We recently sat down with John Roulac, CEO and Founder of Nutiva, to speak about purpose driving powerful storytelling and business growth opportunities. As a veteran entrepreneur – who started three companies by the time he was 14! – John provides tangible insights for how socially-minded companies can leverage storytelling for building business. With Nutiva’s core mission to ‘revolutionize the way the world eats’, the company is no stranger to thinking, acting and communicating boldly.
During our conversation, John shares the following insights:
View social media as a great transparency opportunity with your customer community, to educate and engage on issues important to both them and your brand.
Purpose can drive brand growth. Understanding who you are and where you want to head (your true north) is essential to communicating on your brand purpose.
Tie your purpose throughout your supply chain. Nutiva not only sources certified organic and fair trade certified products, they also partner with local organizations to divert waste into compost of animal feed. They are also working towards a zero waste policy, which John notes is most certainly a journey.
Educating your team on important sustainability goals is critical to achieving them. In doing so, your team can participate in optimizing resources, proposing innovative ideas, and move the needle on your environmental and social impact initiatives.
Focus on culture, sooner than later. If you create the right culture where people are educated and aligned then you can move mountains. If you don’t, then it will be harder to move forward especially when you have a growth issue.
Lessons learned? Be humble, don’t take things personally, don’t give up.
On looking to the future of purposeful brands, John heeds a critical piece of advice – your customers are your best ambassadors, focusing on wowing them and you can avoid over-allocating significant funds on polished agency work.
