Month: april 2024

”Maybe you know of Kofi Annan?” – was how a call we received in December started, initiating a collaboration with a United Nations initiative.

Ever since the inception of People Heart Business an important part of our DNA has been to dream big. Working with our long-term ambitions is not an exclusive piece of work for an executive management team, but for all of us at People Heart Business, and naturally integrated into our daily operations.
Being a newly founded company with aspirations to make a real impact on the business world in new ways, there is no ’off-the-shelf’ value proposition. It takes time to formulate and re-formulate what it is we are doing and who we are doing it with.

We have had extensive discussions on who our core customers and dream customers would be. Early on we decided to partner up with CEOs and Executives who share our values of collaborations enabling real impact. People and performance centric customers have always been on our list of dream companies to collaborate with, as well as organizations with strong purposes who shape the future. Already from the very beginning our team has said “Our dream is to get a call from UN saying, People Heart Business, we need your help”.

Imagine our surprise when the phone rang in December.

“Maybe you know of Kofi Annan? In 2000 he launched a United Nations initiative for a sustainable business world. Based on 10 principles for responsible business, this is today the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world and has been critical for the global business community’s contribution to the 17 SDG. The focus has been high on this initiative within the UN and hence the work continues to scale.
I am calling on behalf of the person who runs this network in Sweden. They want support to secure scaling the success in a sustainable way. I am not sure if this is what you do, but I have followed your work and through contacts I have come to the conclusion this might be something for People Heart Business?”.

I don’t think we need to explain our reaction.

A few weeks ago we signed an agreement and we couldn’t be happier about this partnership opportunity. A dream for sure has come true.

It would be easy to say we will work extremely hard or do everything in our power to succeed with this incredibly important ask. But we would rather say – we will give it our best and practice what we preach to enable top-performance in a sustainable way!

To everyone involved in the matchmaking and realization of this collaboration, from the deepest parts of our hearts – THANK YOU!

I’ve never stopped dreaming about spending several months traveling to new places, exploring different cultures and the natural wonders of the world. However, as a performance-oriented person truly enjoying work, with an urge to grow and make an impact in the business world, it hasn’t always been easy to follow those dreams. It is easy to get caught up in projects and tasks and years pass by focusing on company and client needs, and it is seldom a good time to ask for a longer time off, especially when having a central role in a growing business.

Fortunately, Klara Ljungqvist, the CEO of People Heart Business looks at this differently. Ever since I joined People Heart Business, I have had the opportunity to talk openly about ALL of my dreams. Even better, People Heart Business has encouraged me to dream even bigger and since I shared this dream with the team, it’s been followed up on many times – when is it time for your trip?

Yet, despite People Heart Business having a holistic perspective on life and happiness as a part of sustainable top performance, and one of our core values is dreaming big, it wasn’t easy to ask for 2.5 months off to go on adventures ”just for fun”. What about the team? What about our clients? What do I signal and how will this affect my role and my career?

Finally, during the fall, I decided it was time. I wanted to live in line with all my values and follow the dream of going on a 2.5 month long trip to South America with my husband. And what happened at work?

I received a tremendous amount of support and encouragement and was called a role model for living sustainable performance. During the trip I was forced to check out completely, with the team stepping up and taking over all my responsibilities.

I have myself, my team and our culture to thank for one of the best adventures of my life. I found that the support and opportunity to fully check out was the best medicine to increase my passion to contribute to work when coming back. For a person like me the problem isn’t motivation or loyalty – it is balancing high motivation and loyalty with other aspects of life to maintain it as years pass by. I want to be a role model showing that top performance in the business world can be combined with values of traveling, family, and doing other things you love.

I was welcomed back in the best way possible. I was surprised with flowers and heartwarming messages, but best of all – a prepared ”dream boarding”. People Heart Business wanted to learn about my experiences, insights, and dreams but also about my perspectives on the company having been away and coming back.

In summary, I’ve been positively reinforced and challenged to fulfill my personal dreams without having to worry about leaving the professional dreams behind and instead finding ways where these dreams can influence and reinforce each other.

Grateful for a lifetime – thank you! ❤

Felicia Grosin
COO & Management Consultant