Thursday 23 October 2008

Be a 'go-giver

Remacue Chairman Lindsay Adams and myself have bought and given away a lot of copies of the book ‘The Go-Giver’ by Bob Burg and John David Mann and published by Penguin 2007. The key lessons of the book

"The law of value: your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
The law of compensation: your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
The law of influence: your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interest first.
The law of authenticity: the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.
The law of receptivity: the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving."

These are all key laws that underpin the building of our new world.

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Sunday 12 October 2008

'Creating a world without poverty'

Two of my heroes are Muhammad Yunus, perhaps the greatest living social entreprenuer, and John Elkington, the originator of the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ concept, so it will come as no surprise to you that my recent reading has been the latest books by both. In Elkington’s case his co-author is Pamela Hartigan the Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and the book is ‘The Power of Unreasonable People’. I highly recommend it to you. It contains many examples of co-builders of our new world. As a result of reading it I have decided to become more unreasonable.

In Yunus’ ‘Creating a world without poverty’ he introduces the concept of social businesses. The book is full of great insights, inspiration, and ideas although I must say I disagree with Yunus’ take on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement which I feel he sells short.

I was inspired by Yunus’ wish list for his dream world for it describes beautifully how I see our new world. Here is my shortened in part version of Mr Yunus’ list

“There will be no poor people, no beggars, no homeless people, no street children

There will be no passports and no visas

There will be no war, no war preparations, and no military establishments

There will be no incurable diseases

There will be a global education system accessible to all from anywhere in the world

The global economic system will encourage sharing of prosperity. Unemployment and welfare will be unheard of

Social business will be a substantial part of the business world

There will only be one global currency

All people will be committed to a sustainable lifestyle

There will be no discrimination of any kind

There will be no need for paper and therefore no need to cut down trees

Basic connectivity will be wireless and nearly costless

All cultures, ethnic groups, and religions will flourish to their full beauty and creativity

All people will share a world of peace, harmony, and friendship”

Be remarkable
Ian
Strategic advisor to difference makers

Thursday 9 October 2008

Authentic corporate social responsibility

Recently I was privileged to be a keynote speaker at a conference in Singapore organised by Singapore Human Resources Institute. I spoke about ‘Tomorrow Today a future for business - authentic corporate social responsibility’, which of late has been one of my most requested talks. To those in the audience interested in further reading I provided an ebook I have written on the subject that traces defining moments of the past 25 years and the five shifts we are making to build our new world:

a move from competition to collaboration

a move from self-interest to shared interest

a move from dominance to diligence

a move from greed to greater good

a move from reaction to responsibility

You can download the ebook here

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

Sunday 5 October 2008

Help stop xdrtb disease

Catching up on emails a short time ago. One from Chris Anderson Curator at TED concerning the terrible plight of those suffering from xdrtb disease really moved me.

I urge you to watch a short video here about xdrtb and do something about it in your own way.

Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers

‘The Lexus and The Olive Tree’, ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded’

My reading in the past week or so has been Thomas Friedman’s latest book ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded’. It is exciting to see a writer of Friedman’s class join the Green Revolution. I also re-read his excellent book ‘The Lexus and The Olive Tree’, which is about globalization and how to make it work for the good of all. A lot of lessons here for the troubled folk on Wall Street.

Friedman is a builder of our new world. I highly recommend him to you. Visit his website here for more information.


Be remarkable
Ian
strategic advisor to difference makers