Business should intersect with the human condition

Derreck Kayongo, a former child refugee and now a speaker and co-founder of The Global Soap Project, spoke June 12 to the Gulf Coast CEO Forum in downtown Sarasota.

His personal story would make an interesting documentary, and I highly recommend reading about his life. But, the abridged version is: his background (his father had a soap business in Uganda, growing up a refugee and seeing the struggle and need, being educated in America and seeing the waste, etc.) he was able to come up with The Global Soap Project.

The Global Soap project takes partially used and discarded soap from hotels and recycles them into new bars that are given to people that lack it.

Oh and Kayongo was one of CNN's Top 10 Heroes in 2011, no big deal.

Now, how did he do it?
Kayongo and his wife started The Global Soap Project in 2009. He didn't have a business plan but he still asked Hilton (you know the hotel company) for $1.5 million (it didn't really work). But, the company called him three months later telling him it would send a team down to evaluate what his company was doing. He had just cashed in his 401K to buy the first machine. At the time he was making about 1,000 bars of soap a week.

After seeing his small operation Hilton decide to give him $1.3 million.

Today, The Global Soap Project produces 30,000 bars per week, has factories in the U.S. and in Hong Kong, and it is gearing up to put one in Rome and in California. When all the factories are finished, the project will be able to make 7 million bars a year. Kayongo and his team accomplished this in three years.

How did they finance it all?
Kayongo says it all came together through connections. Hilton, the Center for Disease Control and UPS are all on the board of The Global Soap Project and are all companies The Global Soap Project needs to accomplish its mission.

“Today's CEOs suffer from a lack of resources in terms of human capital because they don't go out there and make the human connections,” Kayongo said in his speech.

What can other businesses do?
Kayongo believes companies that intersect with the human condition are rewarded by customer loyalty.

“There's nothing as important as having a human side to your business,” Kayongo said. “It doesn't make sense for you to make a lot of money without connecting to the human condition.”

The non-governmental organization has donated half a million bars to more than 20 countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Haiti and Malawi.

Just for perspective, 800 million bars of soap are thrown away by hotels each year in the U.S. Two million children die every year due to symptoms such as diarrhea caused by lack of sanitation.

Kayongo's advice to CEOs
-Understand the uncertainties around your business; take advantage of them.
-Understand the volubility around your business; take advantage of it.
-Understand the complexities around your business; be an innovator and entrepreneur in your business
-Understand the ambiguities that surround your work; take advantage of them —those are opportunities.
-Make the intersection; make your business connect with the human condition.