Life Planning movement founder George Kinder recently moved to London to launch a new global business called The Moules. Here he explains his plans and the reason for the launch. 

The Moules is a new global startup which I'm launching in the UK after the UK government awarded me an Innovator Founder Visa enabling me to work here and launch a business.

The visa requirements set a high bar: to qualify, a venture must be not only viable and scalable but also demonstrably innovative.

To my surprise, the endorsing body approved my proposal in record time. That was striking, given how innovation is so often equated today with cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence.

What they saw as innovative was an approach rooted in financial services that draws on my 25 years of pioneering work in life planning.

Life planning is the practice of inspiring individuals to live their most meaningful, purpose-filled lives. Working with thousands of clients, one consistent pattern emerges: when someone discovers and commits to their true purpose, they launch into it with the passion of an entrepreneur.

Often, people assume they must wait decades to pursue their deepest aspirations - after retirement or after other obligations are fulfilled. But through life planning, individuals bring their energy, creativity, and commitment at once to the pursuit of their dreams, with an energy that transforms every aspect of their lives.

The Moules is designed to take this same transformative energy and embed it directly into the fabric of businesses.

Most organisations today operate with an invisible barrier between leadership and employees. Workers often hesitate to share who they really want to be, fearing it could limit their career prospects or put them at risk. The cost of this silence is staggering: billions lost in untapped creativity, disengagement and underperformance.

The Moules aims to break that barrier by creating an environment that sees the personal aspirations of employees as a tremendous business asset. Where employees gain the freedom to own their deepest aspirations in a work environment that supports them, the results are transformative: productivity rises, collaboration deepens, cultures come alive and businesses flourish.

A second pillar of The Moules is mindfulness.

Recent research has shown that listening is 100 million times faster than thinking. This has profound implications for how people relate, make decisions, and solve problems. By training employees and leaders alike in mindful listening and presence, perhaps the core element in Kinder Institute’s life planning trainings, we aim to build organisations that are more emotionally intelligent, more collaborative, and ultimately, more innovative.

The third element of The Moules is what we call Fiduciary in All Things (FIAT). Traditionally, fiduciary responsibility has been narrowly defined as an obligation to shareholders, something again that can put employees at odds and leave them out.

Businesses thrive most when they are seen by employees and communities alike as noble missions expanding fiduciary responsibility to the planet, to humanity, to truth and democracy.

Crucially, this ethos is not imposed from the top down. Instead, each person within the company is invited to define what being, “fiduciary in all things” means to them personally. As employees internalise this standard, it radiates outward, shaping the company’s culture, reputation, and brand.

The Moules begins its work in financial services companies, where financial life planning and fiduciary are well known. As life planning did for clients and advisers, The Moules will demonstrate to the corporate world that financial health and human fulfillment are not competing aims but mutually reinforcing ones.

With great listening, The Moules brings together the disciplines of finance, psychology, and organizational leadership to create a new model for how businesses best operate - one that is more energised, collaborative, purpose-driven, and profitable.

By combining life planning, mindfulness, and a broadened sense of fiduciary responsibility, The Moules redefines what successful innovation in business and financial services looks like.

• Also read: George Kinder: Why I moved to London for good.

George Kinder, CFP, RLP, is the founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning and designer of training for client-adviser relationship skills. https://www.kinderinstitute.com/