Blogposts

The case for a better US

We should start a conversation on a new meaning of “US”, one that is evolutionary and not confrontational, one that includes and integrates rather than opposes and negates.

What it takes to be a brand with a conscience and insights from Dutch Design Week

Sandra Horlings and Erika Uffindell, both members of Medinge, discuss the themes and learnings coming out of attendance of Dutch Design Week and share their thoughts and ideas on the big themes that are challenging and guiding todays brands: the importance of elevating planet before profit, stopping creating “more” things, new concepts on circularization and

For your listening pleasure: Medinge members on podcasts

Medinge Group members have been creating some excellent, thought-provoking podcasts lately. Here is a sampling of several recent ones. From November 2020, Nicholas Ind mentioned Medinge Group and SAP in this podcast with Mark Stinson. Nicholas wrote this afterwards as a follow-up. Sandra Horlings was interviewed in January about responsible brands and how to strengthen

Generation Co: reconnecting with nature

‘The Lagoon is like a mirror. There’s not a boat to be seen, the water is crystal clear, and schools of little fish are swimming in the canals. We have a gondola landing at our entrance, and we are seeing little crabs crawling up the gondola poles. Ducks are nesting on the vaporetto docks, and

Generation Co on society: from me to we

We know different societies vary in terms of their orientation towards individualism (me) and collectivism (we), rooted in their histories, political systems and cultural values.1 We also know that the orientation—from Asian Confucianism to northern European social democracy to American individualism—has consequences in terms of social trust and cohesion.2 What we have seen, in the

Generation Co: Business

Business leaders have long operated with the mindset that the purpose of a private enterprise is to maximize value for shareholders. A business seeking investors to grow exchanges a slice of ownership to investors for their capital, with the investors’ expectation that the monetary value of their slice will grow and therefore also their wealth.

Will Generation Co and conscientious organizations save our world?

Everyone says coronavirus and the resulting deep recession will change everything. The Great Pause and the Great Restoration of the last weeks will finally make us a more caring, united and responsible community. They are wrong. The double-crisis of the virus and the recession aren’t a revolution. But they are a radical acceleration of trends

Co-creating brands with a purpose

Customers do not passively wait for messages from on-high. Rather they discuss their brand experiences, share them in brand communities and voice their opinions to each other on social media

CSR is already woven into Māori leadership

I was fascinated to read a New Zealand Herald story on the Māori (the native people of New Zealand, or Aotearoa) asset base, though it wasn’t the financial part that hit me. What was more significant were the principles behind Māori businesses. About 15 years ago, when chatting to a woman representing a Māori winery,