I’m Tessa Wernink

Curiosity

Positivity

Creativity

Collaboration

Setting up the organization around Fairphone was one of the most intense periods of my career. Founding a (social) enterprise from the ground up, is hard work. It is demanding because you feel responsible to people and teams, as well as to your mission and all stakeholders who put their money and faith in you. 

While it put a strain on me personally as well as my family and social life, it also filled me with purpose and passion. It set me on fire and fed my dreams. I found my passion both in the purpose and potential impact of the business, as well as in the collaboration with individuals who were intrinsically motivated to use their skills and expertise to contribute to change and make a difference. 

It was the environment of business that helped us move fast, confronting us with decisions daily and often having no other choice than experimentation. Putting creativity and imagination into practice, the default was trying, which meant failing fast and failing often. We were in constant iteration mode and by ‘opening up the playbook’ to people, we were innovating daily in areas where no one was an expert. People worked in roles – not functions and teams were defined by purpose, not politics.

The speed at which the business changed, the challenges arose, and new ideas were put into practice, required everybody to take responsibility and take control over their area of expertise. The people who did the work were given decision making power over their turf. They were fun and incredibly educational as well as stressful years. But after four years, the leadership faltered, and we slammed into a wall of conservative, traditional management strategy that sucked the trust out of a living company. This experience shocked me. I wasn’t prepared for it as a person or as a leader and my warrior mentality actually just made it worse. The external battle we were fighting became mirrored in an internal strife. Voices were stifled, power was centralised, trust evaporated, heads rolled, people shut doors and waited for orders. 

The once positive liveliness of the organization turned into cynicism and disappointment. It was a dark period for me personally, defined by loss and sadness. My father passed away, I lost contact with my colleagues and eventually got pushed aside in the business. With few people who dared speak up, I was undermined and my mandate, never formalised, was retracted. 

Since then though, many good things have happened. The organisation has recovered. I had my third son and moved into a great home. My former team and good friends from work came together to initiate projects in the spirit of our mission and I went on a personal journey to discover what kind of leader I wanted to be. 

What I’ve figured out is that I want people to experience what I experienced when we set up the company. I want people to feel alive, connected, feel driven by a meaningful job, that they can show leadership in any moment and have agency. To trust their teams and see customers, suppliers and other external stakeholders as allies in achieving their goals. 

To work from mission is to try and see collaboration and allies in people you once held as competitors. I think it’s possible for organisations to be designed in this way, and necessary to nurture the cultures we create together to scale and grow as the organization and its impact and ambition does.  

That’s why I set up t h e w h o l e w o r k s.