sure that they’re walking hand in hand. If you don’t, you’re vulnerable to every kind of attack—and you should be. There’s no way around this except to be authentic and tell the truth.

+ Harte Hanks, March 2017

 

 

 "The Future of Brand America: Lessons from the Super Bowl and Beyond"

“The White House has politicized business and society. The degrees of freedom for US-domiciled business are under attack just as the degrees of freedom for an American citizen are under attack,” explains Elsie Maio, an expert on business values."

“The silver lining is that…The US citizen has awoken. And she is waking up US business.”

+ The Marketing Journal, February 2017

 

 

 The Marketing Of Lies - Elsie Maio for The Marketing Journal

 

As marketers and branding professionals, we are well aware of the risks and penalties for false advertising in the United States.

We know, for example, that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for upholding “Truth in Advertising”  – that is, claims that are “truthful, not misleading and when appropriate, backed by scientific evidence.” 

Curiously, this law does not apply to news or politics.  So the claims your brand makes are, in fact, held to a higher standard than the claims made by the person we elect to the highest office in the land.

Sales and marketing are based on trust, as any Girl Scout cookie salesperson will tell you, especially if her name is Charlotte McCourt: Charlotte has already sold over 7000 boxes of cookies.

What is it about this social media story that resonates with us in this, an age of alternative facts, POTUS tweets, and fake news?

What lessons must we, as a nation, learn about lying from this honest Girl Scout?

 

+ Full article here: The Marketing Journal, January 2017, "The Marketing of Lies," by Elsie Maio

 

 

 
 The Marketing Journal "Finally, Brand Activism!" -- Christian Sarkar and Phil Kotler

 

In this 20th Anniversary year of SoulBrandingSM The Father of Modern Marketing Phil Kotler cites the SoulBrandingSM process, and Elsie as a leading Business Values guru, in The Marketing Journal, January 2017

"We see more and more companies seeking to have an impact on the biggest societal problems. These companies have a larger purpose than simple profit-seeking, and are increasingly seen as leaders in their fields.

Harvard Business Review’s 2015 ranking of the Best-Performing CEOs in the World was surprising to many. The world’s top-performing CEO isn’t a household name. Lars Rebien Sørensen, the CEO of Novo Nordisk – the Danish pharmaceutical company that was ranked #1 – says: “Corporate social responsibility is nothing but maximizing the value of your company over a long period. In the long term, social and environmental issues become financial issues...

When did brand activism become a thing? It’s a natural evolution of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs that are transforming companies across the world...

Elsie Maio, a leading Business Values guru, helps companies undertaking a process of soulbranding or spiritual awakening. We see this happening in a handful of companies around the world...

UNILEVER

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, Unilever wants to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. Their purpose is 'to make sustainable living commonplace'...

Here is the powerful values-driven statement by CEO Paul Pohlman of Unilever:

'A year after they were launched it is clear that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change are needed more than ever. That is why we have put them at the heart of Unilever’s own model.'

+Full article here: The Marketing Journal, January 2017, "Finally, Brand Activism!!"

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Short Meets the Big Bang: Can Wall Street Win in Sustainable Investments? - by Elsie Maio

"Nearly 12 months ago, I dove into the investment ecosystem to survey from the inside the dynamics of the ‘sustainable investing’ trend...In short: While Wall Street is standing in its own way on this one, it is poised to break through to create a whole new marketplace. But it will require concerted change."

In the February 2016 issue of Green Money Journal, Elsie shares five highlights from her journey and offers a call to action to those who would take a leading position in the emergent marketplace.

+ Green Money Journal, February 2016, Millennials, Money and Meaning

 

The Curative Power of ES+G - by Elsie Maio

"As if on cue, the bad news on Volkswagen exploded at deadline for this article. Its harsh flash illuminates the state of the art of ES+G analysis – that is, the practice of profiling the risk to investors of a company’s posture and practices on environmental, social and governance issues (ES+G). And, it’s a topical jumping off point to explore where this evolving ‘artform’ can go.”

In the Green Money Journal special issue on women and investing, Elsie weighs in on the investment community’s capability to use ES+G factors to reveal the potential for business to create thriving transformation for all.

+ Green Money Journal, November 2015, Women and Investing

 

Volkswagen's Gift: Now We Know Governance Is Worth It

In the wake of Volkswagen’s multibillion-dollar emissions scandal, Elsie shares what went wrong and how the solution includes giving all employees a voice. She says that in terms of building consumer trust, "what’s going to continue to work better and better is the system of screening the congruence of what [corporations] say and what they do."

Listen to the interview to hear what Elsie shared with David Brancaccio and more than 10 million listeners on NPR’s Marketingplace Morning Report.

+ Marketplace Morning Report, October 12, 2015, Interview with Elsie Maio

 

 

 

GMJ Spotlight Interview: Kevin Parker, CEO of Sustainable Investment Capital Management (SCIM) - by Elsie Maio

"To all appearances, Kevin Parker is a no-nonsense, purposeful kind of guy. And his credentials in global institutional finance reinforce that image.

And what he said in effect at the recent CSR Investing Summit was that the sustainability debate is over: 'What had been moral is now material.'"

Kevin Parker is the CEO and Founder of Sustainable Insight Capital Management (SCIM), an investment firm, and has more than 30 years experience in the investment industry. He is interviewed by Elsie Maio, founder of Humanity, Inc and the SoulBranding℠ Institute.

+ Green Money Journal, October 2015, The Solutions Issue

GMJ Spotlight Interview: John Streur, CEO of Calvert

"Recently in New York City at the CSR Investing Summit, John Streur, President and CEO of Calvert Investments, was interviewed by Elsie Maio, founder of Humanity Inc. & the SoulBranding℠ Institute. John shared some news about a new strategic partnership and some upcoming product offerings."

+ Green Money Journal, September 2015, Impact Investing Picks Up Speed

GMJ Spotlight Interview: Amanda Steinberg, Founder & CEO of DailyWorth

Very soon, women will hold 66% of the wealth in the US.

What will they do with it? And who will help them?

"It is always great to hear two very knowledgeable people having an engaging conversation, as is the case with this interview between two inspiring businesswomen.

Amanda Steinberg is the founder & CEO of DailyWorth, the leading financial media company for women. She is interviewed by Elsie Maio, founder of Humanity, Inc and the SoulBranding Institute, which provides e-tools and business consulting for positive social impact."

 + GreenMoney Journal, April 2015, Women and Investing

The Gender Imbalance in Finance: How Do We Narrow the Gap?

“As in any organization or industry, rich diversity of inputs yields richer solutions. Chaos theory pointed that out, and now innovative companies are enjoying those benefits."—Elsie Maio

 

 

Elsie Maio, Founder of Humanity, Inc and the SoulBranding℠ Institute, contributed to a CFA Institute panel on generating practical approaches on how to increase the number of women in senior positions across the finance industry. She took part in a lively discussion with esteemed panelists Leah R. Bennett, CFA; Meredith A. Jones; Nelli Oster, PhD; Sarah Burley Reid; and Jocelyn D. Wright, MBA, CFP.

+ CFA Institute Panel Summary

+ Full Remarks

 

The "Trust Gap" in Banking and in the News Media:  Another buzzword or a crisis in the making?

Elsie Maio guest-hosts this radio show for Trust Across America/Trust Around the World to explore "the trust gap" in the media industry and in financial services. She interviews the celebrated PBS television, APM public radio broadcaster and documentary filmmaker David Brancaccio, and Jason Apollo Voss of the CFA Institute's Future of Finance initiative. 

This show broadcast live from our Manhattan conference room (complete with the lively ambience of Midtown traffic!) on June 5, 2013 at 12 Noon Eastern.

+ Listen to the audio broadcast.

+ Watch the video version.

 

Quoted in, and Authored

McKinsey Alumni In the News: Elsie Maio

"Elsie Maio, expert on organizational trust...counsels decision-makers how to thrive commercially while addressing the critical social needs of the communities they serve."

 February 2014

+ PDF

 

TRUST, Inc.       

 Strategies for Building Your Company's Most Valuable Asset

Edited by Barbara Brooks Kimmel, 2014; Global Experts Define Organizational Trust, pp 254-255

"If you run an organization, or seek to influence one, it's useful to think of trust and its payoffs on a continuum. At one end are the since qua non,  the Mechanics.  You speak honestly, you do what you say, consistently, predictably.  You get permission to engage.

Further along, you are trusted for the Substance of who you are as an indicator of your intention.  Each party experiences deep value, mutual benefit and possibly sustained relationship.  

Today, the trust premium goes to businesses whose Substance reeks of their sense of humanity – and who act in congruence with it." - Elsie Maio

+ PDF

McKinsey Alumni In the News: Elsie Maio

"Elsie Maio (NYO 80-83), founder of Humanity, Inc and The SoulBrandingSM Institute, recently guest-hosted a 50-minute panel discussion, "Trust Across America," which focused on the 'trust gap' between business and the public."

 September 2013

+ PDF 

Myanmar and Me: In conversation with Joseph Stiglitz

Will Myanmar repeat the mistakes of global capitalism, or can it chart an approach better balanced with human and environmental needs?

CSRWire guest blog by Elsie Maio

November 21, 2012

 

The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communications

Edited by Clarke L. Caywood. Elsie Maio quoted by Kevin Clark, President and Founder, Content Evolution LLC and Director, Emeritus, Brand and Values Experience, IBM Corporation

"Elsie Maio, founder of [Humanity, Inc formerly Maio&Co], even sees the fabric of corporate social responsibility (CSR) dissolving into the way business is done. No longer a separate activity performed by a specialized staff, "doing well and doing good" become one continuum of seamless performance. Doing good is not the residue of having done well in the past for a limited set of constituents, and doing well is turbocharged and creates resilience when informed by a broad view of mission and service. The tectonic plates of commerce and governance are shifting in directions that point to an integrated view of all operating environments."

February 2012

 

 

Rethinking Legacy: SoulBrandingSM 
Interview with Gary MacDougal 

Uber-capitalist Gary MacDougal gets measurable results for thousands of people who have a hard time making it in society. Listen to him tell Elsie how he's put business know-how in direct service of his human heart...

May 5, 2011

+ Watch a short clip
+ Watch the full interview

The 2010 Conversation that Anticipated Occupy Wall Street 

Authentic Business Begins Hear: Elsie interviewed by Neil Crofts and Paul Barthmaier

“What we're seeing now are the tectonic plates of our global society shifting. Those are plates of economic systems, political systems and environmental systems. Although it can be frightening, the good news is that there are openings under those plates; when they move, they create openings. The place to start dealing with this new reality is connecting to the authentic self in us that is Humanity, that sees itself as part of a web of life. Some people would call that Love.” - Elsie Maio

November 29, 2010

+ Listen to clip: Authentic Values are Possible
+ Listen to clip: How Corporations Can Drive Social Change
+ Listen to clip: Best of the Interview
+ Listen to the full interview

Redeeming BP?
An Rx for BP’s recovery from the spill: steps toward social business, not a celebrity stint in rehab.

Elsie is interviewed in the largest media market in the US, led by the witty, award winning journalist David Brancaccio.

November 3, 2010

+ Listen to the interview

 

Motivation Matters: The Relationship Between Corporate Motives and Trustworthiness

The Ethics Institute, University of Utrecht, NL

Morgan Hamel interviews Elsie Maio                                                          

"As de facto transparency rules our world more and more, authenticity becomes the currency of all interactions that require trust. And so, the true motives of an institution will show; and the more authentically motivated an organization is to enhance the well-being of society through ethical and socially responsible activities, the more trusted and I believe preferred it will be by all stakeholders."

June 2010, p. 30

+ Download the dissertation

 

 

SoulBrandingSM for Small Business: Live the L Word!

At the Dakin Business Group seminar, Elsie spoke with her neighbors about how their deep caring for customers was their natural source of innovation and advantage in the tough economic microclimate of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

May 18, 2010

+ Watch video clip: Employees Love Love in the Era of Humanism

+ Download Summary

iPad's Widely Mocked Name Won't Stifle Sales

Branding experts say jokes that the iPad sounds like a feminine hygiene product won't keep women or men from buying the Apple tablet.

Elsie Maio, president of branding agency Humanity, Inc (formerly Maio & Co.) in New York, calls the puns "sad." She says they never occurred to her nor to female colleagues...

March 28, 2010

+ PDF

McKinsey Alumna in the News

"Elsie Maio (NYO 80-83), president of branding consultancy Maio & Company, is featured in a recent article in the European Bahá'í Business Forum. In the article, 'Elsie Maio: Values Visionary Sparking Integral Change in CEOs and Self,' Maio talks about what it means for a company to align its identity and strategy with human values, and why her research shows that companies who follow that model outperform those who don't."

+ PDF

INSPIRE Magazine profile: Elsie Maio                                       
"Values Visionary Sparking Integral Change in CEOs and Self"

In this first installment of an extensive, intimate interview, branding expert and business strategy advisor Elsie Maio talks about what it means for a company to put the well-being of humanity at the center of its identity and strategy, and why those that are doing so are finding great success, joy and fulfillment. 

March 2010

+ PDF

Living Juicy!
Elsie Maio's SoulBrandingSM

Live broadcast interview by Rhea Goodman draws out examples of Maio's pioneering push toward Humanity, Inc.SM: in building cross-sector collaboration in Bermuda, transforming an Emmy award-winner into a social-impact enterprise, and empowering executives to resuscitate their 'feminine' brains for corporate innovation.

February 8, 2010

+ Listen to the interview

Beyond CSR – Change the DNA of Business

Elsie’s keynote speech at Athen’s Corporate Achievement Awards as reported by EBBF cites the Global Digital Demos as a self-organizing force driving the 'humanization' of business, with cases.

June 2007

EBBF's comments were in response to the script of our speech summarized here.

McKinsey Alumna in the News on "Feminine Business"

Alumna Elsie Maio interviewed on the trend toward 'feminine business;' and on the timely advantages of using social values as criteria for today's critical business decisions.

July 2009 

Religion in the Office

DIVERSITY EXECUTIVE Magazine

Elsie Maio details the immediate value of human values in today's roiling economy, with current examples, including Continental Airlines, and Jumpstart which produces the PBS weekly news show NOW with David Brancaccio.

June 2009, p.18

+ Go to e-version of the article "Religion in the Office"

The Evolution of the Feminine Brand

PERSONAL BRANDING Magazine

Elsie reveals the new trend toward the 'feminization, not the womanization, of business today,' in this interview by pan-media journalist and work-life expert Judy Martin.

May 2009, p. 23

+ PDF

The Evisceration of Elliot Spitzer's Ethos: A Lesson

by Judy Martin
March 12, 2008

+ Read about it here

The True Soul of Business with Elsie Maio

Podcast interview by Jeffrey Milburn, Omniart Salon
January 6, 2008

+ Listen to the interview

SoulBranding^SM in the C-Suite
8 Guidelines for Values Branding

Zyman Institute for Brand Science, Goizueta Business School, Emory University

The Future of the Santa Fe Economy: A Model of 3rd Sector Collaboration to Weather the Economic Storm

Economic Forum Santa Fe                                                                 

Elsie discusses how "The City Different" could rally its renowned scientific- , entrepreneurial- , and cultural capital with the 3rd Sector to hone its place in the sun for the long term.

November 2008

Brandism: Impact of brand on the real estate market

AIA, Panel series moderated by Anna Klingmann
June 27, 2007 - NYC, USA  

SoulBranding^SMin the C-Suite

Annual Workbook of International Chamber of Commerce
2006 

Elsie Maio and SoulBrandingSM cited at LOHAS 10   

Patricia Auburdene, Keynote at LOHAS 10 Conference
April 2006 - USA

In her Keynote speech at the LOHAS Conference, Patricia Aburdene, best-selling futurist and author of Megatrends 2010, urges her audience to learn about "brand guru Elsie Maio's" practical steps to integrating the social values people care about with their companies' high-performance goals.

 

Authentic Business
2005 - ES and UK

"In Elsie Maio’s view, 'brand' permeates all aspects of the corporation and therefore the values of the brand can serve as an effective touchstone for all corporate behaviours: in the Boardroom, in financial markets, in negotiations with employees, in customer interactions, in dialogue with other stakeholders. Moreover most corporations already have 'plumbing' in place (the organizational substructures and processes to manage their brand), that can serve as effective conduits for nurturing values-driven behaviours and measuring them." 

- Neil Crofts, author of the book Authentic Business

 

Experts expect branding to suffer:
Company faulted for moving slowly away from namesake

Boston Herald
2004 - USA

What happens to the Martha Stewart brand if the domestic stylesetter winds up crafting curtains behind bars? Can the company survive, now that its namesake is no longer at the helm? Elsie Maio weighs in.

Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism

Patricia Aburdene, Pg 110-113
2004

More than a name, logo or "iconic" CEO, a brand is a place in the heart where employees, investors, suppliers--and Conscious Consumers--meet to tell a company's story, says brand guru Elsie Maio: "When brand reveals authenticity, values and humanity's drive towards consciousness, it's a powerful strategic advantage."

 Best selling futurist Aburdene interviews Elsie Maio on the leverage available to management in self-auditing the corporation's values -- and on other bottom line outputs of the SoulBranding^SMsystem.

+ Read what Patricia says about SoulBrandingSM

A Branded World:
Adventures in Public Relations and the Creation of Superbrands

Michael Levine, Pg 106-110, 166
2003

In his book, A Branded World, the author Michael Levine interviews Elsie Maio, the pioneer in strategic corporate branding, for a peek at coming trends. Maio believes that companies that authentically appeal to “the soul” will eventually be the rule, rather than today’s exception, as the public increasingly demands moral and community responsibility from the brands it patronizes.

Managing the Brand in the New Stakeholder Environment

Journal of Business Ethics
2003 - NL

Our definitive piece on the radical challenge to the practice of branding at the dawn of a new era of participative markets. Published in 2003, it anticipated the subsequent trends in Corporate Social Responsibility, 'Sustainability', Citizenship, and Ethics - and goes beyond to predict the essential alignment with blended values that will drive corporate credibility, innovation and the well being of the planet.

 

Seven Tribal Laws:
The need to orchestrate values

President and CEO Magazine
2003

The filmmaker Vern Oakley cites "branding guru, Elsie Maio" in describing the challenge that authenticity poses to today's CEO. She says, "It's like dancing the tango while leading the orchestra!"

 

Walking the Talk:
Authenticity at the heart of performance

Ethical Management Magazine
2003 - UK

Journalist David Liss interviews Maio in this article on best practices in ethical communication. Elsie emphasizes the essential connection between corporate authenticity and full-blown values audits.

 

Radar

a publication of SustainAbility Ltd

Elsie Maio In Response

2003 - London, UK

SustainAbility Ltd invited us to comment on their branding edition of Radar. We think the US has a lot to learn from certain progressive guidelines adopted 'across the Pond'. But at the same time, business in the US has a chance to jump the learning curve by embodying authentic social values, not simply adopting a set of de rigour 'sustainable behaviours,' or CSR initiatives only loosely connected to the core of the business.

Capturing the Economic Value of Values

Design Management Institute Newsletter
2003

In the late 1990s, we first warned that wrenching social and economic trends would drive a new wave of corporate accountability. Today, the wise CEO addresses these and captures greater economic value by building practices around a set of values that blend high performance and social well being.

SoulBranding^SM: An interview with Elsie Maio

GAIN, Magazine of the AIGA 
2003 

In this prescient interview by David Womack, Elsie Maio hurls a broadside at the Sustainability movement! She demonstrates how ‘CSR,’ ‘Sustainability,’ ‘Corporate Citizenship’ are a collection of commonly agreed behaviors. But they are not coherent, essential drivers of corporate decisions. The only reliable driver of an authentically socially responsible corporation is an honored set of social values that live through all its decisions. The SoulBrandingSM system is both a barometer of such authenticity, and a beacon for where it can lead.

SoulBranding^SM

GreenMoney Journal
2002 - USA

Socially responsible investors are committed to 'put their money where there values are'. Shining a light through the dynamics of corporate branding, Elsie Maio outlines an innovative framework to reveal the authenticity behind the Brand. By the same token, values-driven brand managers use this SoulBranding^SM roadmap to tighten the alignment of company behaviors with company values. She cites cases of The Body Shop, Novo Nordisk, among other leaders on this new path.

The 3 TenorRS: 
Yali, Clarkson & Drucker Changing the Definition of Total Return to Shareholders

Ethics Centre Canada, University of Toronto
Prof. David Beatty
2001 - CAN

"Drucker + Maio = long term sustainable, strategic differentiation."
In this article, Professor of Strategy David Beatty pairs Elsie Maio with Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. Both argue for a more comprehensive humanistic value system at the core of a company's strategy. 

  

SoulBranding^SM

Management Consultant Magazine
2001 - NL

A leading European business journalist, Reint Gaastra, interviews Elsie Maio about "her visionary concept of SoulBranding^SM" - a framework for integrating society's higher values into the corporate persona - and the relationship of business with the growing group of influentials who are actively striving to balance material rewards with socio-spiritual fulfilment.

Applied Brilliance Special Report

Architecture Magazine
2000 - USA

Deepak Chopra, Elsie Maio, the innovation expert Trevor Davis, the futurist Jim Taylor and several other "brilliant" thought leaders shared a panel on emerging paradigms, in a conference held at the brink of the Millennium. The sponsor, Architecture magazine, reports on Ms Maio's contribution.

The Next Wave: SoulBranding^SM

Design Management Institute
1999

Elsie Maio, Founder/President, Maio and Company, Inc.

This article urges CEOs to anticipate global society's emerging appetite for 'meaning' , and to authentically re-align corporate decisions with the innovative, 'soulful values' that motivate all their stakeholders. Its origin was Elsie's Keynote Address to the 10th Annual Corporate Identity Conference of the Design Management Institute, in Montreal, way back in 1998. 

 
Humanity, Inc is the successor company to Maio and Company Inc. © 1997-2019 Humanity, Inc  SoulBrand^SM, SoulBranding^SM, Being the Brand^SM are service marks of Humanity, Inc 1997-2019.