Thinking that some little stories might have a lasting character to them, i decided to post a link to the following post on SmartMobs even after having held onto it for a little over 4 months.
Read it in full here. Even though both reviews, including the one review on Gizmondo had a smily written between the lines, this Japanese service did make me wonder what chances a similar one might have here in Australia. There is an ever growing obesity problem here in Australia, something I would have never thought of before coming here in 2006. A quick Google search reveals numerous services and websites dedicated to helping you loose weight. But what about ones that are focused on educating Australians how to not gain fat? Shouldn't insurance company down-under also love a concept similar to what we read happens in Japan, maybe with a spiffy website in addition to the phone service to help people make their own choices?
Beginning of this year we published an entry on a "network of philantrophic, for-profit companies" and how we could take our initial slogan of "consultants of compassion" to a whole new level and create value by giving our work away for free to certain projects. In our quest for such a project, we have had the honour to meet many great and passionate people. We are also in the process to launch a website for our network of compassionate consultantsTM who will share similar values, ethics and work practices with us and whose services will be complementary to ours in web-strategy consulting and project-management.
The first project in what we intend to be a line of different ventures for us in the future is free2tradefair. It is an e-commerce site that connects artisans and producers in developing countries with consumers in Australia. The team is made up solely of volunteers who committed their precious time and energy to the launch of this producers marketplace. "The Free2TradeFair website provides an open marketplace that supports the buying and selling of fair trade products from around the globe. It seeks to assist producers overcome the many obstacles that can be faced in relation to access of developed markets such as Australia. As such, the website provides support for the selling of their products with the aim of returning all profit made directly to them."
This will represent a unique chance to Australians in supporting people in developing markets by purchasing products directly from the producers site and featured on free2tradefair. We look forward in continuing to work with the free2tradefair team in enhancing the website and making it even better going forward. On our personal wishlist are local payment methods and to keep as much as possible of the shopping experience on the free2tradefair site in general.
Theandb has worked with the free2tradefair team in creating the business website specifications for the project and giving general advise wherever necessary on a range of topics to ensure the projects overall success. We've come far from where we started out from and still have a way to go to the official launch of the site but it's looking very good indeed.
We feel truly blessed to have worked and continue to work with such wonderful people. Thanks to (in totally random order) Helen Burrows who pulled the often changing team together - never forgetting the end goal - Sean Torstensson for his inspired designs, Michael Vullings as web-developer for working his way through the at-times difficult to understand Catgen system, Michael Fuller as our biz-guy for lending focus on critical business issues, Andrew Eagle for coming up with just the right content based on his long years of experience in the NGO sector, Ewa Potaczala for managing all aspects relating to our producers, Ewa Potaczala and Christie Hall for the superb organisation of producers and... many others whose names i must have omitted from this list who should feel very welcome to complain to us. There have been a number of people involved earlier on in the project to get it off the ground that we have not interfaced with directly as we came in when things were already in quite high gear. A particular Thanks to them for lending their positive energy in shaping the free2tradefair project (then called JustTrade) from a simple idea to reality.
See it for yourself.! The link points to the current development site which will soon be replaced by our domain. In addition, the content is still in-progress and producers are still signing up to be part of this exciting new producers marketplace.
Since our early beginnings in 2004, we carried our sub-line "consultants of compassion" with us, eliciting a wide range of feedback from people who saw it for the first time. Across the board, people were curious. We decided that it is about time to pull the sub-line from the fringes to the centre of our company. Going forward, we will create Consultants Of CompassionTM. Several website-addresses will go alongside this new .
We know that we are not alone in our approaches. There are other small (and large) companies like us that wish to be for-profit but remain ethical and integer at the same time. Our goal will be to build a strong network of philantrophic, for-profit companies that will adhere to the same ethical guidelines and having similar approaches to conducting business.
Why do this? We want to make a positive difference (also see, "Can Corporations Save The World?") in this world. We want to be integral and open in what we do and how we operate. And we know this will set us apart from other consultant companies (more on intangible assets and standards in a later post). It is about time that we change the image of consultants back to what it should be; individuals with the will and drive to help and support others for the better.
Please do get in touch with us if this teaser sufficed to raise your interest. Getting signed-up now means that you can have a large influence in how we built Consultants Of CompassionTM and the code of conducts we will create.
Following, some bits and pieces from a research that Agnes made on the concept of the compassionate consultant.
- Recognising a new energy in organisations: "More companies are recognising that the
quality of communications in their organisations largely depends on the
energy and values of its employees."
"The trend towards cultural capital is highly
dependent on values or business principles and some corporations are
even beginning to recognise the "energy" or "spirit" that people bring
to their work."
- There are also parallels with our co-conspirator Howard Bloom who wants to "put the soul back into the machine": Richard Barrett (formerly with the World
Bank), author of "Liberating the corporate soul: building a visionary
organisation" and "A guide to liberating your soul" notes that we have
been moving from the information age to an age of consciousness and
cultural capital (see diagram).
The fundamental shift is to values that support the common good. Corporations that cannot move beyond self-interest will find
themselves struggling to survive," says Barrett in an interview, www.paraview.com.
- "Two Canadian academics Val Kinjerski and
Berna Skrypnek from the Department of Human Ecology, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, in a paper called "Defining spirit at work:
finding common ground" published in the Journal of Organizational
Change Management... Authenticity is often described as "bringing
your whole person to work." The authors also note that the spirit of
the corporation is the mission, vision, principles and values of the
organisation ".
See also: Spirit at Work in the Research of Val Kinjerski
-
European Baha'i Business Forum: "People Inspiring Responsible Business"
VISION: To enhance the well-being and prosperity of humankind.
MISSION: To promote ethical values, personal virtues, and moral
leadership in business as well as in organizations of social change.
SEVEN CORE VALUES:
- Ethical business practices
- Social responsibility in business
- Values-based leadership
- Sustainable development
- A new paradigm of work
- Partnership of women and men in all fields of endeavour
- Non-adversarial decision making through consultation
- "...organisations learn only through individuals
who learn. He [Peter M. Senge] says that when one does undertake and practice the
discipline of personal mastery gradual changes take place and one
begins to see more of our connectedness to the world, compassion, and
commitment to the whole. This is important, as companies need to be
reminded of their connectedness to the outside world, where their
publics reside. "
Share Skype - Language Line - Personal Interpreter That is an amazing service Skype just launched in partnership with Language Lines. You can book an interpreter without pre-scheduling and get him/her on your call within 45 sec! Apparently (reported by Tech Crunch) the service doesn't work properly -yet- on Mac.
That really is a keen move Skype made, close to my personal conviction as where the next big evolution should go.
Free Press : Net Freedom Now!
I guess I just want to help raise awareness with this post. The threat which gave birth to the Net Freedom Now! activist website concerns USA. However we all know about China's governement monitoring the net to acheive their political goals, and that's just a quick thought on the problem.
Here's an exerpt:
"As more Americans upgrade to high-speed Internet connections, the companies that control the "pipes" are plotting out new ways to profit from the demand. The telco and cable giants want to fence off the Internet: one area for the haves — who will pay a premium to enjoy life in the fast lane — and the other for the have-nots.
The innovation and creativity of the Internet are the result of its foundation as an open roadway. At serious risk is the idea of "network neutrality" — a guiding principle of the Internet that ensures all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. Corporate greed threatens to bring the Internet’s promise of advanced communications for all to a halt. "
How to Save the World: new tax system
Ok, it looks simple but I couldn't help thinking "it makes a lot of sense!" when I read the details.
Now which countries, or cluster of nations, would be the most likely to walk down that path? I personally would love to see Europe takes the leadership and move down that direction. Europe built up a kind of collaborative governance that could be a model .... Maybe with more spirit, heart and humanity... Or perhaps, Canada with its environment friendly attitude could spear-head a way?
I came to this article from another article from Dave Pollard, that lays down a roadmap to achieve sustainable economy. Looks like a right-on constitution to me, no?
Engines of Democracy
When I read this article it hit my ethic cord as it shows how ethics & methods at the workplace could evolve. That is real ... eventhough we don't know.
An example and a lesson of democracy from the old hard-core industry.
Here is an exerpt:
" The plant is General Electric's aircraft-engine assembly facility in Durham, North Carolina. Even within Jack Welch's widely admired empire, the Durham facility is in its own league -- a quiet corner of a global giant, a place where the radical has become routine. GE/Durham has more than 170 employees but just one boss: the plant manager. Everyone in the place reports to her. Which means that on a day-to-day basis, the people who work here have no boss. They essentially run themselves.
The jet engines are produced by nine teams of people -- teams that are given just one basic directive: the day that their next engine must be loaded onto a truck. All other decisions -- who does what work; how to balance training, vacations, overtime against work flow; how to make the manufacturing process more efficient; how to handle teammates who slack off -- all of that stays within the team.
Everyone knows how much money everyone else makes, because employees are paid according to his or her skill. There are three grades of jet-assembly technician at this plant -- tech-1, tech-2, and tech-3 -- and there is one wage rate for each grade. There is no conventional assembly line. One team "owns" an engine from beginning to end -- from the point when parts are uncrated and staged to the moment a team member climbs on a forklift to place the finished engine on a truck for shipment. The members of the team do the jobs that interest them. No one ever does the same job, shift after shift, day after day. There is usually choice -- and there is always variety.
This plant has no time clock. Workers leave to go to their kids' band concerts and Little League games. Every technician has an email address and Internet access, voice mail, business cards, and a desk shared with one teammate. The plant manager -- the boss -- sits in an open cubicle that's located right on the factory floor: Engines float by, just 20 feet away. "
This article from the BBC made me stop everything that I was doing. Looking at how this world of ours is turning there is in my opinion a call to the individual to "do something about it".
And I asked myself whether or not I was somehow contributing to the well-being of the planet.
Conclusion: Not really at the moment.
Remedy: None for now but I started searching. :)
Want to get to know the 8th wonder of the world? Check it out.. It might start to make sense to more and more people that to invest into solar energy might be good for our planet. Especially, under the findings of this new research. Whoever doubted that there was something going wrong with mother earth... and guess who is responsible. Yep, us.
I fell on this blog entry: IFTF: A New Literacy for Cooperation.
It reminded me of a model I drafted at a time where we were trying to come up with a creative business association with another enterpreneur & friend.
Exerpt of the blog entry:
"This week I participated in a mind-bending IFTF event shaped by Howard Rheingold on A New Literacy of Cooperation. They are developing a new famework which challenges the assumptions of business strategy that centers around competition. The rise of open source, intellectual property commons, participatory politics, participatory media, and social software all give rise to new cooperative strategies for business."
My own draft of a collaborative model:
The context was the following. Our friend and potential partner developped a well featured e-commerce and basic CMS web based application. He was the only person to sale, promote, program, debug and implement his product. We proposed to extend his base and power and form a sort of business collective around the product.
More on the model we discussed at that time in my wikibrain
It's very exciting to see that these ideas are at last emerging, becoming serious speeches and serious initiatives all over the "web" place. For example the ondemand network , or this Meeting of the mind which I stumbled over recently, and many others.
Thoughts? Example to share?
