Magazine

Science fictions are often taken for pure fantasy; strange simulations and parallel universes created for our entertainment, only remotely connected to reality. We make and enjoy them for enjoyment’s sake, and they work well. But sci-fi doesn’t only fantasise with the unreal. Throughout the years, science fiction writers have also been building their imaginary worlds as provocative tools to speculate on new ways of living and existing in this world. They imagine social and technological futures not to escape reality, but to carefully experiment with different methods of understanding, criticising and even changing it.

Businesses the world over seem to be developing some compassionate form of split personality disorder. Suspended somewhere between the pursuit of profit and passionate quest for purpose, a new generation of conscious, forward-thinking business leaders — both young and veteran — are challenging the tired notion that social impact can only come at the expense of income. Global corporations, social enterprises, hybrid organisations and business philosophers alike are rewiring our economic operating system to balance profit with purpose — and they’re transforming how we can think about business in the process.