In our programmes we frequently ask participants to work out the Benevolent Intent of their organization. The Benevolent Intent (BI) is the purpose, the main thrust of the company that goes beyond making money. It is bigger than the self interest of the organization and its people. It is about serving others in their best interest.
So for instance, Schuitema’s BI is to ‘enable people to triumph as human beings’. On the face of it, we are personal and leadership transformation consultants. You could call us trainers and coaches for people and companies. But our evolved purpose is to help people shift their attention from taking to giving and hence enable them to triumph as human beings.
Rising above Self Interest
The Schuitema philosophy is that if individuals and organizations rise above their own self interest and shift their attention from taking to giving (what is in the best interest of the other), and that if these individuals and organizations keep doing what is right over what is expedient, they will succeed far more than their monetary expectations and the world will become a better place. Hence the concept of BI.
Some companies have been able to use the concept of BI very well in articulating their strategy and simultaneously reveal where their own attention is.
For instance, African Explosives Limited; a Schuitema client, is a mining company based in South Africa. Their tagline is simple: Wealth Unearthed. They believe that they are serving people by digging out the precious wealth of the Earth and enabling sophisticated use of it. In fact, using the Schuitema philosophy of Benevolent Intent, it was easy for them to realise that it was against their values to venture into making destructive weapons and ammunition.
Another Schuitema client, Telenor Pakistan had a wonderful campaign called ‘Karo Mumkin’, which translates into ‘Make Possible’. If you reflect about it, the tagline does not say Make it Happen… because we cannot ensure outcomes, we can only work towards making things possible, give our best to the means and processes. So we cannot make the world a better place but we can make it possible by contributing our fair share to it.
Telenor used this campaign to launch the easy paisa brand which was the first-of-its-kind system to allow financial transactions via mobile phones. The Karo Mumkin campaign also held a competition to award amateurs who initiated positive and groundbreaking changes in various fields like education and environment.
Where is your Attention?
The Schuitema framework professes that one’s attention must be in the present moment and must be focused on improving the ‘giving’ part of our transactions with others. Because the more we focus on what we’re getting, the more frustrated and powerless we will feel.
Going by this concept, I particularly liked Standard Chartered Bank’s ‘Here for good’. To SCB, it means trying to stick by their clients and customers and always trying to do the right thing.
There are slogans which define what a business means to itself and there are slogans which tell you what the business is doing for you. As a customer, you might feel more engaged to a slogan that involves you. However your intent check here is to see whether that slogan removes your attention from your present moment and promises you an outcome (and arouses self interest) in the future that nothing can guarantee?
Try applying this Intent check onto cosmetic company products. Doesn’t ‘Beauty for Everyone’ sound better than ‘Never Turn 30’?
Do glamorous images of a credit card sponsored luxury lifestyle or anti-aging beauty products make you feel like a tramp in the present moment? If they do, you’ve got to give yourself an honest talk!
You could avoid a great deal of manipulation if you can learn to gauge the BI of a company and the intent of its campaigns.
Embedding the BI into the Business:
Finally, slogans mean little if a company has not embedded them in its day-to-day business. The real work is not to make a slogan but to live up to it… to get the people in the company to believe in the slogan and to align their personal values with the values of the company so as to contribute in common good.