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“We spent a whole lot of time as a family
coming up with experiences, ways of working
together, identifying a wise circle of advisors,
rituals, and other ideas that will support us
every day in living our plan—and having the
impact we dream about in this world.”

Part Three: Chapter 20
Your WEconomy Assignment: Build A 100-Year Purpose Plan

By Holly Branson

I started my WEconomy journey by telling you how Craig caught me unaware (and left me red-faced) by asking me what I wanted my legacy to be. The years since have been a massive learning curve for me in my new career at Virgin, as the Chair of Virgin Unite and a Founder and Trustee of Big Change.

At times the lessons were challenging, but they were, and are, always rewarding. I hope that by sharing my learnings and experiences, through the lens of the business and foundations I work for, you have a clearer understanding of some of the ways you can find meaning and make a living.

At Virgin, the desire to “Change Business for Good” started almost 50 years ago and it continues to be our focus. For my brother Sam and me, this means we are spending a lot of our time looking to the future. We believe our legacy is to build on the innovative work of people like Jean Oelwang, the team at Virgin Unite, and, of course, our father.

It's difficult to give a WEconomy how-to guide on building a century-long purpose plan. In many ways it is personal to you as an individual or so specific to the sector that your business/social enterprise operates in that only you will be in a position to pinpoint that legacy. I hope my experiences—first, through our business and foundation, and second, by sharing the journey we are currently on as a family—will give you some hints and tips to help you on your way to building a better future for generations to come.

Your journey through WEconomy has brought you to this point—no matter what stage you are at in your quest to define and embed your purpose, never lose sight of the future. It is there that your greatest positive impacts will be realized.

To talk about the future and building your purpose legacy as a company, charity, or social enterprise, I first need to take you to the past.

Thirteen years ago I was still knee-deep in my medical training when Virgin Unite was launched. I attended their Unite events with what precious little free time I had between rounds at the hospital and my studies. I was fascinated by Virgin Unite's innovative approach to business and charity and how they should work together. Believe me when I say that Unite's approach, now with over a decade of success, was truly revolutionary. This was all thanks to one passionate, inspiring, and driven woman, the wonderful Jean Oelwang, now the President of Virgin Unite.

Jean took me through all of Virgin Unite's plans around the time of launch, but to me, back then, they were so unique and my brain was so full of medical jargon that I couldn't quite grasp some of the concepts. Jean and the team at Unite planned to move beyond traditional charity to tackle social and environmental problems with an entrepreneurial lens and a business-based approach. I cannot stress how innovative this was back in 2004.

But Then Again Pretty Much Anything is Possible When Two Visionaries Unite …

It all started with a car journey … and the planets aligning, of course.

As Virgin's success grew globally, and dad was no longer hiding from the company's bank manager who camped out on our doorstep on quite a few occasions, his attention started to shift. Instead of worrying about how to keep the brand afloat and pay the wages, he wanted to focus on what sustainable difference the brand could make in the world.

I've talked previously about some of the great initiatives that the group launched to address pressing social crises—some of these initiatives were rapid response answers to immediate needs. They raised crucial awareness and funds at critical times but then, as is always the case, the world would move on. Dad got to a place where he wanted to build a legacy, through business, that would result in positive, long-term change on a global scale.

Simultaneously, a young marketing director named Jean Oelwang, working for mobile phone company MTN in South Africa, had an epiphany. MTN had just launched a prepaid phone service against the advice of experts who said there was no mass market for mobile phones in the townships. One month into its launch, however, MTN blew past its annual sales target and Jean and the team were dispatched to understand why. What they found in the townships was a beehive of entrepreneurial activity: people selling phone calls out of suitcases and trailers; vendors using mobile phones to buy and sell food and services. “That was a huge turning point in my life,” Jean later told me. “I realized that you didn't have to work for a nonprofit to do good. You could cook it into an existing business.” MTN had introduced an affordable tool that allowed the country's poorest citizens to improve their lives and raise their family incomes.

“Of course an individual can make a huge difference, but it's when those individuals come together with like-minded souls that they can change the world forever and, importantly, for the better.”

—Richard Branson

Now, let's get back to the planets aligning, this time over Australia. That same marketing director was now joint CEO of Virgin Mobile Australia and just happened to find herself sharing a car with the big boss—a.k.a., my dad. During the ride Jean was amazed to discover that the Virgin Group supported around 2,000 charities, but each was supported on an individual basis. It was yet another lightbulb moment—Jean was buzzing with excitement—surely there was a way to combine the efforts of all the Group companies to make a far greater impact, this time together.

Easy, right?!

They set about the task of redefining how a diverse, global brand viewed charity. First, the fledgling Virgin Unite team developed and presented a compelling business case for change. Remember that 13 years ago this was a very unusual approach for a charity to take. They encouraged the businesses to think longer term. Instead of forming short-term partnerships with charities, they asked them to think about a social issue the business could really stand for, and have real and lasting impact on. They pitched the idea that the businesses could achieve much more by mapping and leveraging all their assets rather than by simply writing charity checks.

Over the past decade the team have used Dad's entrepreneurial spirit and the best of Virgin to grow and develop organizations and partnerships such as The Elders, Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room, and The B Team (you're familiar with The B Team from the chapter “People Are Your Purpose”), to name just a few. I am unashamedly proud to say that Virgin Unite broke the charity mold by bringing together business, charity, governments, civil society, and entrepreneurs to find solutions to the greatest challenges we face today.

But what does the future hold? Or, more importantly, who will be responsible for holding and protecting it?

As we look into the next 10 years and beyond at Virgin Unite we are working on our next disruptive collaboration—this time with young people from all over the world. Just as we turned to The Elders for their wisdom and advice in tackling many of the world's most pressing issues, we believe that now is the time to harness the power, energy, and ideas of a younger generation in a similar way—a group we call: The New Now.

Virgin Unite

Virgin Unite is the entrepreneurial foundation of the Virgin Group and the Branson family. Virgin Unite was started with the aim of bringing people together to encourage them never to accept the unacceptable, to turn challenges into opportunities, and to always push boundaries that make both businesses and the world better.

Overhead costs are covered by the Branson family and the Virgin Group, meaning that 100 percent of all donations received go directly to initiatives that Virgin Unite creates or supports.

Virgin Unite's goal is to unite people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world. There are so many challenges facing the world today, but Virgin Unite believes that by bringing the right people together and taking an entrepreneurial approach, they can create positive change.

Virgin Unite works in several ways

Uniting Leaders: Virgin Unite's convening power and entrepreneurial spirit has enabled them to build new alliances and work with some great partners to incubate and launch new leadership initiatives such as The Elders, Carbon War Room, The B Team, and Ocean Unite.

Uniting Entrepreneurs: Virgin Unite supports entrepreneurs to put people and planet at the heart of their businesses and, in turn, impact the communities around them.

Uniting Voices: Virgin Unite speaks up and uses the strength of their voice to shine a spotlight on unacceptable issues, raising awareness and driving action on important issues ranging from conservation to human rights.

At the heart of Virgin Unite is collaboration; in everything they do they bring together like-minded people, organizations, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and inspirational leaders to collaborate for good, creating a powerful global community that is able to drive positive change.

Witness us celebrating 10 years of Virgin Unite: Click for video

While young people feel accountable for these global challenges, their voices often go unheeded when the powers that be make decisions that will affect generations to come. This generation must have a say in what happens in the world. After all, these are the people who will shape the future: for us, for them, and for those who will come after.

Our ambition is to bring together a group of future-focused leaders who will collectively inspire a rising generation to shape decisions for tomorrow's world. We hope that by supporting this group, we will play our part in lifting up new leaders in their communities and the wider world and ensure that the voices of this generation are influential and transformational.

The New Now is just one approach—we are mindful of the shoulders we stand on and those we stand beside. We intend to work with and support other individuals, organizations, and movements to ensure we always act in the most effective and positive way possible. By working together for humanity and the planet, we will hopefully build a better future for everyone.

Over half of the world's population is under 30 years of age; this is a generation who have an unprecedented opportunity and capacity to innovate new solutions and scale new movements to drive positive change. As we have touched on elsewhere in the book, it is also a generation that has inherited a raft of global challenges—from climate change to increasing inequality and rising intolerance.

I see this organization as the next step in shaping tomorrow's world. Working with the team at Virgin Unite (and with Sam) to convene, develop, grow, and launch an organization run by the young men and women who are the guardians of our future gives me a profound sense of hope for what is yet to come.

As an Individual, a Community, or a Family, How Do You Want to Shape Tomorrow's World?

As a family, when we started to look to the future we asked ourselves two questions:

What do we want the world to be like in 100 years' time?

How do we want to leave the world for our grandchildren?

By making these questions personal to you they really help focus your efforts to invest in a long-term purpose plan that will shore up the future for generations to come.

Finally I believe I am in a position to answer Craig's tricky question: “What do you want your legacy to the world to be, Holly?” Simply put, I want to build one that will last, with my family.

We have just started to lay the foundations of what we are calling our Seven Generations Plan, based on the beautiful Iroquois philosophy:

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. As we begin our sacred work of tribal decision making, let us hope that our decisions today as well as the care, deliberation, and wisdom we use in making those decisions will be honored by and truly beneficial to the members of our tribe seven generations from today, as we today honor the decisions made by our ancestors seven generations ago.”

—Iroquois Maxim (circa 1700–1800)

So why not choose today to get started on your WEconomy assignment: Build Your 100-Year Purpose Plan. You'll be amazed at what you'll discover along the way and how much you will grow. It'll be emotional at times (and not just in a good way!), but rewarding and powerful always.

I am lucky to live a life where I am constantly being challenged, one in which I continue to learn and am surrounded by inspirational and innovative people. The day-to-day demands of business, Virgin Unite and Big Change, and motherhood gives me a reason to wake up and embrace the day, every day, with a smile.

I'd like to take you through some of the steps we have taken so far. It is still early in the development of our Seven Generations Plan but I hope you'll find the steps below easy to follow whether you are a business, an organization, or an individual.

Tips to Kick-Start Your Weconomy 100-Year Purpose Plan:

img Individual life-planning: This was the first important step for us, making sure we each individually put in the work before we came together as a family. Going through the exercise of individual life planning really helped us to figure out how we should focus our energy and get crystal clear on what's important and what's not. This process helped me further clarify who I am—defining my values and purpose—then helped me better understand the values of my husband, Freddie. This foundational step was incredibly important before we started the wider family work. It's not as difficult as it sounds, either—if you can't access an organization to help you get started, then you can find guidance in books, websites, blogs, and other sources. Even sitting with colleagues and friends and discussing what you would like to achieve and the steps you can take to achieve them can be very useful.
img Listening and learning: We were in The Rockefeller Foundation office and I noticed that they had over 100 years of plans lining the wall. We didn't want to reinvent anything, so we took lots of time (and continue to take time) listening to others to see what's worked and what hasn't across the generations.
img Purpose: What positive impact does each member of the family (or team!) want to have both on their own and collectively? What is your why AND our why together as a family? Define your collective purpose. Many of the principles outlined in this book have shown you exactly how to do this as a company, charity, or social enterprise and as an individual.
img Identify: Define your individual or company or family virtues and values to create a moral compass for future generations. This is a bit like building a great trunk for your family tree that will help ensure all the branches have support in future decision making.
img A vision of the world we want: What is the world you want to leave to the next seven generations? How can you bring this to life as something that can evolve and be shared with future generations? A truly inspiring part of the process was seeing what emerged from the collective family vision. It was loads of fun to visualize it to remind us of what we are hoping to achieve in the future. Why not make this a team away-day, an all-company brainstorming; make it as creative and fun as possible so your people feel free to be open about the future they would like to realize for the world. Remember, we are thinking BIG here!
img Structure: None of this is worthwhile unless you have a plan for how you are going to make it happen. This step is about creating an ongoing framework for implementation that evolves with your family, business, or organization and provides lifelong learning, joy, and, most important, lasting impact.
img Capturing and living your plan: We spent a whole lot of time as a family coming up with experiences and ways of working together, identifying a wise circle of advisors, rituals, and other ideas that will support us every day in living our plan—and having the impact we dream about in this world.

Memories in the making.

3 Generations

Celebrating Virgin Unite's 10th Birthday

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