The Happy Movement: How Business Is The Key To Making The World A Happier Place

GOTO Chicago 2019

We can all agree that we want to live in a happy world. We can make slow change by teaching people the tools necessary to lead happier lives, or we can make a bigger impact by also leveraging businesses to make the world a happier place.

Evan Sutter has dedicated the past 5 years of his life to exploring the topic of happiness and creating a world he is proud to leave his grandchildren with. While living in the forests of a Buddhist Monastery with his monk brother, he wrote the book "Solitude: How Doing Nothing Can Change the World" and conceived a startup to teach people the skills to live happy and full lives. He soon realized that for the sake of our planet and its people's happiness, bigger change was needed than simply teaching people the art of happiness. And, he saw business at the center of that change.

Each day we have the choice of where we spend our time and money, and each day that choice has a huge impact on the kind of world we want to live in. Every time we open our wallets we cast a vote, a vote for our ideal world. We may say that we believe in environmentally-conscious and sustainable practices, fair wages for all, employee wellness programs and community-building, but we may inadvertently be supporting businesses that do not align with those beliefs.  

As Evan thought about this dilemma, he realized the important role business could play in increasing the happiness in the world. He wanted to find what works to create lasting, impactful change. He created his startup, Hapzly, as the first accreditation platform of its kind measuring businesses on their happiness output. The platform is designed to recognise businesses that make the world a happier place, and help inform customers, potential employees and the world in general that they are a great place to go to, do business with and work at.

Who should attend this talk: Employees, customers, entrepreneurs, people looking to innovate in their business, improve their business and increase the well-being of their teams and their planet. People who want to learn about happiness on an individual and business level and maybe even laugh a few times too.

Academic level: Introductory

What is the take away in this talk: How business is the key to making the world a happier place - how we can make our businesses better and happier, how we can improve our businesses and ensure the well-being and engagement of our employees, the happiness of our customers, and act in benevolent and responsible ways for the betterment of the communities and environments in which we operate. What is happiness and how can business influence this outline?