So much passes us by, unnoticed. We multi-task, switch between screens, work faster. When was the last time you paused to consider a beautifully made object or stunning natural landscape? Yet this is when our spirits lift, our soul is restored. My talk that I gave at the Hay Literature Festival invites us to rethink not only what we produce – whether it’s a website, a handmade chair, or a business – but how and why. What would your business look like if it were more beautiful?  

Hay Festival 2016

On today’s show I am off to meet Peter Childs, the inspiring Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College, London. Peter talks to me about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its role in our world: Automation, Robotics and how we might make all these beautiful. Intriguingly we discuss a question Peter asked me when we first met, what is the connection between the hymn Amazing Grace and the concept of beauty? Should beauty be taught throughout higher education? I discuss these ideas and more with Peter and whether beauty as a lens applies to the wider world of engineering, design and business.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Peter Childs Head Dyson School Design Engineering

Leaving a comet’s trail across the universe to inspire others. Beautiful Business Radio is celebrating businesses across the globe that are, enduringly beautiful. Companies that show, business can be worthwhile, meaningful and profitable. I think we’ve all had enough of ugly.

Interface was founded by Ray C. Anderson and incorporated as a company in 1973. It invented the concept of tessellating carpet tiles. In 1978 Interface sales had reached $11 million. The company went public in 1983. It is now a Fortune 100 company with a market cap of $1.53bn. However, Interface was not a good friend to the environment — its processes added to CO2 and pollution and its products could not be recycled. Ray decided things had to change, he went to his institutional investors and shared his vision of a company that would be fully sustainable by 2020. The response was, “great, but can it make money?” Ray initiated the programme and then sadly died. However, his vision and purpose thrived. What a legacy. I chatted with Geanne van Arkel – Head of Sustainable Development EMEA in Amsterdam. Geanne says that Interface no longer sees itself as a company that wishes to be sustainable, but one that uses the words ‘regenerative’ and ‘restorative’ as a business. Their goal is to source 100% recycled materials for its carpet tiles by 2020.

I asked Geanne if all businesses can be ethical and environmentally friendly — even scaling to become loved by the markets? Her response, “Yes. We have no choice, we are”. The question is, are you?

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Geanne Van Arkel Head Sustainable Development Interface

Today I am talking to Rod Drury the founder of Xero, an accountancy software company. We discuss the idea of legacy, beautifully written code, why beautiful businesses are the future and why craftsmanship plays such a key role in Xero’s enterprise design and customer experience. Rod Drury is a different sort of leader. As Peter Childs Head of The Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London said to me we need to educate engineers, makers, business leaders to become more ‘beautiful’ in their thinking. And here we are.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Rod Drury CEO Xero

Today I am talking to Dame Fiona Reynolds, ex Director General for the National Trust, now Master at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and a campaigner for protecting our natural environment for many years. In her book The Fight for Beauty, Fiona has a point of view that, the human spirit needs beauty, and can’t live without it; she says, we all strive for more beauty in our lives given half the chance. Fiona explains why the loss of the word beauty in our economic and business language does us so much harm, and why we need it back.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Fiona Reynolds The Fight for Beauty

Menno van Doorn is Director of the Sogeti Research Institute for the Analysis of New Technology (VINT). Menno shares his views on emerging technologies, Facebook anxiety, Robotic optimism, ‘machinefulness’, how AI might save us from ourselves, and self driving transportation. 

Right now, Menno is working on what he calls, ‘digital happiness’, his new research theme. The important question that should be asked is, what are the design principles for the artificially intelligent world? What are the robots going to do? The simple answer is: making us happy. We can program them in such a way, says Menno, that it improves our wellbeing, joy, and purpose in life (aka happiness). Design principles are emerging in a new scientific field called Positive Computing. We have only paddled in the shallow end of the digital world.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Menno Van Doorn Sogeti

Today I am talking beauty with Chef Christian Puglisi. Christian is the founder of Relae in Copenhagen, it is of the only organically certified Michelin starred restaurant in the world. Christian shares his ideas and beliefs on why; the quality of food, quality of leadership and the quality of experience for his customers is key to a beautiful business even a way of living. We talk about authenticity, purpose, and whether one can really make great food without love.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Christian Puglisi Chef Relae

Today I am talking beauty with craftswoman Alice Blogg. Alice is a designer, a maker of all things in wood. Alice shares her views on what a life of craft gives her — a joyful life of hard work, but one also, of enduring satisfaction. Explaining the importance of having respect for the living material she uses - wood. Alice touches on the need for meaning connected to living an authentic life. How and why 'craft' as a practice is so deeply wedded to our humanity. What we may have lost. Which is maybe a clue as to why it is that people are increasingly looking for the handmade, the authentic. Because there is truth in beauty and beauty takes us home.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Alice Blogg Craftswoman

Today I am in Cardigan Bay, west Wales. Where I am sitting down with my good friend David Hieatt. Dave is the co- founder of The Do Lectures and Hiut Denim Co. We talk about why I wrote Do Design and what does it mean to be a Beautiful Business. Dave and I have been talking about Beautiful Business for the best part of a decade and then some. Back and forth we go. We talk about a craftsman’s approach as a frame for life, where beauty is hard won, but so enduringly satisfying, not for the slog, but for the outcomes.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - David Hieatt Do Lectures, Hiut Denim

Konrad is the founder and CEO of Falcon who source green coffee from eighteen producing countries, and work with coffee roasting companies all over the world. You may not know this but according to Konrad only 15 million people grow the entire worlds insatiable thirst for coffee and all live in poverty. Konrad talks about purpose before profit, which means creating a resilient supply chain benefiting the growers over the long term. In this interview Konrad touches upon the same theme as Fiona Reynolds, in episode four, which is the shift in the values of young people who want to buy ethical goods with traceability and who want to work for companies that are purpose driven.

Beautiful Business Radio Show - Konrad Brits CEO Falcon Coffees

Alan Moore I am a maker, a business innovator.  I change the way people understand and think about the world, and how their businesses can succeed in a world of constant change. In essence, I help companies craft innovative, high performance businesses that are ethical, sustainable and restorative, yielding high commercial returns. Yes, it can be done. Building beautiful businesses is my life’s mission.

Alan Moore

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