Changing the World and Doing the Work: A Firm Beliefs Conversation with Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL

Entrepreneur and non-executive advisor Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL recently joined Cortney Stapleton to discuss his most influential interactions, the challenges companies can face in finding authenticity and purpose, and why real power comes from human connection.

Below are highlights from their discussion.

Cortney Stapleton, CEO of The Bliss Group: Who has had the biggest impact on your career and how have those experiences really shaped the way you want to impact others?

Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL: There’s great entrepreneurs that I’ve had the chance to work with, but the reality is oftentimes it’s been the unexpected encounters that have been the most influential. For example, my first business was in tech, and we were operating in Silicon Valley, and I remember going to see a potential customer. I was in reception and waiting to be seen and the officer janitor was telling me all about what the company does and how amazing it is and what they’re working on. Then when I went to the meeting, I remember speaking to my clients and saying, “That’s really amazing.”

It’s been those kinds of chance interactions in business that have been the most influential because those are the interactions that make you realize you need to adapt so I think it’s the wide gamut of those kind of interactions which have been the most inspiring.

Cortney: At Bliss, we talk a lot about delivering impact through insight. What is one insight that someone has given you or that you have given to someone else that you feel had a significant impact?

Vikas: I think one of the earliest ones for me was understanding that you have to carve out parts of your life for impact. It doesn’t just happen; it doesn’t just occur. The working culture in the UK for a long time was to work really hard and then when you retire, maybe you do some charity or philanthropy.

What I always found really inspiring was the difference in the US culture, where philanthropy comes much earlier in your career. It’s often during your executive role. I’ve had many conversations with people who said, “While I have the time, the energy, and the contacts, that’s when I can really help and make an impact.” It’s not just about money, it’s everything that you can do as a business leader.

Cortney: Every brand is trying to position themselves as mission-driven or purpose-driven because we know that their audiences – particularly younger audiences – are really interested in this. What does it take for a company to be truly purpose-driven beyond their PR and messaging?

Vikas: I think the first thing is real transparency. If you as a business leader genuinely want your business to be purpose driven, that means that when you lift the edge of the curtain, people must see the good and the bad. It means that you have to acknowledge what’s not going right, where you’re underperforming, where there’s room for change. It also means really understanding what purpose and impact mean to you as a business and being very deliberate and focused about that. That means not jumping on bandwagons, it means not responding to every pressure group that sends you an email, it means not responding to every lobby group that sends you an email, it means knowing exactly what the focus of your purpose and impact are – and that’s really hard because there’s a lot to do in the world and there are a lot of things to respond to.

Cortney: For companies trying to change, what do you think are the biggest challenges that they’re facing in creating impact or changing the way something has always been done so that it can be done for the better?

Vikas: A huge challenge to businesses is inauthenticity. You see this an awful lot in retail. For example, fast fashion brands trying to talk about things like labor standards and labor supply, and then within a few months you see journalists outing them for using child labor or using awful working conditions.

People do use purpose as a way of washing reputation quite often. Oftentimes companies start to do extremely good things just before some bad news comes out. Reputation washing is a real challenge.

Let’s say that there is a business in fast fashion who has made lots of money as a result of using unsafe or bad labor practices. My advice to them would be to say that and say, “This is the way our industry used to work but we don’t think that’s right anymore. We want to go on a journey of change and here’s what we’re going to do. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re on the journey.”

I think that is a more dignified way of turning the ship rather than pretending like everything’s okay.

Cortney: What advice would you give to someone sort of starting out in their career who wants to make a difference in the world or even just in their workplace?

Vikas: You’ve got to remember that wanting to change the world as a phrase is really naive because if that’s what you want to do, then you don’t really understand what you want to do. Sometimes having a wish or an urge to make a difference is powerful, but you then need to have the wish and the urge to do the work. You have to go and volunteer, find causes, research. There’s a lot of work to do to figure out where you can make an impact and make a difference, and you have to be committed, and you have to fight the battles. You have to realize that just sharing something on social media or signing a petition is not making an impact. You have to get to the table where decisions are made to do the really hard stuff.

Cortney: Can you share a personal firm belief that you have?

Vikas: Imagine you’re going to a dinner party with a group of strangers, and typically when you arrive in a room full of strangers, people will ask what you do for a living. The problem is for a lot of people, that’s also their identity. One of the most important things you can do in life is separate who you are from what you do and keep the two separate because who you are is really important.

It’s who you are, it’s your values, it’s everything that drives you and what you do [for work] will change over time and you can’t have that as part of your identity.

Listen to the full Firm Beliefs podcast.