The last decade, Ynzo van Zanten was Chief Evangelist and Head of People & Culture of the leading Dutch impact brand Tony’s Chocolonely. Ynzo speaks with great passion about purposeful entrepreneurship and how to effectively communicate about your purpose as a company.
Business & Management, Climate, Environment & Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Branding, Trendwatchers & Trends
Corporate Social Responsibility, Creativiteit, Creativity, Innovatie, Innovation, Inspiration, Leadership, People and Society, Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Social Enterprise, Work Happiness
Ynzo van Zanten, author, entrepreneur, facilitator, speaker, and former Head of People&Culture and Chief Evangelist of Tony’s Chocolonely, is an optimist. In all the crises that are facing us, he sees opportunities for future focused entrepreneurs. But it will take a collective mindset to innovate from a new starting point. Every organization seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of ‘purpose’ at the moment, but what does that actually mean for you and your organization? How do you prevent falling into the pitfalls that so many of your peers seem to be falling for?
There’s a whole generation desperately searching for true meaning in their lives, for a better, cleaner, more social, more beautiful world. But the more companies seem to be shouting from the rooftops how they are saving this planet from utter doom, how they are CO2 neutral and politically correct, the less confidence consumers seem to have in them. So how do you bridge that gap as an organization?
Ynzo speaks about economic and societal trends, about balancing financial success and making impact, and about how doing good and doing business aren’t mutually exclusive. About social and antisocial entrepreneurship. He nudges the audience with hands-on examples from everyday life and talks about his experience with meaningful brands like Tony’s Chocolonely and innocent drinks. His energetic style of presenting, or as he calls it ‘business applicable noisemaking’, puts you in the mode of wanting to be part of that wave of change. Because every little change matters, whether small or big.
At the end of October, we had the pleasure of having 5 guest lectures done by Jaco. With these quest lectures we wanted to make sure that all our first and second year students (1.500) had the opportunity to listen to his inspiring story of how he managed to fulfil his dream and the lessons he learned along the way. We wanted to incorporate these lectures in our coaching-program so that we could challenge students to think about their own dreams and how to accomplish them.
Due to his energetic and passionate way of speaking he easily managed to win the attention of the crowd and keep them interested, even long after the actual lectures. He did so, not only with his entertaining style, but also by making people reflect on their own dreams. Now, a few weeks later, I can still see the effect.
Now, I regularly meet students with whom I have deeper conversations about their own dreams and how they want to accomplish them. Even during normal book-keeping lessons. As a teacher and as a coach I couldn’t have asked for more. Thanks to Jaco’s passion and drive to motivate others, he helped to get my students motivated, to make them think about their future and what would be necessary to make them happy.
"Ynzo is the most energetic, passionate and inspiring speaker I’ve ever worked with. I salute you for your tenacity of purpose and outstanding leadership qualities. Thanks for opening my and many of our attendees’ eyes to new perspective and ways of living"
"Ynzo is one of the best guest speakers I have ever experienced. His energy and passion spread to every single participant in the room. Further, Ynzo managed to leave all of us with a strong reminder of what purpose really means. His session became the word of everyone’s mouth weeks after the session and even at my own kitchen table. We need more people like Ynzo."