Joe Public co-founder Pepe Marais opens up about his new book

Business is about more than just money. That's the belief of the co-founder of advertising company Joe Public, Pepe Marais, who has written a book titled `One Word: The power of simplicity in a complex business world'.

Marais said his book explores how to build more sustainable businesses. He says the average lifespan of Western businesses has declined from 17 years to seven years. "In Japan, you have businesses that are over 1000 years old."

He said he was particularly interested in the middle sector, which includes businesses with revenue between R10 million and R300 million. "That's the market I'm interested in. How you can actually build those businesses to last. Especially in a country where we're looking for jobs."

Marais says he's betting everything he's got on a concept called 'Purpose'. "Which is something I discovered 18 years ago. And it's because the majority of the world is still following Milton Friedman's way, which is that the reason business exists is to make capital. And I'm not negating the nobility and the importance of money. It's the lifeblood of business, but we don't wake up every morning to make blood. And that's my belief, which I'm putting forward... an approach to business which I think is a new way compared to the old way of business."

He says ultimately what differentiates one business from another is culture. "Businesses are people. A collective of people offering their consumers or their clients an offering, a product, or a service. So what is sitting at the heart of a business that actually makes people love to be there during working hours?"

Global statistics show that people are not actually at work because they love being there. "They're just there because they're in a capitalistic system, and they can't wait to get to five, and they can't wait to get to Friday, and they resent Mondays. So what can we bake into business that makes people bring their full potential to businesses? That's culture and a strong belief within the business that it stands for more than just the making of money. Money is a by-product of something greater, the better than culture.

"Having worked with various businesses of various scales, it's interesting that there's always one word in the unconscious of the business, and often it's linked to the founder."

He used the example of Woolworths, which had the word 'quality' in its original intention statement.