#NedbankIMC2024: Frank van den Driest – How marketers can drive more humanised growth?
Frank van den Driest, founder of the Institute for Real Growth, says driving humanised growth is a marketing task. “Marketers can lead it, but it starts with yourself and your attitude.”
Frank van den Driest, founder of the Institute for Real Growth (Image supplied)
The #NedbankIMC conference took place on Thursday, 19 September at The Focus Rooms, Johannesburg, where a lineup of international and local experts shared their knowledge with 2,000 delegates who attended virtually and in person.
Bizcommunity chatted to some of the speakers.
“The Institute for Real Growth is a not-for-profit independent platform that helps CMOs and other senior growth leaders drive more humanised growth. And that’s exactly what I talked about here at the IMC,” says van den Driest.
In his talk, van den Driest laid out a roadmap to drive humanised growth.
- Grounding
“It starts with knowing yourself – where you come from, what your roots, strengths, DNA, culture, and values are as well as your customers, employees, regulators, and all other stakeholders, their needs what’s important to them, and how those things impact your company.”
- Reimagining the future
“Instead of extrapolating trends from the past and assuming the future will follow a linear trajectory, reimagine it backwards.”
But, he says, it’s not only about laying out that vision; it’s also about articulating your company’s aspirational role in that future—also known as purpose.
However, he warns that he is a little wary of the word “purpose” because it has become somewhat contaminated, so a business needs to be very healthy to be purposeful.
He shared a model of four overlapping circles, where a strong purpose sits at the intersection of these four, even if it skews towards one.
- Focusing on transformative change
Following this the company needs to hard choices to ensure your focus that will give you an integral value-creation strategy for all stakeholders.
- Organising for systemic change
Part of creating value for all stakeholders means understanding that you are part of a bigger system and driving systemic change.
“Interdependence is key—you need me, and I need you for both of us to win. That starts internally by breaking down silos.“In high-performing companies, marketers are more connected with other functions than in underperforming companies,” he says.