Steve Case Keynote At LOHAS
After leaving AOL, Steve Case founded Revolution LLC. One of the Revolution companies is Revolution Living.
According to their backgrounder, Revolution Living
"...Invests in businesses that promote more balanced and sustainable lifestyles. Its holdings include Flexcar, a car-sharing service; Lime, a media company; Miraval: Life in Balance, a resort in Tucson; and a minority stake in Gaiam Inc., a distributor of yoga and pilates videos and equipment."
Key Quotes:
"You can't separate physical well-being from other aspects of wellness."
"Hypercars may be the wave of the future, but SUVs are still today's standard."
"I spent my first career trying to democratize information. For my second career, I want to do the same for the tools and choices of a healthy lifestyle."
How to get there:
- Offer more LOHAS choices
- Make the choices more convenient and accessible
- Give people more control over their lives
"People are looking to achieve a sense of balance."
One highlight was Case's story..the idea of a "play pump," a merry-go-round that kids can plan on that is also a water pump. That way, instead of hiking miles to the nearest water source, the parents can just say "Hey! 'Go out and play! We need more water!'" Great idea.
Case: "Health care is really 'sick care.' Health is something different, people do it voluntarily, and do it 100% out of their own pocket. When you cross the line, and become 'sick,' you enter a whole different world of co-payments and PPOs and all that. They are separate worlds now."
Great point..."it's not good enough to be eco-groovy. You need to have a great product or service, and a great supply chain."
Case: To the point above, it's very important that you need to meet certain criteria. LOHAS need to be good on core dimensions, as good as anything else. Why didn't I have a hybrid car before last year? Because they looked dorky and they weren't comfortable!
"What is going to empower a new healthcare system is to give customers choices."
(One funny bit: Audience Question: "What's next for you, Steve?" Case: " Um, I kind of have my hands full at the moment, you know, taking on the healthcare industry and all." (laughter))
"As we make this more of a mainstream phenomenon, we need to be welcoming. Don't make people feel they need to 'qualify.' We need to attract a more mainstream audience. It's like fitness clubs...people need to feel like they can DO it! They don't want to feel like an idiot."
"We're not there yet. We need this view to be just the way things are. There shouldn't be 'green investment'...it should just be 'investment.' It's kind of like with the Internet...I knew we'd arrived when people stopped saying 'did you check your e-mail...they just say 'did you check your mail.' It disappears, and just becomes part of the fabric."
Comments