What Sex, Soap and Alcohol Taught Me About Making an Impact | Myriam Sidibe | TED

Everyone talks about building a better world.

But let me tell you, without a business model designed to get us there,

it's just wishful thinking.

In the private sector, we've seen retreat: DEI diluted, ESG scaled back,

brands that were once bold are afraid of being called woke.

It was like a purpose gold rush.

They all rushed in, dug around for a bit, thought it was hard.

And they're moving on.

And I say stop!

Your business models are failing you.

Your business models are failing society, and they’re failing us.

And you know what?

And just as the private sector is retreating, aid is disappearing.

Progress on everything, from women's health, climate change, education, isn't just stalling, it's reversing.

Yet the needs have not shrunk.

They have grown deeper, louder, more urgent.

Now the key question is:

How are we going to reduce the gap between what is really needed

and what's being done?

The answer isn't more philanthropy.

And it isn't finger pointing.

We need to fix business models.

And the way we will fix business models is together.

Because we need to create a new kind of value for people,

planet and profit.

And this is what I came to speak to you about.

I've been working at this space for decades.

At the intersection of public health and global brands.

I'm an author, a long-time campaigner on ethical business.

And you know what excites me the most?

It's when I get companies to dream up their mission in a way

that they can help solve a global problem.

Whilst being great for the business.

And let me show you how that's worked.

So first, I never expected to be working in a corporation trying to solve

a global problem.

I grew up at a dinner table where the main course served was justice.

This is me with my parents.

Economy students that ended up living their ideals, became aid workers.

Me and my younger siblings were raised between refugee camps and UN report briefings.

And every night was a lesson in inequality and possibility.

This is us living in rural Mali, next to Timbuktu.

And it is in places like this

that I grew my conviction

that I wanted to make a difference for the most vulnerable in this world.

Years later, when I went on to do my doctorate in public health,

I came across a staggering fact.

Over one million people could be saved by something

as simple as handwashing with soap.

And mostly children under five,

not dissimilar from the age of my siblings in this picture.

And yet, only one person in five washed their hands after the toilet.

Oh, well.

And a massive opportunity for a bar of soap.

So fueled with all this conviction and this desire to save lives,

I joined the world's largest soap manufacturer, Unilever.

In countries like India and Bangladesh, where child mortality was obscenely high,

soap was already in eight out of 10 households.

And the iconic bar of soap, red Lifebuoy, was in the market leaders.

So what was the problem?

The technology was there.

Obviously, the challenge was behavior change at scale.

Because soap on shelves doesn’t save lives.

Behavior change does.

So we reimagined our business model around three things.

We committed for the long haul because behavior change takes time, trust and trial.

Two, we put the impact need at the core of our business model.

Lifebuoy’s mission became help a child reach five.

And that single focus enabled us to think about product innovation,

marketing and market expansion very differently.

Three, we embraced radical collaborations, collaborations with government, foundations, NGOs, even our competitors.

We didn't just attract partners, we built believers.

And you know what happened?

Well, this -- we co-created the largest hygiene program in the world.

We changed the behavior of one billion people.

Let me repeat that.

One billion people.

(Applause) That's the equivalent of one in seven people.

And Lifebuoy did become a one-billion-dollar brand.

Proof that what's good for society can be great for business.

I spent 15 years of my career working on Lifebuoy.

And this is what I've learned.

Through persistence, failures and belief.

Real impact does not happen overnight.

It never happens alone.

And when you create value for both business and society,

that's when real change happens.

And any one of us can do the same.

Which may sound impossible, but in this playbook of not overnight, never alone,

creating value in business and society, we have the playbook for success.

I can already hear you say, "Well, that's easy.

It's a soap bar.

How difficult can that be?

Low risk, benign functional product."

But our playbook applies to any business.

Now let me take you to South Africa,

where one in three women face gender-based violence.

Where most murders are committed by an intimate partner.

An unlikely ally?

A beer brand?

Well, Carling Black Label, long trusted by men,

used that influence to confront toxic masculinity.

Since 2017, they've been driving their #NoExcuse campaign

and workshops in townships with grassroots organizations

and redefining what manhood should be:

strength through respect.

Teaching men how to drink smartly.

And the results of that,

40 percent of men publicly standing up against gender-based violence

and more brand love from women

and men.

Now we have not solved gender-based violence.

Let's just get that straight.

But we've seen what can be done when unlikely allies do step up.

And when brands do align with their consumer to try to shift something

and change norms.

Real things just change.

Change happens right there and then because you're not just selling a product.

Our playbook has worked across the world,

and here's something else that we've learned in the process.

A mission isn't what one brand can and should do alone.

A mission is what none of us can do alone.

Let me now introduce you to someone very brave and close to my heart.

Her name is Fatima.

She's 15, smart, brave, curious.

She's a voice.

And she's built through a radical collaboration between local partners and AI.

She represents millions of girls.

Girls who miss school every month because of their periods.

Girls who navigate and hide in shame and stigma and sometimes violence.

Girls, who in the most desperate moment will trade sex for pads.

Yes, it happens.

And yes, it's preventable.

Now we've gathered hundreds of stories across Africa in their own languages,

and soon the world.

And what Fatima does is that she synthesizes their voice,

not to speak for them,

but to speak with them and tell us what they want,

which is mental health support, contraceptive access in dignity, creative freedom, leadership skills,

safe places to dream and grow and learn.

Now these stories are not just emotional, they're systemic.

I always say that everything I've learned about building a mission-driven economy,

I have learned from sex, soap and alcohol.

(Laughter) (Applause) You know, strange bedfellows, yes.

But they're at the front lines of inequality, culture and transformation.

And they've taught me

that when you deal with what's hard

and you do it ethically,

then brands can be a powerful engine for dignity and change.

Now we have a chance to create the world we want to live in.

A world where business doesn't perform just for optics.

We don't need to have many, many, many more chief marketing officers.

But what I need is for each one of you to unleash this inner

chief mission officer.

You know that person who's obsessed about driving positive impact for billions of people.

Because that's within reach.

But you can't do this overnight.

Not alone.

And by creating value for business and society,

that's when we go from mission impossible to mission possible.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)