“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Work with your competitors when the interest of the community and planet are at stake.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“More and more companies are reaching out to their suppliers and contractors to work jointly on issues of sustainability, environmental responsibility, ethics, and compliance.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“The companies that make meaningful contributions while also listening to the voices of others are the ones that will genuinely engage their community, who will then go to work for them.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“More brands are waking up to their social responsibility and doing good work through cause marketing campaigns. Yet too many still go about it the wrong way. I mean ‘wrong’ in two senses. Firstly, they are marketing ineffectively, and secondly, as a consequence their positive social impact is not maximized.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“There’s an adage that is an apt description of the new dynamic at work between brands and consumers connected through social media: People support what they help to build. But now that many brands are launching community-driven cause marketing campaigns, the challenge becomes what to do next?”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Non-disclosure in the Internet Age is quickly perceived as a breach of trust. Government, corporations and each of us as individuals must recalibrate how we live and share our lives appropriate to the information now available and the expectations of others.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Any institution faces two basic choices if they hope to spark new ideas. One is to leverage the brains trust within their organization by creating a special event dedicated to new thinking. The other is to look outside themselves to stimulate solutions.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“The creative destruction that social media is currently unleashing will change more than technology or the leader board of the Fortune 100. It is driving a qualitative shift in the nature of relationships between brands and their customers.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Social technology gives leaders a vital new platform with which to connect their companies to the myriad stakeholders who have an interest in their well being.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Refuse to accept the belief that your professional relevance, career success or financial security turns on the next update on the latest technology. Sometimes it’s good to put the paddle down and just let the canoe glide.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Let’s hope brands recognize that the true power of this technology is not its reach but its ability to communicate substance that adds meaning to our lives. Otherwise, brands will be investing in technology that consumers simply won’t buy.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Not since the digital revolution in the early ’90s has technology placed such a comprehensive burden on business, employees and individuals to reinvent their business plans, services and products, and themselves to keep pace with the changing marketplace.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Technology is teaching us to be human again.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Find the human in the technology. The currency marketers trade in has not changed even if the methods have. Emotion is what we exchange.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Non-profits must become deeply engaged in the ways that their donor communities are using social technology.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Refuse to accept the belief that your professional relevance, career success or financial security turns on the next update on the latest technology. Sometimes it’s good to put the paddle down and just let the canoe glide.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Through their own actions, customers can hold companies responsible to higher standards of social responsibility. Through collective action, they can leverage their dollars to combat the force of those investors who myopically pursue profits at the expense of the rest of society.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“It is time for corporate America to become ‘the third pillar’ of social change in our society, complementing the first two pillars of government and philanthropy. We need the entire private sector to begin committing itself not just to making profits, but to fulfilling higher and larger purposes by contributing to building a better world.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Corporate executives need to re-frame their responsibilities to include the interests of all the stakeholders in society at large not just shareholders, but also employees, the citizens of our communities, and those who care about the environment.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Companies, to date, have often used the excuse that they are only beholden to their shareholders, but we need shareholders to think of themselves as stakeholders in the well being of society as well.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“If capitalism is to remain a healthy, vibrant economic system, corporations must participate in taking care of the society and the environment in which they live.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“What today’s business reality makes clear is that brands cannot survive in a society that is failing economically, socially, ethically, and morally.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“We need to develop and disseminate an entirely new paradigm and practice of collaboration that supersedes the traditional silos that have divided governments, philanthropies and private enterprises for decades and replace it with networks of partnerships working together to create a globally prosperous society.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“Today’s consumers are eager to become loyal fans of companies that respect purposeful capitalism. They are not opposed to companies making a profit indeed, they may even be investors in these companies – but at the core, they want more empathic, enlightened corporations that seek a balance between profit and purpose.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“More than ever before, consumers have the ability to unify their voices and coalesce their buying power to influence corporate behaviors.”
– Simon Mainwaring
“The most impactful way consumers can assert their power is to become mindful shoppers, giving their dollars only to socially responsible companies. In today’s world of social media and smart phones, this is easy to do.”
– Simon Mainwaring