What led Chivas Regal to launch The Venture Campaign?
As a brand we believe in ‘winning the right way’. And when we commissioned research polling 2,000 young professionals about their attitudes towards business we realised that we weren’t alone in this philosophy. In fact, we found out that today’s emerging Gen Y entrepreneurs are more motivated by having a positive impact on society than by purely pursing profit and personal gain. So we launched The Venture to support the most promising aspiring social entrepreneurs who want to succeed whilst making a positive impact on the lives of others.
With over 100 applications in the UK alone, how difficult is the judging decision to pick the finalists?
All 16 finalists have had to battle it out in a number of rounds in order to get to this final stage. Entries were initially judged on five criteria: purpose, viability, scalability, practicality and credentials. In the UK, Chivas Regal worked in conjunction with Rajeeb Dey, CEO of Enternships to whittle down the applicants to ten finalists.
Those finalists then had a face to face interview with Rajeeb and a panel of experts to select the final five finalists – Delivered Next Day Personally, Fluency, Two Fingers Brewing Co., Supercarers and Virtually Free. Finally, the last five standing pitched in front of each other and each finalist voted for who they thought should win amongst their peers. The winners, Two Fingers Brewing Co., is a craft brand that donates 100% of its profits to Prostrate Cancer UK. They particularly impressed the other finalists with their business concept and potential scalability.
The final of The Venture takes place in Silicon Valley, known worldwide for producing high-growth digital businesses. Why did you decide to hold the final of The Venture here?
Silicon Valley is the epicentre of the start up world so it was the natural choice of venue for our final. In the week leading up to The Venture final pitch the finalists will attend an Accelerator Week where they will receive mentorship from influential figures in social enterprise and companies such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Google, Duarte and IDEO who are all based in San Francisco
Do you envisage The Venture being an annual campaign for Chivas Regal? Do you see the scale of the campaign growing into more regions?
We already have more countries signed up for The Venture 20156/16 which is hugely exciting. At Chivas Regal we believe that the notion of success is not only about making profit, but also helping to improve the lives of others. Our Venture finalists are the perfect embodiment of that ethos. We are embarking on a long term commitment to support this movement and find even more promising businesses that can make the world better.
Is the ‘winning the right way’ mantra an essential one for all new and established businesses to adopt and would you like to see a conscious change in all businesses towards providing social value in the future?
Our report – one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind – makes it clear that ‘Winning the right way’ is and will increasingly become a necessity if businesses want to stay relevant in the market place. 87% of the 2,000 young professionals surveyed were motivated to work for companies that create some kind of positive social impact whilst 73% wanted a job that allowed them to make a positive impact in their local community.
So the message is clear – if you want to attract top, young, talent into your workforce, you will need to do more than simply provide a pay cheque.
These results also reflect the ascent of the ‘conscious consumer’. Young, worldly shoppers are now having a major impact on global business, leading to social responsibility increasingly becoming a crucial part of any large company’s long-term strategy.
In the future, doing good will simply be good business. It’s a move we welcome and actively support at Chivas Regal via campaigns such as The Venture.