Faisel Rahman, Fair Finance & Lars Kolind on Business, Morality and Making Money
Another great video from our archives to get your thinking. In this Faisel Rahman and Lars Kolind discuss whether morality can be used as a technique to make money.
If a company focuses on morality in order to make money, doesn’t this devalue the morality? Shouldn’t companies be good simply for the sake of being good?
Faisel Rahman, Founder, Fair Finance belives business should be good but the question is why isn’t it? The reason for this is that most money going into businesses is not interested in being good, it simply wants a fast return.
On the other hand, Fair Finance works because they grow slowly. They build relationships and value and give a return over time. This return is no more or less than if the money had been invested in what Faisel calls “bad things”.
The problem currently is that there are not enough people wanting to invest in this way as there is insufficient evidence so far to show they will get their money back. What is needed are many more businesses where people can invest in this way instead of putting it into the money markets. News will then spread and it will become a more common form of investment.
Lars Kolind, former Chair, Grundfos believes that morality is not the most important thing, it is more about focusing on making a positive difference.
Currently the conventional view is to invest to make money then give some away to good causes. It should happen the other way round. You should start by doing something good. Doing this smartly has the potential to make a lot of money, which means you can then do more good.
Grundfos gives away next to nothing to charities as they believe they do more good by further developing and growing the company. Lars calls this “doing well by doing good”.
SPEAKER INFO:
Faisel Rahman and Lars Kolind were key speakers at Wavelength Connect event On Your Marks 2012. To view more videos from this event go to On Your Marks 2012.
Click on the link to view more videos from Faisel Rahman and Lars Kolind.
COMPANY INFO:
Fair Finance is a social business based in London. They offer a range of financial products and services designed to meet the needs of people who are financially excluded. They aim to revolutionize personal finance, starting with the people whom the mainstream providers have left behind.
Grundfos believes our joint future lies in more energy-saving behaviour, new forms of energy and sustainable production. Therefore, now and in the future, Grundfos will continue to spend their resources on promoting sustainability in all forms – among themselves, their customers and business partners.