What if e-commerce was seen as a boon for independent bookstores instead of being their existential threat?

Based on the outskirts of Oxford, Tap Social is a small craft brewery with its own cafe, bar and social space.

It’s now commonplace for businesses to talk fondly of failing, as if getting things wrong is admirable.

It’s often said that people don’t like change but maybe this statement is an oversimplification. One theory is that it’s not change, in itself, that we fear but what we might lose as the result of it.

If we’re saying that the way business works today needs to change, we need to do a sense-check on the assumptions we currently hold. Because, on closer inspection, they may not be true.

One unexpected side effect of the pandemic is that it has revealed just how much we were deluding ourselves beforehand.

When the world stopped turning we began to notice an increasing number of inequalities. As if they had previously been shrouded from view. And now we could see these inequalities in high definition.

Covid-19 has been a shot in the arm for the P word.

Ever since ‘that’ Simon Sinek video started doing the rounds, Purpose has been on the radar of most self-respecting business leaders.

Simon Sinek’s renowned Ted Talk in 2009 on ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action’(1) introduced us to the ‘golden circle’ and the importance of the why that sits behind brands rather than the what and the how. It has had over 50 million views. It did a great job of drawing our attention to the importance of asking ourselves ‘why we do business’.