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  • Tania Ellis
  • November 1, 2018
eight mental models for wisdom leadership

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS STARTS FROM WITHIN

When companies talk about scale they usually talk about growth of size or profit. But what about using your business to scale compassion and empathy? This is exactly what CEO of Frokost.dk, Martin Bjergegaard, has set out to do.

WARM-HEARTED, WHOLE PERSON AND WORLD-FOCUSED

These are the three Ws that serial entrepreneur and CEO Martin Bjergegaard lives by – whether it’s starting a new business or choosing who he wants to work with.

Martin has had ample opportunity to proof-test these principles.

He’s the founder of 10 companies and co-founder of Rainmaking – a company that turns ideas into business and invests in start-ups – which so far has launched 25 companies across its offices with 200 team members in Copenhagen, London and Berlin.

FROM PROFIT-FIRST TO PURPOSE-FIRST

In 2005 the lunch catering startup Frokost.dk was built as a spin off from Rainmaking.

As CEO of the company, Martin has grown the startup into a successful business with offices in Denmark and The Netherlands, 30+ employees and annual revenues of more than 20m EUR.

But to Martin Bjergegaard, success in business is about more than organizational and financial growth.

Business must also serve as a workplace that genuinely cares for its team members and that gives them the best possible foundation for engagement, collaboration, health and well-being.

That’s why Martin has kick-started a transformational process in Frokost.dk, where purpose is put before profit, and where consciousness, care and compassion are centre-stage.

THE INSIDE-OUT PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability in business is not only a corporate matter. It’s also a personal one.

How to build your business into something big, sustainable and widely recognized – and still lead a happy, whole and balanced life, is therefore something that has intrigued Martin for years.

He has coined this as “Winning WIthout Losing”, which is also the title of a book that he co-authored back in 2013.

For Martin Bjergegaard, the change towards developing a more conscious business has started with his own inner journey through mindful awareness and meditation.

As Martin explains: “By dropping into the heart all feelings of stress and being squeezed will seize to exist. From this place, and only from this place, can we build something that is truly benefitting the whole.”

And this is exactly what he has set out to put centre-stage of the internal change process in Frokost.dk

As he explains:“Love and compassion in business is important. Profit is a natural byproduct of creating value for others.”

GET HOW-TO INSIGHTS FROM MARTIN BJERGEGAARD

Martin Bjergegaard was one of the key note speakers at the miniconference on  “Purpose, Passion & Personal Sustainability” in The Social Business Club.

At the miniconference Martin Bjergegaard shared insights into how he is using compassion and love to transform Frokost.dk from within to be a more purpose-focused company.

Get key insights into how Martin Bjergegaard works with Purpose, Passion and Personal Sustainability at Frokost.dk in this video interview:

 

During the miniconference participants and key note speakers discussed, networked and exchanged experience and ideas on how you can integrate purpose, passion and personal sustainability into your business and (work) life.

THE SOCIAL BUSINESS CLUB

The Social Business Club is an open international network forum for professionals from around the world with an interest in innovative and sustainable business practices that create value for society and the bottom line – from CSR and social entrepreneurship to social innovation and shared value. The network is hosted by Tania Ellis, founder of The Social Business Company. 

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