Octopus Strategies is Swimming into a Merger with Junxion Strategy!

Octopus Strategies has earned a reputation for values-driven leadership, award-winning marketing, and the development of leading brands for a long list of remarkable social enterprises and NGOs.

Junxion Strategy has long been respected for its diligent mission to build environmentally and socially responsible organizations—in both the business and not-for-profit sectors.

Each firm has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades, including Octopus’s recognition this year among Think London’s ‘100 Companies to Watch,’ a list compiled by London’s foreign direct investment agency to recognize companies they think are “most likely to grow and flourish in the global economy.” Octopus was named in a category that also included Panasonic and LinkedIn.

“This already has been an incredible year for us,” explained Mike Rowlands, Founder & President of Octopus Strategies. “By uniting with Junxion Strategy, we’ll accelerate our growth, expand our reach and position ourselves to deliver an even greater impact with our work.”

Peter ter Weeme, Junxion Principal, agreed: “Together, we provide an incredible resource for leaders of 21st century organizations that are wrestling to achieve financial, social and environmental goals. The reality is that leading brands and enterprises in the years to come must be responsible to all three.”

By combining our companies, Octopus and Junxion are solidifying a powerful suite of services designed to help drive the successful brands, organizations and movements of the 21st century:

• Social Purpose consulting, to support the social enterprise and corporate social responsibility movements
• Sustainability strategy, to help organizations adapt to environmental imperatives that really can no longer be denied
• Outreach & Engagement, to help organizations of all kinds to market their products and services, develop donors, and build loyal followings

With a combination of offices in Vancouver, Toronto, London and Delhi, we unite world-class expertise and experience with a significant international reach. The new company will operate as Junxion Strategy.

We look forward to sharing more insights in the coming months, as we merge our operations… and announce more great news!

The ideal candidate will bring a strategic mindset, a passion for the emerging trends of social business, and at least three years direct experience leading brand and communication strategy projects. They will build positive and productive engagement teams, adapting project processes, while maintaining our core methodology, and upholding our values-driven approach.

View the full job description here.

The ideal candidate will bring a strategic mindset, a passion for the emerging trends of social business, and at least three years direct experience leading brand and communication strategy projects. They will build positive and productive engagement teams, adapting project processes, while maintaining our core methodology, and upholding our values-driven approach.

View the full job description here.

Part cafe, part gallery, part immersion in global electronica, W2 is an internationally connected media arts centre. What appears at first as a coffee shop par excellence is but the first step into an ambitious organization.

W2 Media Café is a euro-styled coffee house experience—a large scale space that has already begun to host and curate diverse social and cultural activity. On this weekend alone, W2 will play host to a Pride World Dance Party, an Artist Talk & Presentation by Pia Massie, and the launch of the Surge Festival of Urban Digital Culture. The café itself is an open, modern and welcoming space, where people can connect with stories, art, ideas and each other. (And fabulous coffee and food, or course!)

W2 will engage people from throughout its Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, and from other communities across the city. Local residents will be able to access media and arts tools and support, to discover compelling arts experiences, to decide for themselves the programming W2 will deliver—co-creating the centre’s work. Some of the anticipated programs include instruction in social and digital media; a micro-enterprise incubator, where aspiring social entrepreneurs can learn from experienced mentors; access to the ideas and work of artists who will take up residence at W2 from time to time; and training and access to a letter press machine that once belonged to the Woodwards store.

W2 is located where the renowned Woodwards store used to stand. Vancouverites tend to associate Woodwards either with the great shopping experiences of the 70s and 80s, or with Woodsquat, the activist occupancy of Woodwards, in protest of housing policies and programs in the Downtown Eastside. W2 Media Café sits today at a symbolic meeting point—where Vancouver’s world class waterfront meets the working class neighbourhood that’s so significantly misunderstood by so many Vancouver residents.

W2 is determined to address some of these misunderstandings, and to bring people and communities together. Today is the beginning of another important chapter in W2. Why not join us there for a cup of coffee and a conversation about the city we all love?

Octopus Strategies has been proud to work with W2 during the past few months, in the leadup to this opening. We heartily congratulate the team for all their hard work, their perseverance, and for holding so closely to the intent of the collaborative that formed eight years ago to achieve the vision that today is opening its doors to the city.

As the riot itself unfolded on live television, the riot’s instigators and youth caught up in the fray made countless posts to Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, recording and documenting their activities. Some of the images they posted were bizarrely compelling; others were undoubtedly evidence of criminal activity. (The ‘social media vigilantism’ of the following week has also been an interesting topic of vibrant discussion.) News of the riot quickly spread around the world, making cover stories in Australia, India and elsewhere. Vancouverites collectively hung their heads in shame that their fair city—which had received accolades for its positive celebrations during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games just 12 months before—should again showcase an ugly side.

Yet at the same time as the riot was unfolding, so too was the Clean Up Vancouver campaign. Launched on the night of the riots on Facebook, this simple campaign invited positive Vancouverites to come downtown the following morning to help clean up after their not-so-positive fellow citizens. By 7:00am, hundreds of people were downtown with brooms and dustpans; by noon, some reports suggested more than 10,000 had joined the Clean Up. Plywood boarding over the broken windows of one major retailer became the ‘Love Wall,’ on which people wrote messages of apology and respect.

This Jekyll and Hyde capacity of social media is both powerful and puzzling. It’s powerful in its capacity to rally thousands of people to positive action. Yet, it’s puzzling, because it as easily can be used to drive disruption. However and organization might choose to use social media and its unparalleled reach, posts and other content are there forever, for anyone to see. And it is precisely this unprecedented transparency that gives organizations pause. Should we open up?

In a recent keynote at the Institute of Fundraising‘s National Convention in London, UK, I spoke about one organization that seized the potential advantage of transparency—somewhat to its own surprise.

Charity: Water is a US NGO that provides clean drinking water to rural areas in some of the world’s poorest countries. They dig wells in countries of sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. Each year, they run a ‘September Campaign’ to celebrate the anniversary of their founding (September 7). A key feature of the campaign is the live, online broadcast of Charity: Water’s latest well drilling project. For their first three years, this had been a tremendous morale- and awareness-building opportunity.

September 7, 2010, also happened to be Charity: Water founder Scott Morrison’s 35th birthday. So he was excited to be drilling a new well—to be broadcast live, online—in Moale, Central African Republic. Geologists had identified a perfect spot, where water was anticipated to be accessible between 500 and 700′ below the surface. A special drill was brought in that was capable of drilling to 800′, cameras were set up, and drilling began. It takes hours and hours to drill that far into the ground, but by 9:00pm, the drill had penetrated some 300′ into the ground. That’s when disaster struck.

The bore hole collapsed on itself. During the live broadcast. Supporters and donors around the world saw Charity: Water fail at their core service. The funds they’d donated went completely to waste. And there was no hiding from the damage.

The Charity: Water team began again, and worked through the night to make a second attempt. It also failed. And the following morning, Morrison stood in front of the camera—still broadcasting live—and shared his disappointment openly and honestly with his viewers. He expected to be rebuked, to lose key funders, and to suffer criticism from supporters. The opposite turned out to be true.

“We appreciate your transparency,” said one Twitter contact. “I think this is perhaps even more important than sharing your successes,” said a Facebook post. “Even with the best planning, scientific data and equipment, you can have a myriad of problems… thank you for sharing your challenges,” said a field engineer that supports Charity: Water’s work.

Rather than punishment, Charity: Water was congratulated for their hard work, and for honestly sharing that 5% of their well-drilling attempts do fail. They aren’t infallible.

Their website received more traffic that day than in the history of Charity: Water. Their support solidified even further. And their donations took a positive, upward turn.

This sort of transparency is daunting to many. The ‘old school’ public relations approach would be to bury a story like this: Failures were not to be shared; they were to be shunned! But that was never realistic. And today, ‘keeping a lid’ on such a story is impossible: Just one Tweet from one field operator at Charity: Water would make the story public. Rather than hiding from this transparency, Morrison and Charity: Water seized it as an opportunity to forge valuable connections with important stakeholders around the world. What may have appeared to be risky was really just an exercise in openness and honesty.

Every organization—in business, in the social sector, and otherwise—must acknowledge that this transparency is the new reality. Hiding from it is an ostrich-like, self-defeating exercise. Opening to it, and seizing its advantages is one way to build relationships of trust and goodwill.

Ultimately, transparency is about respect. As Scott Morrison said, “Perhaps people wanted us to fail…. I don’t think so. I think people just want to know the truth.”

Demands on non-profits and social service agencies are already overwhelming capacity. And those demands will soar in the coming decade as people migrate to urban centres looking for work.

The complexities inherent in these new population dynamics and their consequent social impacts are difficult to fathom. As with any other complex problems, smart practices will allow for effective solutions to emerge. One of those is the development of social enterprise, a nascent, but growing sector that in some pockets is even outperforming traditional commercial business. Already recognized as an important part of the ‘Third Sector’ in the UK, and flashing on to the policy radars of governments across North America, social enterprise is a useful alternative to charitable fundraising for many NGOs and not-for-profit organizations.

The simplest definition of a social enterprise is a for-profit business operated by and for the benefit of a not-for-profit or charity. Many examples exist: Thrift stores that flow their profits to a designated charity, gift stores and cafes in public institutions, and so on. However, the diversity of models and of the jargon used to describe these double and triple bottom line organizations is confusing at best and detrimental at worst. “Social enterprise” or “social venture?” Or corporate “social responsibility?” Or “social purpose business?” While the terminology has its advocates, three models seem to be emerging as dominant:

• Social Enterprises with Indirect Benefits are those operated at arms length from their parent charities or the issues they support. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a working class community known for its runaway drug-related crime rates and as the destination for a multitude of barriered individuals, Pot Luck Cafe runs a catering business, the revenue and profits from which support hiring of local residents, a significant meals program, and a nutrition awareness program. While the catering business operates outside the neighbourhood, the indirect benefits of its work are diverse.
• Social Enterprise with Direct Benefits are those whose operations are its social programs. In the same Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, United We Can is a not-for-profit social enterprise that employs 22 local residents full-time, and more than 120 part-time in their bottle depot. Last year, over 1.6 million bottles and cans were redeemed through the depot by binners, creating an income stream that went directly into their pockets. Everyclick, a client of Octopus Strategies, has developed the Give as you Live® system, which helps online shoppers to generate charitable donations—at no cost to them. Online retailers simply agree to share a portion of their commission or revenues on purchases with the charity of each Give as you Live account-holders choice. The benefits are directly channeled to users’ favourite causes.
• Social Purpose Business Initiatives are those fueled either through the corporate social responsibility efforts of for-profit companies or their foundations. As companies move from chequebook philanthropy toward more engaged and mutually reinforcing programs of social engagement—and as they’re pressed to do so by concerned citizens, stakeholders and customers—their potential positive impact on social issues may be invaluable.

In each of these cases, “forward-looking organizations are aligning purpose with practical business programs, in service of profound community needs,” as has been asserted by David LePage of Enterprising Non-Profits in Vancouver. Social enterprises are a fundamental rethinking of the NGO space, in that they assume structured responsibility for funding programs that in a new era of conservatism and austerity, are no longer underwritten by governments.

Social enterprises are ambitiously confronting complex problems in myriad different ways. From the perspective of charitable fundraising, they provide examples of new models and new approaches that are replacing outdated modes of development. Smart fundraisers and not-for-profit leaders should be looking to these opportunities, particularly as the consider their capacity to develop much coveted unrestricted funding for their programs.

This is the second in a series of three posts that summarize a keynote presentation delivery July 7 to the National Convention of the Institute of Fundraising in London, UK.

Stories such as his strike a devastating blow to our faith in the goodness of humanity; sadly, it is too easy and far from accurate to dismiss Hamza’s story as the result of a deranged security officer. In fact, Amnesty has reported numerous other children and teenagers have been tortured and murdered since Hamza’s story broke around the world. So the problem is even more disturbing and complex than one would at first believe.

It is this complexity that fundraisers, activists and social change leaders face across a diverse range of issues and problems. From the Arab Morning to climate change to urban degradation, complex problems require distinct approaches from simple ones.

The Cynefin framework spells out a useful rubric for assessing four different types of problems:

1. Simple problems are like baking a cake, or raising funds for a program in an established charity. These problems are easily categorized, cause and effect are predictable, and best practices can be applied to resolve them.
2. Complicated problems are like landing an aircraft, or mounting a capital campaign for a new, major infrastructure project. Diverse factors must be analyzed and understood before good practices can be applied.
3. Complex problems are like raising a child, or resolving the crises spreading across the Middle East today. Cause and effect can only be assessed with the benefit of hindsight; we must respond without a full detailing of the problem, and allow the right practices to emerge as we work on solutions.
4. Chaotic problems have no systems-level cause and effect correlation. In situations like those faced by Banda Aceh in the days following the 2004 tsunami, equipped NGOs acted as best they could, analyzed how their efforts were working, and adjusted their approaches. They had to innovate in real time to deliver aid.

In the realm of fundraising, simple problems are easily addressed: Training for any fundraising designation will include learning of best practices that can be applied to simple problems. The same is essentially true for complicated problems, though these are more often addressed by teams who collectively can complete adequate analysis and assessment, before devising a plan. Chaotic problems necessarily require instinctive, rapid action; select NGOs such as CARE and the Red Cross are equipped to be this responsive, but each emergency requires different solutions. They learn and adapt in real time.

Complex problems, though, can only be addressed if diverse expertise, significant energy, openness to new ideas and approaches, and adaptive leadership are brought to bear.

During my keynote, I used the case of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest to explain how complex problems can be addressed through focused, structured, multi-party collaborations. After the successful completion of the Rainforest Solutions Project’s 10-year campaign to save the Great Bear, the team wrote and published a book that looks back at the campaign, its structure, and seven key lessons that they learned in the development of the collaborative that united NGOs, industry, First Nations and government. To their seven, I’ve added three additional criteria to define this list of guidelines for developing effective collaborations in the face of complex challenges:

1. Be Bold: Paint a clear, concise and compelling vision of change. This will rally and focus the team.
2. Build Power: Real change requires real influence. Understand where power lies, and engage those groups and individuals in the collaborative.
3. Create Coalitions: Find strength in numbers.
4. Build Common Ground: Create alliances of ‘strange bedfellows’—and learn from each other.
5. Lead from Shared Values: Establish codes of conduct early and collectively. How we work is as important as what we do.
6. Be Proactive: Design and drive the solutions. Demonstrate leadership, and share management.
7. Practice Humility: Lose your ego. No individual or individual organization has the answers, and being right today doesn’t at all imply we’ll have the right ideas tomorrow.
8. Stay Positive: Persistent optimism is infectious.
9. Mobilize Learning: Complexity requires emergent solutions. Mistakes will be made. Everyone involved must learn from them.
10. Build In Objectivity: It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture, when you’re involved day-to-day. A control committee is a powerful objective auditor.

Complexity can be daunting and overwhelming, but with appropriate strategy and productive collaboration, complexity can be addressed and the major issues we face can be resolved.

Hosted at Hollyhock, June 8 – 12, SCI brought together a group of 55 remarkably diverse individuals, each of whom is working on one or more of the most significant challenges we face: From the need to rethink our organizations and how they’re structured, to unification of distinct generations in service of challenges bigger than each of them, to the recognition that adaptation to climate change will be as challenging as reversing it, the questions posed at SCI required both widely expansive thinking and deep, personal engagement. And it is precisely there that the greatest lessons of SCI 2011 began.

To engage our biggest challenges (global climate change, violent revolution and conflict, urban poverty and degradation, and so many others), each individual must engage far beyond themselves—and far beyond their individual organizations. For no individual or single organization has the answers. Yet to engage others and to develop coalitions and collaborations, we must first be intimately connected with ourselves: We must know our own strengths and limitations; we must be ready to evolve, change and learn; and we must be aware that important, powerful work requires energized, objective perspectives. It’s all too easy to get lost in the big picture.

The ‘excruciating joy’ of SCI came from the conference’s remarkable design: Over the course of five days, the cohort moved from abstract, theoretical, big picture thinking to strategic discussions of organizational capacity and design, to focused ‘inner work.’ The alignment of purpose and passion in these successive layers of complexity was exciting and inspiring but also challenging. The expertise and dedication of conveners Stina Brown, Joel Solomon and Cara Pike made possible rare conversations and connections. Putting the personal into the organizational context, and the organizational into the global was a massive shifting of perspective for some. Many left Hollyhock humbled beyond belief, inspired beyond words, and ready to take up new modes of thinking, working and collaborating.

Collaboration itself was another key theme. In the face of the most complex problems mankind has ever confronted, simple answers don’t exist. Instead, effective resolutions require careful study and sensitive responses; “emergent practices” will present themselves as they percolate up out of wide-reaching collaborations. Yet, collaboration itself is elusive: As western mindsets continue to push for control of leadership, management and strategy, we simultaneously forestall inclusive and appropriate adaptations. As we explored together what those adaptations might be, we explored history, philosophy, management practices, group psychology, and so much more. The vast integrations made for densely scheduled days, and long, energized nights.

Sometimes, the adaptations we need will appear in enduring organizations—the ‘red dwarves’ that burn long and bright, fading only as their energy expires. (A metaphor presented in the opening plenary by Purpose’s Alnoor Ladha.) At other times, they’ll flash into being like ‘super novae,’ momentarily catalyzing massive change and evolution, before being shuttered, and allowing the energy that created them to move on to the next big thing. The very recognition that our organizations may or may not be required to endure—that strategy can be short term or long term, and indeed is stronger for this perspective—was a vital lesson for many at Social Change Institute.

As I return from Hollyhock into my work, I’m struggling to reconcile the seemingly boundless capacity of the SCI delegates with the every day minutiae of running a company. But I’m inspired and energized by the ‘Positive Mammals’ who showed up, and I’m grateful for our community.

It’s been nearly three years since I first visited Hollyhock—for Social Venture Institute, an experience about which I’ve posted before. Then, I was amazed and grateful to find a deeply like-minded group of individuals who were driven to unite the value of business with the business of values, to use our companies for the collective good. On returning from SCI this week, I have encountered (or realized) a new version of myself—one infinitely more comfortable in complexity, and spectacularly more effective. As is often the case, we knew when leaving Hollyhock that ‘reentry’ might be difficult. It is. It’s excruciating. Excruciating and joyful.

Octopus Strategies is proud to sponsor Social Change Institute and Social Venture Institute. Join us at Hollyhock in September for what promises to be another breakthrough gathering of visionary leaders and social entrepreneurs.

This morning’s piece focused on Jeff Skoll, the multi-billionaire who was the third person to join eBay. After helping to build that firm, and in the process, reinventing how commerce happens, Skoll has dedicated his time and his fortune to a focused, complementary group of companies and initiatives that collectively are working to address some of humanity’s and Earth’s most pressing problems.

After having the privilege to attend the 2011 Skoll World Forum, I can only echo the article’s implicit sentiment: Jeff Skoll is an important philanthropist. I share the article here for three reasons:

1. Skoll sets an important example to other wealthy individuals, demonstrating how they can effectively leverage their assets and positions for the common good.
2. Mentorship and storytelling are as important as charity and grant making. Skoll’s Participant Media arguably has done more to lift climate change awareness than any other public relations campaign. And the Skoll Centre’s focus on emerging social entrepreneurs is an astounding example of leverage in action.
3. Humility, once again, proves to be one of the most important leadership lessons. I didn’t have the pleasure to meet Jeff in person at this year’s Forum, but by all accounts his openness, approachability and warmth set another powerful example.

As we work to face some of the most vexing and complex problems humanity has ever encountered, it’s foolishly naive to believe any one individual—or organization, or government—can have the answers. What we need is the capacity to open ourselves to new communities, new ideas and new approaches. We need deep, values-driven leadership, including the capacity to collaborate across organizations, national boundaries and cultures. And we need people like Jeff Skoll to show us how its done.

Tuesday June 7, 3:30 – 5:00 PM

Followed by a social reception with 1% for the Planet Members, 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Cross Media Lab at W2 Media Cafe

111 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

Join us at the newly opened W2 Media Café for an interactive session with Mountain Equipment Co-op and 1% for the Planet. 1% for the Planet members are located in 44 countries, and each of their 1,400 business members donate at least one percent of revenues to environmental causes.

Led by BC-based businesses like Mountain Equipment Co-op, Sterling Lorence, Saul Good Gift Co., Horne Coupar, and Hemp and Company, 1% members have given over $3.2 million to Canadian NGOs like CPAWS, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the David Suzuki Foundation and dozens more since 2002.

Hear from 1% staff and MEC sustainability team about the 1% model and business value in being part of a network of companies investing over $20 million annually in grassroots environmental work and sustainability issues. After the meeting, please stick around for an informal cocktail reception with 1% members, NGOs, and fellow Vancouver business leaders

Please let us know if you’re planning to attend by emailing Danny: danny@onepercentfortheplanet.org. Questions? Contact Danny at 802-496-5408.

We hope to see you on June 7. Please spread the word!

P.S. Interested in learning more about 1% before the event? Please check out their short film, [one percent] of the story