Growing a moustache has never been so trendy, thanks to the efforts of Adam Garone, the chief executive and co-founder of Movember, a worldwide movement that encourages men around the world to sport moustaches during the month of November.
Mr Garone became a supporter of the "mo" a few months after graduating from Melbourne Business Schoolwith a master's degree in marketing. As Movember wrapped up its eighth year on Friday, Mr Garone explains how he established the non-profit organisation, which has raised US$400 million (Dh146.9m) since he set it up in 2004 to promote men's health issues.
What inspired you to grow your own moustache?
The first year we did it, it was a social experiment. I did it with a group of friends, including about five colleagues from business school. To change your appearance is a huge commitment. My boss at the time wouldn't let me meet with clients and was horrified at the look. It created a lot of conversation, but the conversation in 2003 fell flat because we were just doing it as a social experiment. The next year, it started evolving into what it is today and along the way, we developed the tag line 'changing the face of men's health' … We wanted to use it as a way to raise funds to promote awareness of men's health issues and prostate cancer.
When you started the Movember Foundation in 2004, you were fresh out of business school. What influence did your B-school experience have on your decision to move ahead with the project?
Going to business school really opened my eyes and fired that entrepreneurial spirit within me. Movember started as a side project for a few years, a way for me and other guys to give back. I consulted with a couple of my MBA colleagues on how to develop it as an organisation, how to scale it and I tapped back into that resource a number of times as we faced different challenges. The first challenge was figuring out to how to transform it from a side project to, essentially, full-time employment.
The next real challenge was how do we scale Movember outside of Australia.
How did your B-school colleagues and professors help you?
One of the things you hear a lot from people who go to business school is that the learning is great, but it's the network you build and the contacts you establish there that you can tap into well beyond business school. Back in 2005, no bank or investor was going to lend me money because as a non-profit, you don't get any returns. One of my business school colleagues was working at Foster's Group, and they came on board as our first major partner.
What advice do you give to business school students today who want to know how they can start their own social enterprise venture?
The first thing I tell people is to pursue your passion and if you have a great idea, pursue it but don't do it blindly because there are some ideas that will fail. What I've created is testament to the fact that if you can build a global organisation of men growing moustaches, most anything can be done.
