Our Co-Conspirator of the Week - Meet Manu Rios Krauss
Meet Manu Rios Krauss, our Conspiracy of Love Co-Conspirator for Purpose and Impact Strategy.
Manu is an entrepreneur, change strategist, and dreamer with a track record in redefining markets, creating visionary ventures, designing products, and crafting new narratives to make brands and businesses more beautiful, more meaningful, and more impactful.
With over 20 years of business leadership experience, including leading Unilever’s Beauty and Personal Care brands globally, Manu is an expert in emerging culture, consumer understanding, and disruptive innovation.
Manu was born in Peru, lived briefly in Brazil, and spent most of his life in Argentina before settling in London. He brings with him a wide and rich palette of understanding different cultures and consumer groups, particularly Latin American markets.
Passionate about Sustainability, Purpose, and Social Impact, Manu’s mantra is “the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons”.
Manu Rios Krauss, Conspiracy of Love Co-Conspirator for Purpose and Impact Strategy
1. What’s a Purpose driven brand or business you admire and why?
I think to answer that question I need to start with my purpose which is to “Turn Innovation into Progress”. I’m truly amazed about the power of the human mind to create and craft new things but I believe those transform the world when they’re created in a way that can touch the lives of many and not few.
Based on this, I look at businesses that transform the world for the better or are trying to do it. I have worked for almost 20 years at Unilever, and I truly believe in the company’s vision to make Sustainable Living commonplace and how Paul Polman and later Alan Jope worked to drive that vision forward.
The impact organizations that are part of the everyday economy can have is huge as they make sustainable and purposeful choices part of everyday life.
In that line, I love IKEA’s vision to “create a better everyday life for many people” and how L’Oreal has been much sharper lately in shaping the beauty industry with their vision to “create the beauty that moves the world”.
The last example I would mention is Tesla with their mission to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy through transportation. I love how they have used a sustainability feature to drive superiority, to create a product that everyone wants as, for me, that’s the fastest way to transition.
2. What helps you to find inspiration and what inspiring podcast have you listened to lately?
I walk a lot every day with my dogs so that gives me time to hear podcasts, books, you name it, therefore it’s hard for me to pick one, so I just mention a few I enjoyed lately. I often hear Lex Fridman’s podcast, he’s a deep thinker, goes to the bone on key conversations, particularly AI, and is open to bringing people from different walks of life to talk with him. Each episode is beyond 2 hours so make some room for Lex.
I also like the Huberman Lab podcast, it’s around neuroscience and health, quite insightful and I bring it here as I believe that in the journey of driving impact, you need to take care of yourself and gather the strength for the journey.
Last, I would recommend On Purpose with Jay Shetty, he has an interesting journey, troubled kid, became a monk, and came back to the business world, worth hearing. Books, my god, all of them, I recommend reading in general!
For business, I would say “Creativity Inc.” by Ed Catmull, one of the Pixar founders, is a great book with simple tools to protect the innovative and creative spirit of your organization. Then “The Hard Things About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz, a realistic summary of the leadership journey, and lastly just a classic, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, focuses on the chapter on Leadership.
If you want to regain your faith in Humanity, read “Humankind” by Rutger Bregman, and if you want a reality check about our place in the Universe, read “The End of Everything” by Katie Mack.
3. What's one piece of advice you have for Purpose-driven leaders?
I follow this mantra: “Do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons”. I think that encapsulates my main advice, it’s when you connect the three things that magic appears and you start to create impact.
So, know the WHAT, be clear on what the world needs, know the HOW, be clear on how you can drive this forward, know your superpowers, and know the WHY, as it will guide you through the journey and help to know the right decisions when in doubt.
4. Where is your passion outside of Conspiracy of Love. Tell us more about your new venture, the Deep Blue BioTech.
Besides Conspiracy of Love, I am the co-founder of a company called Deep Blue BioTech. I have a passion for creating better ways to live and this is one of the ways I found in trying to achieve that.
Deep Blue wants to recreate the building blocks of many products, we do that by producing ingredients for products like Cosmetics in a regenerative way.
Our mission is to “decarbonize chemicals, using synthetic biology to regenerate the planet”, we’re creating the ingredients for a net zero future.
How do we do it? By pioneering the synthetic biology of cyanobacteria, an amazing photosynthetic microorganism that can be engineered to create target chemicals using only CO2, water, and a small amount of nutrients.
Amazing right? We can amazing products that are making the planet better, using Jim Collins terms, avoiding the tyranny of the OR, and embracing the genius of the AND.
Besides this I do speak, particularly on Purpose, Impact, and Sustainable Design and try to explore the world with my family as much as we can.
