The era of social activism: Are you donating enough money?
In reading the book Giving — Purpose is the New Currency from Alexandre Mars, I’m reminded of a lot of parallels happening in my professional life.
Companies should give back
Did you know that in India, companies with revenue over $10 billion in rupees must give 2% to charity?
This is similar to salesforce.com’s model of 1% charity donation, a policy that my employer Veeva has also implemented. In additional, last year, Veeva converted to a Public Benefit Corporation. The story can be echoed across a broad spectrum of other companies, where profits are still valued, but profits must be paired with advocacy for a greater purpose.
Impact as a manager
When I started my career 20 years ago, the way to encourage and inspire your reports is to just yell at them. The analogy I’ve used is the 1970’s football coach. Yelling at them is for their own good. Tell them what they need to do, and it hurts me as much as it hurts them when I yell at them. Of course, I exaggerate.
Yelling at your reports is no longer vogue, and probably results in a quick meeting with HR. Not only is this not the way to do things nowadays, I’ve also found that employees’ motivations have changed.
When I interview people, they often ask about the purpose of the company. Many have said that they want to work for the life science industry because of their experience during the pandemic. They will that by working on the software that helps with the sale and distribution of treatments, they are in a way doing good for the world. Do candidates really mean this when they tell me this is their motivation? Or is it something people say to get past interview rounds? What does everybody think?
