The weave of beauty and design in building a beautiful business

Sometimes you need to step away. We gathered at a place called Porthean right on the Cornish Coast. You can taste the salty air, where the land, sea and sky interconnect. Over the last few days I have been working with a fabulous group of people from Poland, India, United Kingdom, Brazil, Estonia that make up a pioneering firm specialising in patents and IP. They are redesigning their industry at scale and speed. Some things deserve to become global as a platform.

We explored how beauty can be applied to a business. Starting with beauty: the natural world works regeneratively at scale, businesses should do the same. Then: purpose, the role of craftsmanship as practice and execution. Design expanding our understanding of its role and function that should deliver, experience and joy. Leadership and Legacy as in ‘world making’. The importance of wellbeing and culture, combined with wise thought and right action. We combined a philosophy with personal development, leadership and the reality of making  — it’s all about the weave.

These were some takeaways we felt leaders should ask

What does it mean to be a more Beautiful Leader? How can beauty inform how we lead, how we create the necessary conditions to inspire others? How can beauty inform the decisions and choices we make? How does connecting beauty to purpose take you to becoming a more able and graceful leader, a more effective and empathetic leader?’

These were some takeaways for leadership

• Only use: plain speech,
• Build community
• Listen deeply without judgement
• No matter the provocation it’s never wise to respond in anger
• Nurture and regenerate your culture
• Hire on values not only skills
• Create a culture of craft
• It’s OK to be wrong
• Show your vulnerability
• Respect is earnt, its not a title

These were some takeaways that we felt makers should ask

• Does it matter?
• Are these products and services we would want to sell to our families?
• Is it useful?
• Will it create legacy?
• Is it regenerative?
• Will it create a joyful experience?
• Is it transformative?
• Is it elegant?
• Does it feel inevitable?
• Will you enjoy the process?

We explored why beauty is the ultimate metric

Beauty surrounds us. We cannot bring beauty into this world unless we can see it in ourselves, we cannot bring beautiful business into this world unless we know how to lead with values, compassion, and determination. And we cannot make beautiful businesses unless we know how to make them.

I am excited to watch their growth and development as the CEO said, “now we will build a Beautiful Business”.

Journey further

• The CEO Guide to creating a beautiful business
• Doing Beauty: learning experiences
• Talking Beauty

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Beautiful Business helps people, teams and corporations deliver authentic, profitable restorative businesses through our Beautiful Leaders & Makers Programmes, and mentoring. For more information on how we can help you hello@beautiful.business