Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Hello dear listener, welcome to the futures is podcast I’m your host Cyprien and in this show, I explore groundbreaking solutions to our world’s unique problems by connecting seemingly unrelated fields such as technology, ecology, community and spirituality. The speaker for this episode is Paul done. Paul is an incredible man. He’s a massive public speaker, or unknown businessmen and one of the legends that has been changing the world of business for the last decade. This episode is about his company called B1G1, a company that has already enabled more than 3000 businesses to create over 150 million giving impacts around the world.Hello, Paul, long time to see you’ve been in Kenya.Paul Dunn
I’ve been in Kenya Yes. And it’s what about five weeks or so that we last met in Bali of all places? And here I am now in Singapore. So yeah, good to see you, literally.Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And I’m in South of France.Paul Dunn
And you know what, as we as we begin our chat, I mean, it just is probably appropriate. just pause for a minute. Don’t press the pause button. I don’t mean that I mean, If you are listening to us what I mean What I mean is just just just take a listen to what we said, you know, Cyp is there I’m here, you’re where you are. And through the miracle of technology, as a case in point,Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Dunn, didn’t have time to introduce you, we have a story already?

Paul Dunn
I’m up for being introduced. That’s okay.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, Paul, you’re a four-time TEDx speaker. You’re a senior fellow in one of the world’s leading think tanks and you consult and mentor leading edge businesses around the world and you were honored as a social innovation fellow in Singapore, same as Jet Li, the great Jet Li who’s a philanthropic person. Your training programs are being used by 250,000 companies around the world. And you’ve been featured in Forbes, alongside Mr. Sir Richard Branson, in your piece on disruptors in business and yours and I wanted to interview today is relating to one particular project you built which is called B1G1, buy one give one. Paul, could you tell our listeners what B1G1 is.

Paul Dunn
Well B1G1 started like, like so many things with this this one simple little idea. And the simple idea was from someone I was mentoring, a lady called Masami Sato. And at the time she was a Japanese chef, actually, she had a tiny little company in Australia as it happened, in 2006-2007, doing gluten free frozen food, and she was way ahead of her time because she was trying to deliver gluten free frozen food. Now, of course, delivery is part and parcel of being alive almost isn’t it. So anyway, here we are in this mentoring session. And as you would realize, whenever you are in a mentoring session, it’s usually you the mentor that is asking the questions, but in this particular one, she said, she said, Can I ask you a question today for change? I said, Sure. And she said, Well, I’ve been in some deep thought this past 24 hours and you could see that you know, just from the look on her face, and and she said, I’d love you to imagine that she said, how would it be? If just imagine this world if every time business was done something great happened in our world? And I said, Yeah, I kind of get that. But But But what? Give me an example. She said, Well, I’ve, I’ve been thinking about this thing for 24 hours, and I’ve called it buy one, give one and so I said well how this works. She said, Well, and our listeners in Australia would know this particular store. She said, for those of you not in Australia, some electrical store. So she said, Well, imagine you go to Harvey Norman, and you buy a plasma TV. And I said, well hang on a second. It’s called buy one, give one. She said yes. as well. As me if I go and buy a plasma TV, then I’m going to give me another one. She said you don’t understand, there’s no way you understand. And and she said, because if you go by that plasma TV on account of how you want better vision, so how would it be when you buy that plasma TV? If someone who cannot see gets the gift of sight? My goodness, and she could feel that sort of suck of air, right? And then then she said, or, and I was drinking a cup of coffee at the time, and she said, or, you know, when you buy a cup of coffee, imagine every time you did that, a child in need got access to pure life saving water. Or how about if someone someone bought your book, and one of your books and a tree got planted? And then at that point, I kind of got it right. And I said, Masami can I be your mentor for the rest of your life? And eventually, she said yes to that. So that started me on this, you know, amazing journey and I mean, that sounds kind of you know, I think most most people listening to us now would go wow, that’s a cool idea. And you’re right, it is a cool idea. But making it happen is not so easy, right? And it took us three years to do that, to figure it out. And, and I mean, obviously, we’re still continuing to figure it out as it grows. And talking of growth as you and I are speaking today. And it’s interesting because as you know, I talk about the the power of small. And so this is this tiny little idea, just it’s amazing how tiny little ideas produce amazing impact. So as you and I are speaking today, we’re at 193,547,223, to be precise, giving impacts in world and so every business and there are now 3000 or more of those businesses that are B1G1 now, around …

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
3000?

Paul Dunn
Yeah, because it’s Yeah, it’s a movement. So there are 3000 odd. And it’s growing. It’s like hockey stick growth. And so every single one of those businesses, it could be coach, it could be any business. It could be an accounting firm, it could be, you know, Judge, it could be a dentist, it could be a doctor, it could be whatever, right? And every single one of those businesses is able to say, every time you do business with us, something great happens in our world. And they can choose what that something great is because big one now has, what is it 527 seriously high impact projects around the world. You can give from just one sense amazingly one cent makes a difference amazingly to 100% of your giving goes where you want to go. We make that all happen. We track the giving. And of course, it’s all right, say, of course, but maybe not, of course, but it’s all underpinned by the Sustainable Development Goals or the global goals that yes, you know, Sir Richard Branson, as you mentioned, and others announced to the world on the 23rd of September 2015. So, yeah, which which

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
How does it work that the projects in B1G1 are underpinned by the sustainable development goals?

Paul Dunn
How do we do that? Well, because… Remember I mentioned the 527 or whatever it is of the projects that are there? The board would B1G1 Depending on the month rejects somewhere like nine out of every ten of the projects that want to be a part of B1G1. And so there’s this process. So for those of you listening to us in North America process, which is, you know, there’s criteria that we have that these projects have got to, got to meet.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Just little precision. Paul is not talking about the companies who want to join B1G1 but the project being funded by B1G1.

Paul Dunn
That’s exactly correct. Thank you for that precision, as you said, yeah. And so we obviously check for their sustainability if you like. And so I Hopefully it gives people confidence that, you know, this is right, but talking of confidence and trust, which is really, really important. And, and we may come back to that a little while as we talk about this whole business for good movement, if you want to say, but one of the things that’s really interesting, Cyp, is that when when we started this, we thought it was about giving. That’s what that’s what we thought, you know, we thought and by the way, it is I mean, it’s just a very, very, very smart way. Very smart way to give because no longer do you have to say, you know, XYZ company proudly supports, you know, some particular charity out there no longer do you have to figure out, is that actually going to work? Is it safe? Is it all of those kind of things, no longer is it about the amount of money that you give, because what we do is we just measure the impacts that you’re creating. So it’s very different and it’s very smart because it’s linking activities in your business to things. So for example, you and I have been exchanging emails in this past couple of days, right? And you know that every time I send you an email, a child gets access to education, right? Because that’s right on the bottom of my email, right. And that’s what I do as a B1G1 member, almost right. So it’s really, really good. But here’s, here’s the interesting thing. And we only realize this, by the way, about three years ago. So we use to say it’s all about the giving and you know, it’s really cool. It was really cool. But then we started to ask questions of the people who were using B1G1 and there were a couple of things going on. The first thing was that people were saying, this is a movement that we’re using that word right. And then the second thing that they were saying is when they were talking to other people, about why they should be in be watching What sort of thing? They would say, by the way, this transformed our business. Now, just think about that for a minute. Because that’s, and that’s huge that a business owner would say this, whatever they say is I, this transformed our business such huge. And so we were taken back by that. Seriously, we didn’t expect that we knew great things were happening, but we didn’t think people would express it that way. And, and then we said, Well, what do you mean? It transform your business? Why? What happened? And here’s what they said, what they said, and they continue to say is this. It shifts the spirit of our business. And that is so profound, so profoundly important, and so important to get

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That was my next point, actually. Is B1G1 more than just a system that makes philanthropy easier? You just answered that, it actually goes further and it transforms the world of business.

Paul Dunn
Yeah, it does. And, and, and in in so many ways and say, just go with that shift the spirit thing, just just for a minute. Right. And I think that that phrase shift the spirit is is kind of an interesting phrase, because what it talks about is, is … see… I think that building a business so for that matter of building anything, but let’s talk about building a business is all about connection. Its connection. It’s not about marketing and advertising and selling. It’s about connection.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Coming from a marketing guy!

Paul Dunn
Yeah, well, you got it right. But see, and then people say, oh, exactly, there. Well, you’re a marketing guy, you know. So you’re talking about your market. and connecting with the customer. Yes, yes, but before that can happen, and here’s the point. Before that can happen, you’ve got to be doing something that connects to yourself. And it’s that connection to yourself. There is that shifting of the spirits. So what happens just because you’re doing all of this and B1G1 and you’ve now got a greater sense of meaning, you’ve got a greater sense of purpose. You’re seeing it happen every day in front of your eyes. You’re feeling fantastic about what’s happening. Not because necessarily Oh, look at the revenue I mean, we have people in B1G1, meaning B1G1 members, who don’t even have revenue goals. That’s amazing. So if they don’t have revenue goals, what do they have? They have given goals seriously, and when it is, and so imagine you’re working in one of these, one of these companies, right, that has the given goals. Get what the question is, you don’t say, Well, how much money did we make today? That’s not the question you ask. You say, what was the giving like today? You get there is just a different, different at the end of the day. That’s right. And you know, and I think, you know, just just before you and I press the record button, right, you you were talking to me about a movie, right? You were telling me about the 2014. Movie. And, and but let’s go back a little bit in time. So because I think this whole thing that allows B1G1 to exist, is is what’s happening in our world. And what’s happening in our world is if you go back to 2008 and if you watch The Wolf of Wall Street, you know you barely can watch it. Can you I mean is like, like, really Oh my god, people with people were doing that. Yes, people were doing that right. And and, and it was like the end of an era right because that whole era up to that was all about literally greed is good. I mean that’s what people are saying greed is good, great, it’s good right? It’s all about the money money money. And so go look so if you think that’s what it’s all about, go watch the movie. Because everything tumbles down right it does right and so that was when we probably could track it back a little bit before that, but that’s when I think there’s this kind of movement if you will, towards meaning and purpose really started to happen because up to that point, you know it well at that point, people today let’s just look at today, right? If we think about Australia as a for example, if we look at today, we there’s never been anything like it. We know the latest figures I have, they might have changed a little bit. Say that every hour of every day 64 new businesses are being created in Australia. Right? That’s a lot. Okay. Now, another friend of mine who actually registers businesses says it’s actually more than that. Right? So, anyway, let’s imagine it’s 64 for the sake of discussion. Now, why is that happening? Why is it never been at that level? Well, there’s all sorts of reasons. But I think that one of them is that people and this is not sort of like an anti corporate thing. Some of them are working in corporations and you know, in Australia, we’ve had, you’ve had in Australia, all these things like the Royal Commission and the banking and all of those sorts of things, right, just recently, so you have people who are working very hard, who are being paid very well and appropriately so hopefully. And I’m what’s happening, what’s missing and all of that, well, what’s missing is when they get home at night, and hopefully, you know, people listening to us right now. Normally someone like this, they get home at night, they put their head on the pillow. And just before they go to sleep, which sometimes it’s difficult for them, just before they go to sleep, I say, is that awareness? Seriously? Is that all there is? And the answer is, it’s not all there is. There’s meaning there’s there’s purpose and and so what we’re now seeing, and you’re a good example of that, what we’re saying is people who want to start new enterprises, and it’s never been easier to do that. Never in a tight life is a bit easier to do that. But to start new enterprises that have meaning and purpose, literally front and center, so that’s why Yeah, that’s why that’s all happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
You think you want you on exists, and is flourishing because the world has changed? like it would not have been possible 30 years ago.

Paul Dunn
I think not. Yeah. It wouldn’t be people’s I worry about, you know, why would you want to do that? Right. All right. And, you know, I mean, we’re seeing amazing things, you know, happen in the world we’re seeing on on Wall Street, you know, we’re seeing corporations now. Literally. It’s called what’s it called the Business Council, I think, which is like 195 of the top, top, top, top, top, top top, as in, you know, revenue wise companies in the world. And they had this credo this this, you know, thing that bound them together, and they rewrote it. they rewrote it about about two months ago, you could never have imagined that they would rewrite it. Because when it was originally written, it was all about the shareholders. It was all about the shareholders rights to do this. Guess what is now about, it’s about the employees, right? And it’s about purpose, and it’s about meaning and so This is happening. Yeah, it’s so good. I’m happy that, you know, B1G1 is playing a part in that.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That’s awesome. Good. Good. more good news about the corporate world changing. I love this stuff.

Paul Dunn
Well, this is so much good stuff. You know, that it depends what you what you listen to, as to say, here’s here’s a thought. I remember saying this, I think to you when we when we last met, right, so, a friend of mine, Dan preflight, who runs dent, or the keepers of influence program as well Dan sent me a fair while ago he said, you know, Paul, you got to figure out that your environment dictates your performance right? I I get what he’s meaning is meaning that if I go and work at Google for a week, I’m probably going to be a little more creative than, you know, some other place, right? Some accountants office, right? But Seth Godin put it rather nicely he’s he said that narrative dictates your performance as well. That is the same one it what is it that we’re listening to? is also decoding it. And, and there is such good news out there. I mean, I think B1G1 is a good news story. I think people I was reading yesterday about Paul Polman, who’s a friend of B1G1. He is used to be the CEO of Unilever. We all know Unilever you know, Dove soap and all that kind of stuff is a huge company. And and Paul Paul man is is regarded as one of the most he lifts Unilever in January this year. Well, actually, he announced that he was going to leave in January, but it was a little later than that. And so here’s this billion dollar company. And in the time and he completely changed change the value chain completely changed the Bye bye working on purpose and what was the result? Something like an increase of 300% in shareholder returns? And so, so yeah. And now pohlman Paul is now he was at the United Nations be greater the other day. And with President macro in in France actually at the at the g7. And and he’s the g7. He is what he did. He he got together at the g7. He got together the top, I mean, like the top fashion brands in the world, together with the president john McEnroe. And the reason he got them together at the g7 was to have them commit to we need to change what we do. And they did, by the way, right? So we need to change the word practices. We need to we need to change the use of water. We need to judge all of those things. Right. So that’s happening at that level, Paul himself fulfilment, now is the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce. And so you know, a lot of stuff going there. He’s now formed a high level company called imagine funnily enough imagine. And, and the console. His concept on this one is really cool. And one of the things he talks about is what it needs is a brave CEOs. I love that concept. Brave See, and then, you know, find you, you you build that infrastructure around it, but it takes a brave CEO to get out there and do it. And the point I think of to answer your question, there are more brave CEOs out there now than they ever have been. And and by the way, part of the reason time, the reason for that is that it is also market driven. I mean, if, if, if you look at every study that’s been done in the last 10 years on what is it that consumers want, right, and if You believe this that is right if this is you believe them. But the latest study, and there’s another Gallup one that confirms this says this it says 84% of customers of consumers specifically consumers want to deal with a company that is socially responsible. That’s what the numbers say. Interesting enough, when you when you look at it, so that’s the consumer end of it. What about team member end of it? Well, when you look at what the team members were, the team members want to work. They know if a if A and I don’t like using words like millennials and everything else, but the study said 78% of millennials want to work with a company that is meaningful and purposeful, which explains why last year get this last year, Unilever had 1 million job applications. So what what process multiprocessor so yeah, we are in a we are in Very exciting time. Certainly, there are glitches in our world and we don’t really know where to look for those. But, you know, the the there’s some great things happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
There’s a lot happening in everything investment, philanthropy, political structure. And… yes?

Paul Dunn
Well talking about talking of talking of investment, right, someone said to me, in Christchurch about 18 months ago, this was an investment banker. And he said, Paul, are you aware of what’s happening in investment banking? And I said, Sorry, is impact investing. And I said, Yeah, man, I know what impact investing is. And he said, Yes, he said in Australia in the last two and a half years, we’ve seen a 715% increase in impact investing. And yesterday yesterday, saw the issue in Europe of the first day. StG sdj, meaning Sustainable Development Goals. The first sgg is the G linked bond in the European market. Let me just read what it says here. The it’s called the SDG link bond and innovative corporate financial instrument that I contribute to the achievement of God. Listen to this, the 2.5 billion bond released by the energy company aerelon. Thursday was a good bed was almost four times oversubscribed, signaling a strong demand for StG related investment opportunity opportunities. And it follows that isn’t it amazing? And they just issued a bond in in the US which was one and a half billion. Again, we could not have imagined a world where that would that would be happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
You just mentioned impact investment and I wanted to place in this interview the definition of impact entrepreneurship and I haven’t had the opportunity to do that. So this is what it says on virgin’s website, Virgin by Richard Branson. “We define impact enterprises as companies that have the objective to create maximum positive impact for the customers, employees, business partners and the public at large, as well as environment for an impact enterprise profit turnover and growth serve as a means to get sufficient capital from investors to sustain the positive impact generation of the company. They are subordinate to creating maximum positive impact.”

Paul Dunn
Read that last line again, the last line that you just read,

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
They are subordinate to creating your maximum positive impact. There it is right there.

Paul Dunn
That’s it. And and and see what you were just reading and is like the inverse literal inverse of what it was. In 2008, which was, essentially, who cares about the impact? Let’s just make as much money as we can, right? And look where that got us. So that definition is a fabulous definition.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah. Straight to report. And now we see so many training structures for impact entrepreneurship. And it’s getting two companies. It’s related to sustainable development goals is practice investors. In this co working spaces all over the world, we’re encouraging, working at hackathons.

Paul Dunn
My son was in my son was in a hackathon recently where you had to do something in this hackathon. That was really cool in relation to the SDG. So the SDGs were underpinning the hackaton.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, I’ve done some of that in the Dojo in Bali. Have you visited Dojo? great corking space.

Paul Dunn
Oh, no, I know of it. But I haven’t I haven’t visited but I know of it. Yeah.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And how much of the world’s business do you think is currently being divested to impact entrepreneurship?

Paul Dunn
Sure someone knows the answer to that. And I certainly don’t. But what what what is the answer that I’ve got, which is 100% of the people that I talked to are doing it. Right. Right. But then again, that’s that’s a very biased, a very biased view. And, and what we’re seeing is united so much, I mean, who could have thought that we’d be talking about a thing called impact investing who could afford that we now be seeing consultants is like poor performance. You know, the one imagine starting up, which is talking about a brave CEO, who could have imagined that who could have imagined I mean, you can now seriously in Australia, I know you can do this because I know someone who’s done it. You can actually Go on Amazon authority on Google and you can say SDG consultants and you can find, you know, hundreds of people who are presumably consulting the government’s and everything, by the way, for all the SDG consultants over there might be listening to us just slightly your client joined B1G1, it’s a really cool … that’s the answer to the question, right?

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
So this brings me to my last question, I guess, which is more … it’s a deeper question more philosophical. Yeah, so I’m gonna speak of it more here is a question about money and capitalism. And capitalism is being increasingly criticized these days. And some people say it has even started to fall. And so in an article found called pros and cons of cap chat elitism in the intelligent economists calm says these are The cons of capitalism. Marginalization. So in a highly competitive, capitalist economy, there will be no place for elderly, children, disabled. There will be no incentive to do that. Externalities, capitalism ignores negative externalities such as pollution and damage your health and monopoly and inequality. So in 2016, in USA, the top 1% of Americans pocketed 85% of total income. And it seems to me that what you’re trying to do with B1G1 is to transform the system capitalism and diverted when you say business for good. And I know from my recent years that I’ve seen in people get into impact intrapreneurship I see both people who have always embraced capitalism and just want to transform a bit that practices to do something good in the world, and people who hate it, people will dislike capitalism and see in impact entrepreneurship a way of getting a bit of reconciliation and to tolerate the system as it is.

Paul Dunn
Absolutely correct. I absolutely can understand that. Good on them too.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
I wanted to know, because you were talking about how the whole world of business was changing just before, I want to know how much you think the actual structures of the system are a hindrance to that change? what you actually think about the system? turning to become “good”?

Paul Dunn
Well, let me talk about two things that I’m very familiar with, which happened in Singapore. Okay, so his first thing we let me do this, sir. chronologically, okay. So chronologically, big word for this time of day, so time sequence going back six years, we eat many B1G1 at the time, we’re in a place called the National we run the research area of the interview, which is the sort of tech focused University here in here in Singapore. And there were students there who, who did all sorts of research and one day, you know, I get this note this load from the student body. That said, we want to interview you because we’re doing this survey on behalf of the governor. Sorry. Okay, so we remember very clearly, we sat down this table, and I’m having a cup of coffee and and that’s twice I’d say coffee. I must get one after this, I think. But as long as it’s the right sort of coffee, because there’s all sorts of things by the way going on with coffee that Gosh, anyway, so and chocolate as well. I’m terrible stuff. So this guy says, look, the government in Singapore which by the way, is a very benevolent government, he didn’t say that that’s me saying that. If we’re doing a survey on social business, this is the phrase that Muhammad Yunus use to describe impact business. He’s called a social business right? You know, Muhammad Yunus he have Nobel Peace Prize, he have the first guy to do micro finance and all of that comes up right. So So they said, so here’s the question that the government has asked us to ask you which is do you think that the government should look at special incentives for social businesses? And I said, Well, actually no, which I must admit surprised the the entrepreneur the the the researcher, and he survived. Why Why would Why would you say that? Your business you said not to that question. And I said, well, it’s very simple. Because I think in 10 years, every business will be a social business. So that’s now that’s probably a bit of a stretch. That’s only three years away. But, but that’s what I believe I seriously believe that we are so moving this way that it is going to become the norm. That’s, that’s, that’s my first chronological one. Let me update that to interact. Later this week on meeting with some of the people involved in this. Here in Singapore. We have a sovereign fund like all companies, our countries do, which is, you know, where all the taxes go, and then they invested. All of that kind of stuff in Singapore is called Temasek spotlight, Temasek and Temasek Now, every single you talk about impact investing, every single one of the investments that our government in Singapore makes now has to be in line with the SDGs has to be okay. That’s that’s the government is saying. So, once you get bad and then once you get the, you know, the amazing power of the SDGs or the Sustainable Development Goals to, to really, really, really do amazing things in the pool business if that’s the way of saying it to pull business in, in in in this way, then the world we have is going to be like a very, very, very different, different place. And in fact, if I can find it, let me see if I can find a pool. Paul Polman. Here we go. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Paul Paul. Man who I mentioned, you know, the former CEO of Unilever. And he was at the SDG. biz forum, the one eyed bridge presser was that in, in Geneva, sorry, in, in New York. And he said this, this is the former CEO of you know, I’ve been talking about where we’re at, and talking about the implementation of the global goals. Here’s what he said, pretty simple sentence. He said, this is probably the biggest business opportunity we have seen in the history of mankind. As we said, Now, when you get that and when you get that is the you know, the guy who’s the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, etc, etc, etc. Then, you know, you would you would come to my view, I think that this just is where the world is going and You know, I’m so thrilled reminds me a privilege that I can be a part of it too.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
It reminds me a something you told us in Bali actually. When Richard Branson spoke at the UN in 2015. That it was the first time, I think you said that, that the UN said, publicly, that it wasn’t governmental structures that changed the world, it was the business world.

Paul Dunn
They absolutely absolutely acknowledged it for the first time, right? Up until that time, you had things like you know, we all got excited, you may remember by the millennial goals are those kind of things and they, they were things that required governments to sign off on that was it. And Branson Branson stood up and said exactly what you just said. He said, The reason I’m here is because it’s the first time 23rd of September 2015 that the world body has acknowledged that it’s not listen again, that it’s not government. change our world, certainly they can enable it. Right. But it’s not governments that change our world, it’s businesses, business owners, their teams, people listening to this podcast.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Because I know a little bit my audience, I’m going to give a bit of precision there. It’s the business world that changes the world, primarily because it’s actually people’s passions, it’s what they want to do in the world. That’s why that’s what’s the main engine in the world. As governments only do management.

Paul Dunn
That’s right, exactly. And I forget who it was said this. But it’s probably Seth Godin, actually, but I have a feeling it wasn’t set. But anyway, it’s a kind of thing that Seth would say. And he said, You know, this is this is the this is not about marketing, he said It’s not about advertising. He said, go out and find a big enough problem and then start to fix it. And the world will be the path to your door. Very simple.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That’s awesome. I think that’s a good last word for our interview.

Paul Dunn
Listen, thanks for having me here.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, thank you so much for accepting to do this interview. Really like your point of view. And everyone listening to this, can open your computer, go through browser, type B1G1.com, you’ll be directly redirected to B1G1.com/businessforgood you won’t have a choice. And check out all the amazing projects that we want you on our funding at the moment how you can be part of this. It’s Yeah, the best thing you can do with your company at the moment.

Paul Dunn
But that’s nice of you to say but I also think it’s true Hey, thank you for being here. Thank you for asking such great questions and and also give you know, most times when when people interview you, they they sometimes I don’t ask the greatest of questions you use, right. But what I found was really interesting, by the way, is that you also had a view, you know, you also were able to talk about some of the research that you’ve done that you know, talks about capitalism, all those sorts of things. So, hopefully that made it a really great experience for the people listening and it certainly made it a great experience for me, so I’m absolutely thrilled to be here.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Thank you so much Paul.

Paul Dunn
Absolute privilege

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And have a good evening in Singapore.

Paul Dunn
Catch you soon

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Future Seeds podcast is a project that is supported by its community of listeners. If you liked the show and what it stands for, I invite you to head to www.futureseeds.news where you can support the show for just $2 a month, be part of the Future Seeds community, connect with its amazing members and speakers and enable this podcast to thrive. I thank you for your time and hope you enjoy the show and its exploration of alternative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Hello dear listener, welcome to the futures is podcast I’m your host Cyprien and in this show, I explore groundbreaking solutions to our world’s unique problems by connecting seemingly unrelated fields such as technology, ecology, community and spirituality. The speaker for this episode is Paul done. Paul is an incredible man. He’s a massive public speaker, or unknown businessmen and one of the legends that has been changing the world of business for the last decade. This episode is about his company called B1G1, a company that has already enabled more than 3000 businesses to create over 150 million giving impacts around the world.Hello, Paul, long time to see you’ve been in Kenya.Paul Dunn
I’ve been in Kenya Yes. And it’s what about five weeks or so that we last met in Bali of all places? And here I am now in Singapore. So yeah, good to see you, literally.Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And I’m in South of France.Paul Dunn
And you know what, as we as we begin our chat, I mean, it just is probably appropriate. just pause for a minute. Don’t press the pause button. I don’t mean that I mean, If you are listening to us what I mean What I mean is just just just take a listen to what we said, you know, Cyp is there I’m here, you’re where you are. And through the miracle of technology, as a case in point,Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Dunn, didn’t have time to introduce you, we have a story already?

Paul Dunn
I’m up for being introduced. That’s okay.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, Paul, you’re a four-time TEDx speaker. You’re a senior fellow in one of the world’s leading think tanks and you consult and mentor leading edge businesses around the world and you were honored as a social innovation fellow in Singapore, same as Jet Li, the great Jet Li who’s a philanthropic person. Your training programs are being used by 250,000 companies around the world. And you’ve been featured in Forbes, alongside Mr. Sir Richard Branson, in your piece on disruptors in business and yours and I wanted to interview today is relating to one particular project you built which is called B1G1, buy one give one. Paul, could you tell our listeners what B1G1 is.

Paul Dunn
Well B1G1 started like, like so many things with this this one simple little idea. And the simple idea was from someone I was mentoring, a lady called Masami Sato. And at the time she was a Japanese chef, actually, she had a tiny little company in Australia as it happened, in 2006-2007, doing gluten free frozen food, and she was way ahead of her time because she was trying to deliver gluten free frozen food. Now, of course, delivery is part and parcel of being alive almost isn’t it. So anyway, here we are in this mentoring session. And as you would realize, whenever you are in a mentoring session, it’s usually you the mentor that is asking the questions, but in this particular one, she said, she said, Can I ask you a question today for change? I said, Sure. And she said, Well, I’ve been in some deep thought this past 24 hours and you could see that you know, just from the look on her face, and and she said, I’d love you to imagine that she said, how would it be? If just imagine this world if every time business was done something great happened in our world? And I said, Yeah, I kind of get that. But But But what? Give me an example. She said, Well, I’ve, I’ve been thinking about this thing for 24 hours, and I’ve called it buy one, give one and so I said well how this works. She said, Well, and our listeners in Australia would know this particular store. She said, for those of you not in Australia, some electrical store. So she said, Well, imagine you go to Harvey Norman, and you buy a plasma TV. And I said, well hang on a second. It’s called buy one, give one. She said yes. as well. As me if I go and buy a plasma TV, then I’m going to give me another one. She said you don’t understand, there’s no way you understand. And and she said, because if you go by that plasma TV on account of how you want better vision, so how would it be when you buy that plasma TV? If someone who cannot see gets the gift of sight? My goodness, and she could feel that sort of suck of air, right? And then then she said, or, and I was drinking a cup of coffee at the time, and she said, or, you know, when you buy a cup of coffee, imagine every time you did that, a child in need got access to pure life saving water. Or how about if someone someone bought your book, and one of your books and a tree got planted? And then at that point, I kind of got it right. And I said, Masami can I be your mentor for the rest of your life? And eventually, she said yes to that. So that started me on this, you know, amazing journey and I mean, that sounds kind of you know, I think most most people listening to us now would go wow, that’s a cool idea. And you’re right, it is a cool idea. But making it happen is not so easy, right? And it took us three years to do that, to figure it out. And, and I mean, obviously, we’re still continuing to figure it out as it grows. And talking of growth as you and I are speaking today. And it’s interesting because as you know, I talk about the the power of small. And so this is this tiny little idea, just it’s amazing how tiny little ideas produce amazing impact. So as you and I are speaking today, we’re at 193,547,223, to be precise, giving impacts in world and so every business and there are now 3000 or more of those businesses that are B1G1 now, around …

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
3000?

Paul Dunn
Yeah, because it’s Yeah, it’s a movement. So there are 3000 odd. And it’s growing. It’s like hockey stick growth. And so every single one of those businesses, it could be coach, it could be any business. It could be an accounting firm, it could be, you know, Judge, it could be a dentist, it could be a doctor, it could be whatever, right? And every single one of those businesses is able to say, every time you do business with us, something great happens in our world. And they can choose what that something great is because big one now has, what is it 527 seriously high impact projects around the world. You can give from just one sense amazingly one cent makes a difference amazingly to 100% of your giving goes where you want to go. We make that all happen. We track the giving. And of course, it’s all right, say, of course, but maybe not, of course, but it’s all underpinned by the Sustainable Development Goals or the global goals that yes, you know, Sir Richard Branson, as you mentioned, and others announced to the world on the 23rd of September 2015. So, yeah, which which

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
How does it work that the projects in B1G1 are underpinned by the sustainable development goals?

Paul Dunn
How do we do that? Well, because… Remember I mentioned the 527 or whatever it is of the projects that are there? The board would B1G1 Depending on the month rejects somewhere like nine out of every ten of the projects that want to be a part of B1G1. And so there’s this process. So for those of you listening to us in North America process, which is, you know, there’s criteria that we have that these projects have got to, got to meet.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Just little precision. Paul is not talking about the companies who want to join B1G1 but the project being funded by B1G1.

Paul Dunn
That’s exactly correct. Thank you for that precision, as you said, yeah. And so we obviously check for their sustainability if you like. And so I Hopefully it gives people confidence that, you know, this is right, but talking of confidence and trust, which is really, really important. And, and we may come back to that a little while as we talk about this whole business for good movement, if you want to say, but one of the things that’s really interesting, Cyp, is that when when we started this, we thought it was about giving. That’s what that’s what we thought, you know, we thought and by the way, it is I mean, it’s just a very, very, very smart way. Very smart way to give because no longer do you have to say, you know, XYZ company proudly supports, you know, some particular charity out there no longer do you have to figure out, is that actually going to work? Is it safe? Is it all of those kind of things, no longer is it about the amount of money that you give, because what we do is we just measure the impacts that you’re creating. So it’s very different and it’s very smart because it’s linking activities in your business to things. So for example, you and I have been exchanging emails in this past couple of days, right? And you know that every time I send you an email, a child gets access to education, right? Because that’s right on the bottom of my email, right. And that’s what I do as a B1G1 member, almost right. So it’s really, really good. But here’s, here’s the interesting thing. And we only realize this, by the way, about three years ago. So we use to say it’s all about the giving and you know, it’s really cool. It was really cool. But then we started to ask questions of the people who were using B1G1 and there were a couple of things going on. The first thing was that people were saying, this is a movement that we’re using that word right. And then the second thing that they were saying is when they were talking to other people, about why they should be in be watching What sort of thing? They would say, by the way, this transformed our business. Now, just think about that for a minute. Because that’s, and that’s huge that a business owner would say this, whatever they say is I, this transformed our business such huge. And so we were taken back by that. Seriously, we didn’t expect that we knew great things were happening, but we didn’t think people would express it that way. And, and then we said, Well, what do you mean? It transform your business? Why? What happened? And here’s what they said, what they said, and they continue to say is this. It shifts the spirit of our business. And that is so profound, so profoundly important, and so important to get

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That was my next point, actually. Is B1G1 more than just a system that makes philanthropy easier? You just answered that, it actually goes further and it transforms the world of business.

Paul Dunn
Yeah, it does. And, and, and in in so many ways and say, just go with that shift the spirit thing, just just for a minute. Right. And I think that that phrase shift the spirit is is kind of an interesting phrase, because what it talks about is, is … see… I think that building a business so for that matter of building anything, but let’s talk about building a business is all about connection. Its connection. It’s not about marketing and advertising and selling. It’s about connection.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Coming from a marketing guy!

Paul Dunn
Yeah, well, you got it right. But see, and then people say, oh, exactly, there. Well, you’re a marketing guy, you know. So you’re talking about your market. and connecting with the customer. Yes, yes, but before that can happen, and here’s the point. Before that can happen, you’ve got to be doing something that connects to yourself. And it’s that connection to yourself. There is that shifting of the spirits. So what happens just because you’re doing all of this and B1G1 and you’ve now got a greater sense of meaning, you’ve got a greater sense of purpose. You’re seeing it happen every day in front of your eyes. You’re feeling fantastic about what’s happening. Not because necessarily Oh, look at the revenue I mean, we have people in B1G1, meaning B1G1 members, who don’t even have revenue goals. That’s amazing. So if they don’t have revenue goals, what do they have? They have given goals seriously, and when it is, and so imagine you’re working in one of these, one of these companies, right, that has the given goals. Get what the question is, you don’t say, Well, how much money did we make today? That’s not the question you ask. You say, what was the giving like today? You get there is just a different, different at the end of the day. That’s right. And you know, and I think, you know, just just before you and I press the record button, right, you you were talking to me about a movie, right? You were telling me about the 2014. Movie. And, and but let’s go back a little bit in time. So because I think this whole thing that allows B1G1 to exist, is is what’s happening in our world. And what’s happening in our world is if you go back to 2008 and if you watch The Wolf of Wall Street, you know you barely can watch it. Can you I mean is like, like, really Oh my god, people with people were doing that. Yes, people were doing that right. And and, and it was like the end of an era right because that whole era up to that was all about literally greed is good. I mean that’s what people are saying greed is good, great, it’s good right? It’s all about the money money money. And so go look so if you think that’s what it’s all about, go watch the movie. Because everything tumbles down right it does right and so that was when we probably could track it back a little bit before that, but that’s when I think there’s this kind of movement if you will, towards meaning and purpose really started to happen because up to that point, you know it well at that point, people today let’s just look at today, right? If we think about Australia as a for example, if we look at today, we there’s never been anything like it. We know the latest figures I have, they might have changed a little bit. Say that every hour of every day 64 new businesses are being created in Australia. Right? That’s a lot. Okay. Now, another friend of mine who actually registers businesses says it’s actually more than that. Right? So, anyway, let’s imagine it’s 64 for the sake of discussion. Now, why is that happening? Why is it never been at that level? Well, there’s all sorts of reasons. But I think that one of them is that people and this is not sort of like an anti corporate thing. Some of them are working in corporations and you know, in Australia, we’ve had, you’ve had in Australia, all these things like the Royal Commission and the banking and all of those sorts of things, right, just recently, so you have people who are working very hard, who are being paid very well and appropriately so hopefully. And I’m what’s happening, what’s missing and all of that, well, what’s missing is when they get home at night, and hopefully, you know, people listening to us right now. Normally someone like this, they get home at night, they put their head on the pillow. And just before they go to sleep, which sometimes it’s difficult for them, just before they go to sleep, I say, is that awareness? Seriously? Is that all there is? And the answer is, it’s not all there is. There’s meaning there’s there’s purpose and and so what we’re now seeing, and you’re a good example of that, what we’re saying is people who want to start new enterprises, and it’s never been easier to do that. Never in a tight life is a bit easier to do that. But to start new enterprises that have meaning and purpose, literally front and center, so that’s why Yeah, that’s why that’s all happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
You think you want you on exists, and is flourishing because the world has changed? like it would not have been possible 30 years ago.

Paul Dunn
I think not. Yeah. It wouldn’t be people’s I worry about, you know, why would you want to do that? Right. All right. And, you know, I mean, we’re seeing amazing things, you know, happen in the world we’re seeing on on Wall Street, you know, we’re seeing corporations now. Literally. It’s called what’s it called the Business Council, I think, which is like 195 of the top, top, top, top, top, top top, as in, you know, revenue wise companies in the world. And they had this credo this this, you know, thing that bound them together, and they rewrote it. they rewrote it about about two months ago, you could never have imagined that they would rewrite it. Because when it was originally written, it was all about the shareholders. It was all about the shareholders rights to do this. Guess what is now about, it’s about the employees, right? And it’s about purpose, and it’s about meaning and so This is happening. Yeah, it’s so good. I’m happy that, you know, B1G1 is playing a part in that.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That’s awesome. Good. Good. more good news about the corporate world changing. I love this stuff.

Paul Dunn
Well, this is so much good stuff. You know, that it depends what you what you listen to, as to say, here’s here’s a thought. I remember saying this, I think to you when we when we last met, right, so, a friend of mine, Dan preflight, who runs dent, or the keepers of influence program as well Dan sent me a fair while ago he said, you know, Paul, you got to figure out that your environment dictates your performance right? I I get what he’s meaning is meaning that if I go and work at Google for a week, I’m probably going to be a little more creative than, you know, some other place, right? Some accountants office, right? But Seth Godin put it rather nicely he’s he said that narrative dictates your performance as well. That is the same one it what is it that we’re listening to? is also decoding it. And, and there is such good news out there. I mean, I think B1G1 is a good news story. I think people I was reading yesterday about Paul Polman, who’s a friend of B1G1. He is used to be the CEO of Unilever. We all know Unilever you know, Dove soap and all that kind of stuff is a huge company. And and Paul Paul man is is regarded as one of the most he lifts Unilever in January this year. Well, actually, he announced that he was going to leave in January, but it was a little later than that. And so here’s this billion dollar company. And in the time and he completely changed change the value chain completely changed the Bye bye working on purpose and what was the result? Something like an increase of 300% in shareholder returns? And so, so yeah. And now pohlman Paul is now he was at the United Nations be greater the other day. And with President macro in in France actually at the at the g7. And and he’s the g7. He is what he did. He he got together at the g7. He got together the top, I mean, like the top fashion brands in the world, together with the president john McEnroe. And the reason he got them together at the g7 was to have them commit to we need to change what we do. And they did, by the way, right? So we need to change the word practices. We need to we need to change the use of water. We need to judge all of those things. Right. So that’s happening at that level, Paul himself fulfilment, now is the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce. And so you know, a lot of stuff going there. He’s now formed a high level company called imagine funnily enough imagine. And, and the console. His concept on this one is really cool. And one of the things he talks about is what it needs is a brave CEOs. I love that concept. Brave See, and then, you know, find you, you you build that infrastructure around it, but it takes a brave CEO to get out there and do it. And the point I think of to answer your question, there are more brave CEOs out there now than they ever have been. And and by the way, part of the reason time, the reason for that is that it is also market driven. I mean, if, if, if you look at every study that’s been done in the last 10 years on what is it that consumers want, right, and if You believe this that is right if this is you believe them. But the latest study, and there’s another Gallup one that confirms this says this it says 84% of customers of consumers specifically consumers want to deal with a company that is socially responsible. That’s what the numbers say. Interesting enough, when you when you look at it, so that’s the consumer end of it. What about team member end of it? Well, when you look at what the team members were, the team members want to work. They know if a if A and I don’t like using words like millennials and everything else, but the study said 78% of millennials want to work with a company that is meaningful and purposeful, which explains why last year get this last year, Unilever had 1 million job applications. So what what process multiprocessor so yeah, we are in a we are in Very exciting time. Certainly, there are glitches in our world and we don’t really know where to look for those. But, you know, the the there’s some great things happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
There’s a lot happening in everything investment, philanthropy, political structure. And… yes?

Paul Dunn
Well talking about talking of talking of investment, right, someone said to me, in Christchurch about 18 months ago, this was an investment banker. And he said, Paul, are you aware of what’s happening in investment banking? And I said, Sorry, is impact investing. And I said, Yeah, man, I know what impact investing is. And he said, Yes, he said in Australia in the last two and a half years, we’ve seen a 715% increase in impact investing. And yesterday yesterday, saw the issue in Europe of the first day. StG sdj, meaning Sustainable Development Goals. The first sgg is the G linked bond in the European market. Let me just read what it says here. The it’s called the SDG link bond and innovative corporate financial instrument that I contribute to the achievement of God. Listen to this, the 2.5 billion bond released by the energy company aerelon. Thursday was a good bed was almost four times oversubscribed, signaling a strong demand for StG related investment opportunity opportunities. And it follows that isn’t it amazing? And they just issued a bond in in the US which was one and a half billion. Again, we could not have imagined a world where that would that would be happening.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
You just mentioned impact investment and I wanted to place in this interview the definition of impact entrepreneurship and I haven’t had the opportunity to do that. So this is what it says on virgin’s website, Virgin by Richard Branson. “We define impact enterprises as companies that have the objective to create maximum positive impact for the customers, employees, business partners and the public at large, as well as environment for an impact enterprise profit turnover and growth serve as a means to get sufficient capital from investors to sustain the positive impact generation of the company. They are subordinate to creating maximum positive impact.”

Paul Dunn
Read that last line again, the last line that you just read,

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
They are subordinate to creating your maximum positive impact. There it is right there.

Paul Dunn
That’s it. And and and see what you were just reading and is like the inverse literal inverse of what it was. In 2008, which was, essentially, who cares about the impact? Let’s just make as much money as we can, right? And look where that got us. So that definition is a fabulous definition.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah. Straight to report. And now we see so many training structures for impact entrepreneurship. And it’s getting two companies. It’s related to sustainable development goals is practice investors. In this co working spaces all over the world, we’re encouraging, working at hackathons.

Paul Dunn
My son was in my son was in a hackathon recently where you had to do something in this hackathon. That was really cool in relation to the SDG. So the SDGs were underpinning the hackaton.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, I’ve done some of that in the Dojo in Bali. Have you visited Dojo? great corking space.

Paul Dunn
Oh, no, I know of it. But I haven’t I haven’t visited but I know of it. Yeah.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And how much of the world’s business do you think is currently being divested to impact entrepreneurship?

Paul Dunn
Sure someone knows the answer to that. And I certainly don’t. But what what what is the answer that I’ve got, which is 100% of the people that I talked to are doing it. Right. Right. But then again, that’s that’s a very biased, a very biased view. And, and what we’re seeing is united so much, I mean, who could have thought that we’d be talking about a thing called impact investing who could afford that we now be seeing consultants is like poor performance. You know, the one imagine starting up, which is talking about a brave CEO, who could have imagined that who could have imagined I mean, you can now seriously in Australia, I know you can do this because I know someone who’s done it. You can actually Go on Amazon authority on Google and you can say SDG consultants and you can find, you know, hundreds of people who are presumably consulting the government’s and everything, by the way, for all the SDG consultants over there might be listening to us just slightly your client joined B1G1, it’s a really cool … that’s the answer to the question, right?

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
So this brings me to my last question, I guess, which is more … it’s a deeper question more philosophical. Yeah, so I’m gonna speak of it more here is a question about money and capitalism. And capitalism is being increasingly criticized these days. And some people say it has even started to fall. And so in an article found called pros and cons of cap chat elitism in the intelligent economists calm says these are The cons of capitalism. Marginalization. So in a highly competitive, capitalist economy, there will be no place for elderly, children, disabled. There will be no incentive to do that. Externalities, capitalism ignores negative externalities such as pollution and damage your health and monopoly and inequality. So in 2016, in USA, the top 1% of Americans pocketed 85% of total income. And it seems to me that what you’re trying to do with B1G1 is to transform the system capitalism and diverted when you say business for good. And I know from my recent years that I’ve seen in people get into impact intrapreneurship I see both people who have always embraced capitalism and just want to transform a bit that practices to do something good in the world, and people who hate it, people will dislike capitalism and see in impact entrepreneurship a way of getting a bit of reconciliation and to tolerate the system as it is.

Paul Dunn
Absolutely correct. I absolutely can understand that. Good on them too.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
I wanted to know, because you were talking about how the whole world of business was changing just before, I want to know how much you think the actual structures of the system are a hindrance to that change? what you actually think about the system? turning to become “good”?

Paul Dunn
Well, let me talk about two things that I’m very familiar with, which happened in Singapore. Okay, so his first thing we let me do this, sir. chronologically, okay. So chronologically, big word for this time of day, so time sequence going back six years, we eat many B1G1 at the time, we’re in a place called the National we run the research area of the interview, which is the sort of tech focused University here in here in Singapore. And there were students there who, who did all sorts of research and one day, you know, I get this note this load from the student body. That said, we want to interview you because we’re doing this survey on behalf of the governor. Sorry. Okay, so we remember very clearly, we sat down this table, and I’m having a cup of coffee and and that’s twice I’d say coffee. I must get one after this, I think. But as long as it’s the right sort of coffee, because there’s all sorts of things by the way going on with coffee that Gosh, anyway, so and chocolate as well. I’m terrible stuff. So this guy says, look, the government in Singapore which by the way, is a very benevolent government, he didn’t say that that’s me saying that. If we’re doing a survey on social business, this is the phrase that Muhammad Yunus use to describe impact business. He’s called a social business right? You know, Muhammad Yunus he have Nobel Peace Prize, he have the first guy to do micro finance and all of that comes up right. So So they said, so here’s the question that the government has asked us to ask you which is do you think that the government should look at special incentives for social businesses? And I said, Well, actually no, which I must admit surprised the the entrepreneur the the the researcher, and he survived. Why Why would Why would you say that? Your business you said not to that question. And I said, well, it’s very simple. Because I think in 10 years, every business will be a social business. So that’s now that’s probably a bit of a stretch. That’s only three years away. But, but that’s what I believe I seriously believe that we are so moving this way that it is going to become the norm. That’s, that’s, that’s my first chronological one. Let me update that to interact. Later this week on meeting with some of the people involved in this. Here in Singapore. We have a sovereign fund like all companies, our countries do, which is, you know, where all the taxes go, and then they invested. All of that kind of stuff in Singapore is called Temasek spotlight, Temasek and Temasek Now, every single you talk about impact investing, every single one of the investments that our government in Singapore makes now has to be in line with the SDGs has to be okay. That’s that’s the government is saying. So, once you get bad and then once you get the, you know, the amazing power of the SDGs or the Sustainable Development Goals to, to really, really, really do amazing things in the pool business if that’s the way of saying it to pull business in, in in in this way, then the world we have is going to be like a very, very, very different, different place. And in fact, if I can find it, let me see if I can find a pool. Paul Polman. Here we go. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Paul Paul. Man who I mentioned, you know, the former CEO of Unilever. And he was at the SDG. biz forum, the one eyed bridge presser was that in, in Geneva, sorry, in, in New York. And he said this, this is the former CEO of you know, I’ve been talking about where we’re at, and talking about the implementation of the global goals. Here’s what he said, pretty simple sentence. He said, this is probably the biggest business opportunity we have seen in the history of mankind. As we said, Now, when you get that and when you get that is the you know, the guy who’s the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, etc, etc, etc. Then, you know, you would you would come to my view, I think that this just is where the world is going and You know, I’m so thrilled reminds me a privilege that I can be a part of it too.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
It reminds me a something you told us in Bali actually. When Richard Branson spoke at the UN in 2015. That it was the first time, I think you said that, that the UN said, publicly, that it wasn’t governmental structures that changed the world, it was the business world.

Paul Dunn
They absolutely absolutely acknowledged it for the first time, right? Up until that time, you had things like you know, we all got excited, you may remember by the millennial goals are those kind of things and they, they were things that required governments to sign off on that was it. And Branson Branson stood up and said exactly what you just said. He said, The reason I’m here is because it’s the first time 23rd of September 2015 that the world body has acknowledged that it’s not listen again, that it’s not government. change our world, certainly they can enable it. Right. But it’s not governments that change our world, it’s businesses, business owners, their teams, people listening to this podcast.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Because I know a little bit my audience, I’m going to give a bit of precision there. It’s the business world that changes the world, primarily because it’s actually people’s passions, it’s what they want to do in the world. That’s why that’s what’s the main engine in the world. As governments only do management.

Paul Dunn
That’s right, exactly. And I forget who it was said this. But it’s probably Seth Godin, actually, but I have a feeling it wasn’t set. But anyway, it’s a kind of thing that Seth would say. And he said, You know, this is this is the this is not about marketing, he said It’s not about advertising. He said, go out and find a big enough problem and then start to fix it. And the world will be the path to your door. Very simple.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
That’s awesome. I think that’s a good last word for our interview.

Paul Dunn
Listen, thanks for having me here.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Yeah, thank you so much for accepting to do this interview. Really like your point of view. And everyone listening to this, can open your computer, go through browser, type B1G1.com, you’ll be directly redirected to B1G1.com/businessforgood you won’t have a choice. And check out all the amazing projects that we want you on our funding at the moment how you can be part of this. It’s Yeah, the best thing you can do with your company at the moment.

Paul Dunn
But that’s nice of you to say but I also think it’s true Hey, thank you for being here. Thank you for asking such great questions and and also give you know, most times when when people interview you, they they sometimes I don’t ask the greatest of questions you use, right. But what I found was really interesting, by the way, is that you also had a view, you know, you also were able to talk about some of the research that you’ve done that you know, talks about capitalism, all those sorts of things. So, hopefully that made it a really great experience for the people listening and it certainly made it a great experience for me, so I’m absolutely thrilled to be here.

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
Thank you so much Paul.

Paul Dunn
Absolute privilege

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
And have a good evening in Singapore.

Paul Dunn
Catch you soon

Cyprien (FutureSeeds)
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