Sandja Brügmann contributes to Gurubogen, a new book on innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership

The new Danish book “Gurubogen” is a collection of articles from 100 leading business innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world. Sandja Brügmann contributes with an article on how investing in leadership and organizational consciousness is needed to drive both sustainability, social-good and thrivability.

“I fremtiden er det kun brands, som arbejder for at gøre livet bedre for menneskeheden, der vil overleve. De ledere, vi udpeger til at guide os, skal derfor også findes blandt dem, som er i stand til at skabe bedre liv.” – Sandja Brügmann, excerpt from her article Fremtidens leder er autentisk, passioneret, modig og formålsdrevet.

English translation: “In the future it is only brands that strive to make life better for humanity that will survive. The leaders we elect to guide us need to be found among those able to create better lives.” – Sandja Brügmann, excerpt from her article The Leader of the Future is authentic, passionate, courageous and purpose-driven.

The book was created to give inspiration and real action-oriented advice to entrepreneurs and organizations across all industries and markets. In these articles, the contributors talk about their ideas and experiences with innovation, entrepreneurship and authentic leadership.

You will learn:

• What corporate executives can learn from entrepreneurs and vice versa

• How you become more authentic as a leader & why this is important

• Why some ideas fail when others succeed

• The ‘often missing’ link between Business and Purpose

• How to listen in the right places, and how to use silence to create better relations

• How to turn innovation into your culture

• The importance of focusing on culture and the human aspect of business

The book contains so many exciting perspectives and learnings from a wide array of inspiring global and Danish leaders – a few of our favorites come from Chip Conley (Joie de Vivre), Brian Chesky (Airbnb), Peter Keriner (NOMA), Simon Sinek (Start with Why), Seth Godin (Social media guru), Tania Ellis (social business company), Robin Sharma, Johan Bülow (Lakrids), Pascal Finette (Singularity University), Otto Scharmer (Theory U) .. as I start to liste some, I just want to list all - a list of the gurus here.

The book released November 15, 2016. Order your copy in Danish only here. English translation coming in 2017!

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SANDJA BRÜGMANN is a sustainable communication & conscious business and leadership advisor, international speaker and serial-entrepreneur. She has worked with the global business community to create sustainable & social-good change for the past 15 years. She advocates for systemic solution thinking to drive business to be part of the solution, investing in personal and organizational consciousness, and a shift where success is measured in the 5P bottom line: Passion, purpose, people, planet and profit. In her business portfolio are respected companies like Sustainable Brands, Crocs, Spier, ITO EN, Kashi, Gaia, The Body Shop, Sustainia and University of Colorado Boulder.

Sandja is an external lecturer at University of Colorado Boulder’s Masters of the Environment program (MENV), where she is teaching conscious leadership and social entrepreneurship.

A regularly featured expert in leading international business and sustainable lifestyle media including Inc Magazine, Business Insider, Huffington Post, CBS, Markedsføring, Yoga Journal, Organic Spa Magazine, YFS Magazine, LOHAS Journal, Bureau Biz and spoken at leading conferences Sustainable Brands (Copenhagen), Natural products Expo West (USA), Natural Products Expo East (USA), Social Media Week (Copenhagen), Global Entrepreneurship Week Big Blab Event and Women’s Leadership Summit.

She is a certified shadow facilitator, a certified yoga teacher, former Danish national archery champion and Olympic hopeful. Founder/CEO of Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute. 

Connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

COMMON and Refresh Partner to Accelerate Social Purpose Businesses, Lead ‘Paradigm Shift’

Photo courtesy COMMON 

A new strategic partnership aims to bolster social purpose startups and launch more products that are better for the planet. Today, communication, branding and leadership services companies Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute, both founded by Sandja Brügmann, solidified working with fellow Boulder, Colorado-based business COMMON, a creative accelerator and community dedicated to advancing social businesses and projects. The three firms can now offer their clients the services of the other partner organizations, including their global professional networks.

“We share the mission to advance a business paradigm shift to one of greater consciousness,” Brügmann said of the partnership. “By working together we will further elevate our value proposition to help innovative, social and entrepreneurial businesses and leaders accelerate growth and success on a global scale.”

Brügmann’s firms have worked with such notable clients as Justin’s, GoodBelly, Crocs, Addis Creson (Kashi, Better Place), Spier and ITO EN. Some years ago, Refresh Agency helped Justin’s, a Boulder-based nut butter company, with corporate and consumer communication during their U.S. nation-wide Starbucks distribution, Brügmann told Sustainable Brands in an e-mail. She insists that they were just a small piece of the puzzle, but was happy to play a supporting role in the company’s success; Justin’s was recently acquired by Austin, Minnesota-based Hormel Food Corp., the maker of Skippy and Spam.

Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute can now offer their clients an accelerator for product innovation and ideas and a global community of like-minded ambitious conscious business professionals thanks to the now solidified ties to COMMON.

“We are past the point of questioning whether or not marrying social purpose and for-profit models is viable,” said Mark Eckhardt, the CEO of COMMON. “There are billion dollar companies that are making a huge impact and providing consumers with products that meet their needs. Leading a social enterprise demands more than just business savvy. It requires a different mindset and set of skills rooted in practices that have been dismissed historically by capitalism.

“Our partnership with Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute addresses those needs, and augments our ability to provide our community members with leading edge communication, voice storytelling expertise, and conscious leadership training.”

COMMON was founded by Alex Bogusky (founding partner of advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Ana Bogusky, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg. Through the partnership, the accelerator’s clients will benefit from the American and Scandinavian market expertise of Refresh Agency and The Passion Institute, in addition to the sustainability- and social impact-specialized communication, marketing, storytelling, and conscious leadership educational services.

Brügmann and Eckhardt agree: “There is nothing more rewarding then helping sustainability-focused and socially responsible companies succeed. We all have a responsibility to increase our human consciousness, so we can drive business as a force for good, and not exploitative greed.”

News covered in Sustainable Brands. 

Nyt bureau til The Body Shop

The Body Shop fejrer sit 40 års jubilæum med et ambitiøst mål: Man vil være verdens mest etiske og bæredygtige virksomhed. I den forbindelse er et dansk bureau valgt som ny partner.

Det er blevet rigtigt populært for brands og virksomheder at lede med lys og lygte efter sit purpose.

Et af dem, der ikke behøver at lede så længe, er skønhedsmærket The Body Shop, der fejrer sit 40 års jubilæum med en ny målsætning under betegnelsen ”Enrich Not Exploit”.

Og som navnet måske antyder, så fejler ambitionerne bestemt ingenting. The Body Shop stræber nemlig efter at blive verdens mest etiske og bæredygtige virksomhed.

Lille bureau hjælper til

I den forbindelse har The Body Shop valgt kommunikationsbureauet Refresh Agency til samarbejdspartner inden for strategisk kommunikation og PR i Danmark.

Bureauet skal hjælpe The Body Shop med at kommunikere deres målsætning og fortsætte missionen om at uddanne og inspirere danskerne inden for bæredygtig og etisk forretningsførelse. 

Refresh Agency er stiftet i 2002 i Boulder, Colorado, USA af danske Sandja Brügmann, og råder over kontorer i Boulder og i København.

-Vi har valgt at samarbejde med Refresh Agency, fordi de har stor erfaring indenfor formidling af bæredygtighed og CSR. Vores mål er at blive verdens mest etiske og bæredygtige globale virksomhed, da vi mener, det er vigtigt at tage ansvar som firma. Vi vil gerne inspirere andre virksomheder til at gøre det samme og i den forbindelse, er vi overbeviste om, at Refresh Agency vil være den rette samarbejdspartner, siger Marianne Gulløv, External Communications Manager, The Body Shop Danmark.

14 konkrete mål

The Body Shops nye målsætning, Enrich Not exploit, omfatter etiske principper som altid har været grundlæggende for The Body Shop. The Body Shop var således ved etableringen banebrydende med sin filosofi om, at virksomheder har magt til at gøre godt, og efter at mærket blev opkøbt af L'Oreal i 2006, tyder intet altså på, at ambitionerne er blvet mindre. Kæden har idag mere end 3.000 butikker i over 60 lande, heraf 43 i Danmark.

Enrich Not Exploit-målsætningen udfordrer The Body Shop til at gøre endnu mere end de hidtil har gjort på vejen mod at blive verdens mest etiske og bæredygtige virksomhed. Den omfatter 14 specifikke mål i forhold til, hvordan virksomheden ønsker at sikre berigelse af mennesker, produkter og jorden. 

Bureau: Vi glæder os

De 14 mål kan måles og skal være opnået i 2020. The Body Shop udfordrer således sig selv, men som det lyder fra Jeremy Schwatz, bestyrelsesformand og CEO for The Body Shop, så er det bare på med vanten: 'Vi er små, men vi går forrest.'

- Verden har brug for ambitiøse og visionære virksomheder, der tør at sætte store miljømæssige og socialt innovative mål - og sige det højt. Det gør The Body Shop, siger Sandja Brügmann, CEO Refresh Agency

- Det er i tråd med vores forretningsformål i Refresh Agency , hvor vi aktivt vælger at bruge det kapitalistiske flow til at gøre godt. Vi glæder os over at skulle hjælpe The Body Shop på vej med deres ambitiøse målsætning at blive verdens mest etiske og bæredygtige globale virksomhed, slutter hun. 

Du kan læse mere om The Body Shop's målsætning her.

Artiklen kan læses på Markedsføring her.

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Om The Body Shop

Det globale og etiske skønhedsmærke The Body Shop blev i 1976 grundlagt af Anita Roddick i Brighton, England. The Body shop stræber efter at gøre en positiv forskel i verden ved at tilbyde hudpleje-, hårpleje- og makeupprodukter af høj kvalitet, som er inspireret af naturen og fremstillet på etisk og bæredygtig vis. The Body Shop var banebrydende med sin filosofi om, at virksomheder har magt til at gøre godt og efter at mærket blev opkøbt af L'Oréal i 2006, har det yderligere optrappet denne vision. The Body Shop har mere end 3.000 butikker i over 60 lande, hvoraf 43 er i Danmark.

Om Refresh Agency

Refresh Agency er et kommunikationsbureau med fokus på bæredygtighed, social innovation, bevidst livsstil og virksomhedsførelse baseret på de 5P’er: Passion, Purpose, People, Planet og Profit. Bureauet bruger autentisk ledelse, kommunikation, markedsføring, psykologi, PR og sociale medier til at understøtte brands i USA og Europa. Refresh Agency tilbyder et banebrydende visionært og globalt forretningsperspektiv og arbejder med en omfattende, global portefølje af respekterede firmaer, som Crocs, Goodbelly, Spier, ITO EN, Better Place, The Body Shop, Sustainia og Justin’s. Refresh Agency er stiftet i 2002 i Boulder, CO, USA af danske Sandja Brügmann, og har kontorer i Boulder, CO og København.

Læs mere om Refresh Agency her.