Many professionals in the Bay Area wonder how to use their talents to make a difference. Even those who aspire to excel in business have similar aspirations of promoting social causes and making lasting impact. As innovators in our community, it’s important to ask ourselves what good are we going to do with all of our talents?
Several weeks ago on November, I had the privilege to introduce a good friend, John Coyne, as a guest speaker at Santa Clara University’s Graduate Business School. The event, which was hosted by a student group called Net Impact, was called, “Good Marketing: How the power of marketing can change the world.” It was a spectacular event considering that about 40+ students showed up on a Friday evening to listen to a panel discussion (a night when most would choose to party and otherwise socialize!).
As one of two guest speakers, John wowed the crowd with fascinating stories of his experience working at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, a world-renowned advertising company based out of San Francisco. He spoke about how doing good and doing business can go hand in hand; that, contrary to popular opinion, you can be a marketer without have to do bad all day. He also shared a video relating to how his efforts to promote Hacking Autism and a partnership with Hewlett Packard has made an incredible impact not only at his company but also at HP.
The audience also had a chance to ask questions relating to what a lot of us may be thinking. How can we make an impact using our talents as professionals in the Bay Area? John’s answer was very compelling. He said that we should figure out what causes we are passionate about (whether it be helping out foster children, children with special needs, developing nations, etc.) and start doing something. It can be anything as long as we are determined to put in effort to see our visions come true. I could tell that people were enthusiastic for the topic because they had so many good follow up questions and really wanted to keep the conversation going.
At the conclusion of the event, we all hung around for a bit of meet and greet. It wasn’t difficult to strike up conversations about ideas for doing good in business because we already had heard from someone taking action. Everyone was feeling good about possibilities of doing good and many new relationships were built.
What good do you want to do in the future and what relationships will you build to help make your ideas into reality?