What if making money and making a difference are not competing objectives? In this episode, Frits Snel, Managing Director Benelux at Tony’s Chocolonely, and Frank van de Ven, CEO of i-team Global, discuss how companies can use commercial success to change the industries they operate in.

For Tony’s Chocolonely, the mission comes first. Its sourcing principles are not weighed against every new commercial opportunity. They are a given. Within those boundaries, the ambition is to grow, sell more chocolate and increase the company’s influence on the cocoa industry.

But Frits also shares an important lesson: most consumers don’t buy Tony’s primarily because of its mission. They buy it because they like the brand and the chocolate. If you want to create change at scale, the product itself still has to win people over.

Frank recognizes that challenge from a very different industry. For i-team Global, improving the lives of cleaners requires both a clear mission and solutions that people actually want to use. And changing an industry takes persistence, because progress rarely happens overnight.