Inspired Indie is no more. Long live Beyond the Quarter

My company, Inspired Indie has morphed into Beyond the Quarter.

Inspired Indie was always about leading successful businesses with values and purpose. Values and purpose that put our needs as a community of humans above our wants as individual consumers or status seekers.

But the name never felt quite right. Like many startups, we fell into the name quickly because we needed to get the business going. As momentum picked up, I needed to revisit the name before it snowballed.

(And, truth be told, I always cringed a little on the inside when I said it - never a good sign in a business you've started!)

So why "Beyond the Quarter"?

Our current state of capitalism has become obsessed with the quarter. “The Quarter” represents many things. It represents short-termism. It represents the promotion of the desires of shareholders above the needs of employees, customers, suppliers, community and planet. It represents a form of capitalism which has become the ends, rather than a means to an end - a capitalism that sees humanity in its service, rather than itself as a way to better the lot of humanity.

It represents valuing the next quarter's numbers higher than the lives of others and of those who will live in our wake.

We believe in a business that goes beyond the quarter. A business that sees itself in service of humanity, rather than solely or primarily of its shareholders. A business that recognises that the reason profit is essential is to reinvest in improving the lives of its team, in providing more value to its customers, in treating its suppliers more fairly, in contributing more positively to the community it operates in, and in minimising the harm or improving its impact on the planet.

Also a business that does all of this in harmony and balance with providing a return to its investors or owners. And to be perfectly explicit, harmony and balance do not mean primacy. Nor do they mean subordination. They mean what they say.

Harmony and balance.

By now, it should be clear why we are “Beyond the Quarter”. We will continue to support the growth of businesses that serve their multiple stakeholders, and in so doing support the return of healthy capitalism as a means to the improvement of the human condition.

If you want to support our mission, please like the company page.