Rethink Culture

“It's not about charity, it's about impact… unlocking the human potential through making people see that enormous power they have in making a difference.”

S03E10 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Masami Sato, founder of B1G1, a global social enterprise dedicated to integrating impactful giving into everyday business operations. Masami is a 2-time TEDx speaker, Amazon bestselling author of four books, and a transformative leader whose B1G1 movement has delivered over 360 million giving impacts worldwide. Her diverse background, from studying architecture to becoming a chef and ultimately leading a social initiative, reflects her creative and adaptable approach to life and leadership. Fresh off celebrating her 50th birthday, Masami shares her approach to building workplace cultures where purpose and business thrive together.

In this episode, Masami highlights innovative ways businesses can integrate social impact into their workflows. She discusses how micro-giving, embedding small, meaningful acts of generosity into day-to-day business activities, can profoundly influence employee engagement and satisfaction. She shares practical examples, such as empowering employees to choose causes they care about and gamifying giving initiatives to make them engaging and fun. She emphasizes the power of gradual, authentic cultural shifts over large, top-down initiatives. Drawing from her Japanese heritage, she emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking, trust-building, and the essence of family-business values in fostering lasting cultural success. Leaders are encouraged to reflect on their own sense of purpose, ensuring their vision enriches both themselves and their teams.

The podcast is produced by Rethink Culture (rethinkculture.co). Our Culture Health Score provides an X-ray of your organisational culture, allowing you to measure and manage it.

Production, video, and audio editing by Evangelia Alexaki of Musicove Productions.

Listen to this episode to discover:
• How micro-giving transforms workplace culture through small, everyday actions.
• Why gradual, authentic changes resonate more with employees than top-down initiatives.
• The power of letting employees choose causes they care about for deeper engagement.
• Creative ways to gamify social impact and celebrate achievements collectively.
• How aligning day-to-day tasks with a larger mission fosters purpose at work.
• Insights from Japanese business culture about long-term trust and sustainability.
• Why purpose-driven leadership enhances workplace fulfilment and impact.
• Must-read resources for embedding social giving into your business strategy.

Further resources:
• B1G1 Website: https://b1g1.com/
• Masami on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masamisato/ 
• Giving Business: Creating the Maximum Impact in a Meaning-Driven World, by Masami Sato: https://www.amazon.com/Giving-Business-Creating-Maximum-Meaning-Driven-ebook/dp/B01FFA28VI 
• Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, by Paul Polman & Andrew Winston: https://www.amazon.com/Net-Positive-Courageous-Companies-Thrive-ebook/dp/B08TCHX4FY

What is Rethink Culture?

Rethink Culture is the podcast that shines the spotlight on the leaders who are rethinking workplace culture. Virtually all of the business leaders who make headlines today do so because of their company performance. Yet, the people and the culture of a company is at least as important as its performance. It's time that we shine the spotlight on the leaders who are rethinking workplace culture and are putting people and culture at the forefront.

Andreas: Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are. Welcome to another episode of Rethink Culture, the podcast that shines a spotlight on business leaders people love to work for. My name is Andras Konstantinou. I am your host, but I'm also an accidental micromanager turned servant leader and who developed a passion, a personal passion for workplace culture. At Rethink Culture, we're on a mission to help 1 million businesses build more fulfilling, happier places at work. And our latest project is the Culture Health Check, which is an online service that lets you measure culture so you can manage it. Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Masami Sato. Masami is a 2x, 2 times TEDx speaker. She's a CEO, she's an Amazon bestselling author of four books. And she's the founder of a global social enterprise called B1G1. B1G1 was born out of Masami's vision to help businesses around the world in integrating effective giving in their work, and the movement, her B1G1 movement has given 360 million impacts today, which I'm curious about. And as she was telling me, she turned 50 last week and she's celebrating 50 happy years of life, very close to myself. And she's also studied architecture. She started by studying architecture and then became a chef and then changed yet again to build and run a social initiative called B1G1. So very welcome to the Rethink Culture podcast, Masami. And tell us more about B1G1 and what this 360 million impacts mean.
Masami: Thank you. Andrea, so, for the lovely introduction. So, B1G1 is a global giving social enterprise initiative, which is also a B Corp. And we work with businesses and help them integrate the act of kindness and the impacts into what they're doing. And so the businesses that we work with over the years have created 360 million giving impacts. And so these impacts could be a number of, you know, trees being planted or number of days of life saving or life altering resources such as access to clean water or access to sanitation or access to quality education or access to income generating opportunities, being delivered in or given to people around the world. So, our members could be like a coffee shop integrating impacts in every coffee that they sell. So every coffee they serve can give access to clean water to someone for a day, or accounting, you know, company like B2B service businesses that are saying every time they have a great meeting, you know, a complete project that we make a great thing to happen in the world. So, yeah. So we talk about this act of kindness as power of small. Now we want to do good things, but sometimes trying these big challenges in the world seems to be overwhelming so a lot of people or businesses don't do anything much. But what they have we appreciate it. The small thing that we do every day and incorporated the tangible positive impact in what we do, then those small things will be easy to do today because it's not a big thing. And then together as a whole, we can create a greater impact. So that's B1G1. And we have a platform to enable businesses to integrate that in their business activities.
Andreas: So I have lots of questions about B1G1 and how it works. But before we get to that, the business is based in Singapore. You are based in Japan right now. But you've travelled all over the world. And you've lived in, I think, several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the US, of course. Tell us, tell us a bit about your story growing up and how it led you to build a social initiative.
Masami: So growing up, I was always curious but I was very quiet and very shy and I didn't know how to connect with others, so I didn't know how to make friends or, you know, express myself or, I was probably one of the quietest, you know, kids at school and, you know, moving from one school to the other because my dad worked for a large Japanese company, corporate. So he got transferred. And with that, I had to move to another school, turning up in a new place with new kids. And I didn't know how to express myself. Right? So I had a pretty difficult childhood in terms of connecting. But when I graduated from school where I studied architecture, interestingly, but at that time, I decided to travel around the world because I was very curious about what was happening. And also my curiosity was probably encouraged because my grandparents had their own family business, and I grew up spending most of my childhood the school holidays with my grandparents because my parents were too busy, and I didn't see my dad at home. And so I enjoyed spending time in this family business with my grandparents and helping them run the business. So sometimes in this little store, you know, family shop in Tokyo, foreigners will walk in, and I didn't know how to communicate. Right? But I knew that the big world was out there, but I didn't know really what was there. So I decided to take time to backpack around the world. So that kind of opened up my entire world with the curiosity that I had. And also, even though I was still quite a shy person, but when you step into or step out of your own country and, you know, if you can't speak the language outside, then you had to let go, right? So, with being totally vulnerable and not being able to express myself in the right way, you know, because I couldn't speak English, I couldn't speak any other language. So I lost my words totally. And at that time, I started to really connect with people so much better because I let go of the expectation to try to say the right thing. And with the simple ways of communicating, I was able to kind of understand how there was so much in common, you know, among us, even though we looked different, we spoke a different language. We have different culture. But there was always the kindness that I experienced wherever I went. When I had to travel, people came to help me. And with that, you know, being simply grateful, people were willing to take me in and share their food and I stayed with them or, you know, like, so that was a really fantastic time.
Andreas: And how did the idea for creating a social enterprise land?
Masami: Well, like, it took a long time. But anyway, you know, when I was really overwhelmed by also seeing what didn't make sense to me when I was traveling, such as younger children not going to school and working because their parents could not afford to pay for school fees or people with disability not having help or environmental destruction. Right? And knowing all these things are happening, but not being able to do anything, it was challenging. But I was just a small person and just a backpacker but couldn't change the world. So I went on to on my own way but eventually when I became a mum, and at that time I realized that, you know, my daughter could be any one of those kids. She was just lucky to be born in a certain circumstance and had a parent, but I also met lots of kids who were street kids and didn't have that opportunity. So at that time, I thought that I had to do something, no matter how small. You know, like, not doing anything wasn't a question because if your child happened to be born in a very different situation, and if the entire world said, you know, sorry, we are all too small. So we can't help, then what would you do? And so I thought that I could do something in my own way. And I started a food company at that time because food, during the traveling days, food became my kind of almost tool to connect with people. Because when I couldn't speak the language fluently, right, one way to communicate and connect with people was through food, by cooking together. You know, like sharing the food. Yes. Yeah. So I worked, you know, in different places as a chef. And so I knew that the food was important for me as a self-expression as well as the way to bring people together and a way to provide people opportunity to live a healthier, more fulfilling life. So for me, if I was to choose to start a business, it was a food business. So I started the food business that I worked really hard for with a young baby. So she, my daughter was three months old when I started my first business. Eventually it's evolved into kind of multiple businesses. And then, the healthy food concept in Australia. And we had about 150 stores, you know, buying our frozen, packaged meals at one point of time. You know, it took a lot of years of effort to grow the business to that level. But we were still too busy. We are still...
Andreas: How did that lead to B1G1?
Masami: Yeah. So one day, actually, this simple idea came to me. So I thought, like, you know, we started this business because we wanted to make a difference. But every day we were so busy, and we were reinvesting all the money back into business. So I thought that if we kept saying we weren't ready yet, you know, one day or, you know, when the business makes more money, we would give back or we would do something, then maybe that day would not come. So then one day this idea came to me, and I saw what if instead of trying to do big things in the future, what if we did something small but did it every day and started now? So with our food business, that idea of giving a meal for every meal we sold, and not necessarily giving our own product, but looking at the ways to create impact. Right? And I travelled quite a lot in countries like India and with an experienced NGO, giving a meal, like a free school meal to a child, so that the child would be encouraged to come to school, you know, and then have a nourishing meal to focus on study that only cost about $0.20. Right? So then I thought, well, actually, I could spend that $0.20 on another ingredient or packaging, you know, enhance the sticker or something, right? But now this can be an ingredient of our business, which adds enormous meaning and purpose in what we do. And so that idea of "buy one, give one" at that time was born. And then about seven months later, when we were still doing what we were doing, I had another realization. And then I thought, you know, it's great to be doing this in our business, but what if we made this available, this way of doing things available to so many other businesses that might care about the different issues in the world? And so I eventually sold my company in Australia and moved to Singapore with two young kids and founded B1G1 in 2007. So it's been 17 years in making of the methodology and the processes, the systems, and also selection of the courses from around the world and breaking down the activities into micro units and filling those projects into the platform, and to create the API that automates business actions into impact. You know, like so. So it's been continuous work since then.
Andreas: So what's an example of the diversity of activities that you help companies invest in? And what's an example of companies that you help? Like what kind, small or large, and so on?
Masami: Yeah. So in terms of projects, right? We have more than 450 projects in... I think more than 50 countries now. And those are all selected in a certain standard, benchmark, and so that covers that project to cover all of the 17 global goals, which means we have a project in education, environment, you know, animal protection, human rights, income generation, life enhancement, everywhere. And examples of businesses that are making a difference with us, we do have, you know, from smaller small companies with, you know, a few team members to medium sized businesses with 50 to 100 to 150 team members, as well. But we work with a small to medium sized enterprise group rather than focusing on corporations. Right? Because corporations can have sophisticated and very complicated, complex, CSR programs. Right? They could do that. Small to medium sized businesses are really run by the business leaders who care about things you know at a personal level, but they might not have the same kind of resources available to implement things like social impact. So this is our sweet spot. And examples, like, we actually do work with, let's say, some Anytime Fitness gyms that every time somebody checks in, access to water is given. Or I was introduced to you through a company called Ocaquatics, Ocaquatics Swim School, right? So their team members... and they are a great, thriving, growing business. And every time they have a team member celebrating birthdays, they give impact, a token to the team so that team members can choose to create a global impact using their token. Or we have, you know, accountants even, like, so-called ordinary businesses, right? A bit boring businesses that we work with and they write to say every time we file a tax return, you know, we actually give a goat or a brick, you know, or access to sewing machines, so a woman can start a business and create a more sustainable future. So, we have all sorts of businesses working with us.
Andreas: So, have you turned down clients who tried to greenwash their way into, you know, social good initiatives and with the clients you work with, how do you integrate the social cause into the working lives of the people in the company?
Masami: So the first question about turning down people or businesses. Right? So nowadays I think this greenwashing type of questions are asked. But when we first started, right, actually it was so hard to find even any business that wanted to give money away, and then saw, but we did attract enough supporters. So that's why we are here today. So how we did this was to really appeal the goodness of human beings, you know, because if we speak to business leaders in a more personal way, right, and then if they thought about their own families and the future of their children or grandchildren, actually every person had this desire to make a positive difference, right? It's just depending on how we set the boundary of who we want to help. And sometimes people might focus on their own families only or maybe more about their own friends or their own city or community. Right? So we all have a different range of how much care we want to spread, but every person actually does have a caring. So we appeal to the human goodness rather than saying this initiative is going to make your business succeed, right? Because when the motivation and intent of why they would implement B1G1 in their business is aligned with personal values, then whatever they implement is going to enhance their business better. But if they start with coming to us as okay, can we sell more, you know, based on giving and then showing off. Then actually when they implement B1G1 or anything, you know, any charitable initiative with that perspective, right? I think the communication they implement can potentially disconnect and so exactly the same person, exactly the same business could actually do things very differently depending on where they are coming from. So what we are consciously doing is to tell their stories and invite people to come to work with us from that level of human desire to do good. And then, if you know, the question is would any businesses actually choose to join us because it does cost money, right, to do the social impact initiative and it does cost time as well. So if they are not seeing the value in the right way, they wouldn't actually choose to work with us. So that's how like, naturally speaking, there is a way of qualification in terms of how the businesses actually come to us. But another point of that I think we can all think about is, to overcoming the scepticism and judgment. Right? Because if we make, let's say, our assumptions and assessment or judgment based on good or bad of certain measurement. And then if we disqualify or eliminate certain people or individuals or businesses from the dialogue of collective good, then we cannot really create real sustainability in the world. And so the world is becoming more divided. And yes, there are certain things that we need to kind of tackle and discuss and challenge each other off, but we need to start this dialog with the willingness and the openness to include everybody in their actions. So I think that...
Andreas: So how do you do that? How do you include the employee in the actions? Because normally, someone at the top of the organization says we'll invest in this social giving or in this charity enterprise and then the employees just get to hear about the news from the newsletter. So how are employees involved? And for me, the key question is, how does that affect their purpose that they see in the business? How does that improve the culture of the business?
Masami: Yeah. And so that's really the ideal power of small, right? Because if we are starting from top-down, so this is the idea of the leaders or we decided to give to this charity and we pledged $10,000 and presented a check on stage, then actually it doesn't really be felt or experienced at the individual team member's level. But what we want to do or what we always encourage business to think about, is to integrate a small, micro act of kindness in the everyday business actions. That means then what's happening in the business will create the opportunity for the employees, team members to engage and then eventually, right, like so, you know, a couple of examples of like, every time accountants do this, this happens that might be initially chosen by, you know, somebody, somebody in the business. Right? It could be the actual owner of the business, but it could be the champion of impacts in a business. But what many of the companies that we work with do, is to eventually kind of diversify the impacts and let the team members to say what kind of things they care about as well. And again, not everybody in the team might immediately align with kind of giving or, you know, contributing or kindness, they might be more focused on the performance and outcome. Right? So I think everything, like every change, need to happen gradually and not to expect everybody to immediately resonate and quick. But over a period of time when we are transforming our conversations or our culture gradually, then alignment becomes more natural. So I don't think it's actually doing one thing big time. We think that things need to be incorporated and integrated into the kind of like a fabric of the business, rather than trying to do like a big target and do things on the campaign basis. Right? And then go like, okay, we've done this big thing and move on.
Andreas: So what's an example like of a business that has integrated social giving in such that it affects employee experiences at work?
Masami: Yeah. So I want to talk about one specific example but broadly. Right? Like, we also know that many businesses are starting to also have a conversation with new, you know, team members like, during the hiring process, they might talk a little bit about these things. And so, you know, start of the like, cycle of the team member joining in the business can even start with, you know, talking about things like a company's desire to make a great positive impact in the world and attract the team members who resonate with that message. Right? Because it's also possible to, you know, influence and change everybody, of course. But if the beginning of the journey starts with that conversation, then it's actually easier too. So, anyway, let's say one example of business. So here is a company which provides medical supplies to individual clinics or, you know, doctors around Australia. So they have about 130 team members today. When they joined us, they were, four years ago, they had about 100. So they are continuously growing. But they really do make social impact part of every department conversation. So every department has their own budget that they could actually use to create impacts. But within each function they would choose how they want to implement the impact. So the sales team has their own budget, and they might create a little bit of competition within the company. Or if you come, you know, a minute late for the team meeting, every minute will result in impact. When the client engagement team, you know, customer support team, has a certain, you know, lovely conversation with the client they celebrate that by creating additional impacts, or bills paying on time will result in bonus impact. So, every packed order will be shipped and that links to certain impacts. And then they can see which warehouse is actually shipping how many parcels, but that also convert into impact. So instead of just talking about the sales target or metrics as something that the business wants the team to achieve, team members have, yes, they own their own metrics, but they have the ways to celebrate those things by creating impacts. So initially, right, like it wasn't like this the first year they were working with us, they focused on a local, charitable project that supported farmers throughout Australia, you know, who got affected by drought, you know, because that then became the chosen theme for the company. But then what happened was that once they got started, right, they started to diversify, and they started to let the team members choose the impact. So now, like they have these play areas in their office where team members might come together to throw a dart, you know, and they hit the dartboard and when they hit the bullseye, they can unlock extra impact, you know. Like so it's not about selling something and giving a percentage of proceed but it's just that they can be so imaginative to think about the challenges that exist in our world, but then to choose the things that they could do.
Andreas: So what I'm hearing is you offer the opportunity to companies to do micro giving such that it's integrated with actions or achievements in everyday working life such as, you know, a sale or winning a project or negative actions such as arriving late at the meeting, and then you can gamify all that.
Masami: But failure is important, right, in business. Because if you don't encourage failures, encourage or make failures quickly, you know, like and learn from it. It's an important factor but many businesses create a culture where failures are seen as a bad thing. So people will try to hide it. So actually, opening up opportunities for people to look at something in a new light and then also, when the reward or celebration is tied to something that's not personal gain, but it's more like a collective gain, something bigger than ourselves, then that spirit of celebration becomes enhanced. And so initially, not everybody might obtain these charitable ideas, right? Because people might think, oh, charity is like, oh, whitewashing or, you know, will the money go to that charity? All this scepticism also exists in our world. So we actually take this conversation away from this. You know, it's not about charity, it's about impact. Because if we are able to talk about the challenges but take positive actions and then that actually results in tangible, you know, outcome in the world, then everybody wants to be part of something. And that like, unlocking the human potential through making people see that enormous power they have in making a difference.
Andreas: And Masami, switching to a different topic, you're obviously Japanese born and you've lived in so many different countries. How has your origin country influenced your leadership style and how do, you know, Japanese businesses differ from other businesses? We talked earlier about Japanese leadership style being more long term. And so I wanted to dive into that. How does like, the Japanese national culture affects the company culture within companies led by Japanese people?
Masami: So just there as a disclosure, right, like, every business, every culture has pros and cons and good and not so good, right. Like so, Japan has this like, double edged sword you know type of thing too. So first of all people love, you know, visiting Japan. I have so many friends who said, oh, I love going to Japan. And services in Japanese businesses are great, you know, but also Japan has another dimension, which is that sometimes, Japanese people get so, so much stress working too hard. Right? Like, so overworked culture. But we do so because we are just so like, dedicated to collective good, you know, like, so. But I think what I took away when I was growing up here and also because I, you know, used to help my grandparents, so I knew how Japanese businesses or family businesses operate and what they care about. And I know that Japanese businesses think long term and care about things like trust, you know, creation of trust as the highest priority in a business. So we don't do things, or we don't say things, or we don't make decisions that give us short term wins but compromise long term trust and long-term gain. Right? And then if you look at some of the statistics, there are some amazing things that we can discover, such as that if we look at world's longest living, lasting businesses, such as businesses that were more than 200 years old, more than 50% of those counted businesses are Japanese businesses. So, yeah. So Japanese businesses tend to outlive other businesses. Right? And why does it happen? And that's because of family values. And many of those long-living businesses are family-owned businesses. Right? And so it's a family legacy that we protect at all costs. And now another set of numbers, such as the S&P 500 businesses and looking at how many years those businesses in that world top company group is lasting, then you see that the lifespan is declining, and it's also declining with the length or tenure of leadership. The CEOs. And so actually if you look at that shortened focus that the CEOs are evaluated for quarterly performances, and then they get with, you know, they were kind of taken out, right, like if they don't perform. And that kind of thing is creating businesses to last shorter as well. So what I can say is that when businesses can bring in this like, family, essence of family business, doesn't have to be family business structurally. But essence of family business thinking into businesses and reward leaders who actually create longer term values and culture, and think about the legacy of business, then we can achieve a different kind of success which is actually the prosperity in the longer, longer run.
Andreas: And as we wrap the podcast, what would you, what would you say to leaders who aren't intentional about workplace culture? So we talked about the importance of giving people a sense of purpose and helping people make an impact. What would you say to leaders that haven't thought about that at all and haven't prioritized it?
Masami: I think the simple thing to ask, because, you know, we can complicate this by like, oh, should we be doing ESG or this or what is the return for this or that, but simplest way to make sense of things is to ask our feelings. So if we ask the leaders in the world, are you really loving what you're doing? Do you love the company that you belong and the people you work with? And do you think your people enjoy their work, and does your success align with the success experienced in the feeling of people inside the business and outside of the business, then we will... This can start to make sense of that, because if leaders are feeling that what they are doing is actually meaningful and how much time they're spending in their business in their entire lifetime compared to the time they are having with their family, is this meaningful, rewarding, enjoyable? That is just the simplest form of how we can make decisions and, you know, like construct a thing that becomes enriching for yourselves and for the lives of people who work in your business.
Andreas: And any final words you'd like to leave us with or a book you'd like to recommend that we read?
Masami: Yeah. I think the final words. Yeah, I think really thinking about, you know, why we are here, as individuals. Right? And then to kind of structure business success around it. This is so enormously important. We have only one life, so we might as well do something that we are totally connected with and proud of. So that's one thing. And books recommendation. Two, if I may. So one is, I have a book called Giving Business. So if you are interested in more about this kind of secret of Japanese family business, or, you know, you could take a look at my book but also, another book I would like to recommend is Net Positive by Paul Polman. He is a fantastic business leader. And I'm luckily connected with him and learned from his insight at a personal level too. So, if you are looking for interesting books to read in relation to these topics, then, please do.
Andreas: Thank you, Masami. And where can people find out more about you?
Masami: Oh, you can go to b1g1.com. It's just a bit hard to remember. Right? So you can remember as "buy one give one." And if you search "buy one give one" or B 1 G 1, we will come up.
Andreas: So, Masami, thank you for the time you spent with us, telling us your story, and being vulnerable about your early years. I learned from that history and that transition. I feel that we can learn a lot by the examples you mentioned about giving our employees meaning by connecting their day-to-day work with charitable giving in small, incremental, but meaningful ways. And I haven't heard that before. I think CSR is a whole different game. I think if we connect social giving to how we experience work every day, it just makes work so much more meaningful. So thank you for that. And to everyone watching, thank you for giving us your undivided attention. If you liked the podcast as much as I enjoyed speaking with Masami here, please give us a five star rating on your favourite podcast platform because it helps us and it helps more listeners discover the podcast. And you can also not just listen, but you can watch on YouTube. We have a channel there, where you see the video recording. And if you'd like to measure your culture and x-ray it so you can manage it, you can go to rethinkculture.co. And with that I would say, keep on leading, keep on creating happier, more fulfilling workplaces, where people can grow and make a personal impact. And until the next episode, take care.