“Design with a Purpose.”
By Digital Strategy — November 16, 2011 - 8:00 am“You accomplish more with curiosity than with experience. In fact, experience is the foe of curiosity.”
What He Said: Erik Joule, head of Levi’s Men’s Merchandising, Design and Licensing team across the Americas, leads the global strategy initiative on sustainability for Levi’s. Joule got our attention with some powerful words: “There are many ways to change the world. And business has a possibility to do that.” Levi’s wanted to reduce the impact they were having on water usage; after all, it takes 45 liters of water to make a single pair of jeans. By turning their production process upside down, they were able to come up with a process that reduced water usage 28%-98%, ultimately saving 172 liters of water. And as if that weren’t enough…they didn’t keep this new process proprietary! They released a small amount (1.6 million units) of these jeans in the spring of 2011, in an effort to balance both profitability and broad appeal. A win-win on all fronts.
What We Heard: Companies need to go beyond just making a profit; they need to find a way to balance profits and principles. Plus, in this age of transparency, the concept of open source is no longer just for developers. Companies have an opportunity to share their learnings with the world, including even their competitors. Joule left us with the wisdom of Socrates, who said, “all that I know is that I know nothing.” As business leaders, we have to constantly challenge the established process. In fact, Joule argued that it’s with innocence that we can see things that experience simply can’t teach us: “if you invest yourself in looking, you can see.” Whatever it is that you’re in the business of doing….if you were to start your business today, would you do it the same way?
Talk by Erik Joule, Levi Strauss & Co.
