A Talented Businessman
March 28, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
A TALENTED BUSINESSMAN
by Phil Smith, co-author of A Billion Bootstraps
Luke Mathews was a talented businessman. As one of the few legitimate dealers in Amazonian hardwoods, he had amassed a small fortune in only ten years. As he prepared for a five-year trip into the heart of the Amazon jungles, Luke was forced to come to grips with the fact that he needed to invest $800,000 in such a way that he could feel comfortable being out of communication for so long.
Luke talked with his friends and lawyer how to go about such a daunting project. They all suggested that he find some good money managers and give it to them. He searched the financial newspapers and magazines until he had narrowed his list down to the top 20 money managers in America. After researching their websites and talking to them, he was completely stumped on how to go forward. All of them seemed to be equally qualified and all were sincere in wanting to do a good job. So, using his decision making rules from his own business, Luke came up with the following thought process:
The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
March 22, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
Are you looking for purpose in life? For a purpose big enough to absorb every ounce of your attention, deep enough to plumb the mystery of your passion, and lasting enough to inspire you to your last breath? This book is about the reason why we are each here on earth.
Are you serious about looking for such a purpose? How many people do you know who just can’t wait to get to work on Monday because they’re so fired up about what they’re doing? Nobody? When you meet people that are that passionate about their calling, it’s contagious. Find your calling.
KEY POINTS:
- There is no call without a Caller.
- Reality reminds us that all the will in the world will not make us what we want to become.
- Calling in the Bible is a central and dynamic theme that becomes a metaphor for the life of faith itself.
OS Guiness deals with two distortions–the Catholic distortion and the Protestant distortion. The Catholic distortion is that the sacred calling is to become a priest or nun. Martin Luther shattered that myth. Luther wrote: “The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ on whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone. The cultural implications of recovering true calling [by Luther] were explosive.
- Calling gave to everyday work a dignity and spiritual significance under God that dethroned the primacy of leisure and contemplation.
- Calling gave to humble people and ordinary task an investment of equality that shattered hierarchies and was vital impulse toward democracy.
- Calling gave to such practical things as work, thrift, and long-term planning a reinforcement that made them powerfully influential in the rise of modern capitalism.
- Calling gave to the endeavor to make Christ Lord of every part of life a fresh force that transformed not only churches but also the worldviews and cultures of the Reformation countries.
- Calling gave to the idea of “talents” a new meaning, so that they were no longer seen purely as spiritual gifts and graces but as natural and a matter of giftedness in the modern sense of the term.
Wikinomics: NGO 2.0
March 13, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
Anthony Williams, co-author of best-selling book Wikinomics, gave a keynote address at the Spark conference title Wikinomics: NGO 2.0. Here’s a brief summary of his keynote:There are four drivers of change today:
- Web 2.0. People want to be content creators. People want to be part of the global conversation.
- The Net Generation. According to a Wikinomics survey of 11,000 people aged 15-30, the Net Generation wants cust omized relationships, jobs, etc. They want freedom of choice to do life their unique way.
- The Social revolution. Think Facebook and MySpace and the growth of social networking.
- Economic Revolution. Rethinking the enterprise to take advantage of items 1-3 above. Companies companies in the future are those that can unbundle, network, partner, and outsource to focus on their core competencies. Companies that are built vertically will need to be restructured.
Web 2.0 examples and ideas:
- Dell’s Mindstorm utility that allows users to determine the specify and vote for the features they would like to see in Dell systems.
- Using Second Life to create virtual 3rd world communities for training NGO field workers.
- Blogging.
- Using social networking sites to tap into the untapped time & talent of employees and donors. Enabling collaboration on actual NGO projects.
- Habitat Jam. A 3-day conversation with 40,000 people to harness the collective intelligence of a nation. Wikinomics plans to participate in a similar project in Canada.
- Ideagoras, a market place for minds. Ideas and innovations are increasingly coming from outside company walls—and Web-based virtual talent pools are stepping in to fill the need. An example of this is Innocentive, an open marketplace matching solution seekers with solution solvers. This is a POWERFUL idea. I know of many Halftimers who have the time & talent to solve a particular problem, but need to be matched up with larger NGO’s and Church networks that can provide distribution and funding to take their solutions to the next level.
- UN Solutions Exchange, a UN initiative for development practitioners in India.
- ReliefWeb, the global hub for time critical information on Complex emergencies and natural disasters.
- IntelligentGiving. A website that allows you to comment and rate charities.
Bottom line: I found the keynote fascinating. I believe Kinnovation will be one of the key players in helping NGO’s, para church and church networks to develop next generation technology solutions that will make a substantial difference.
Spark Conference
March 8, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
As Sabre is to the airline industry, Spark is to humanitarian industry.
Imagine a day when each airline had their own reservation system. We all relied on travel agents to navigate different computer systems just to book a flight. In the early 70’s, American Airlines teamed up with IBM and created the Sabre system. It was one of the first computerized reservation and ticket transaction systems. Originally used only by AA, the system was expanded to travel agents in 1976. It is currently used by a large number of companies, including Eurostar and SNCF. Today the system connects more than 30,000 travel agents and 3 million consumers with more than 400 airlines, 50 car-rental companies, 35,000 hotels and dozens of railways, tour companies, ferries and cruise lines. This evolved into ACP (Airlines Control Program), and later to TPF (Transaction Processing Facility). American spun off Sabre on March 15, 2000. Sabre was publicly traded corporation, Sabre Holdings, stock symbol TSG on the NYSE until taken private in March 2007.
Today, all non-government organizations (NGO) use different systems for Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation (DM&E). Each year, billions of dollars are donated by individuals, businesses, and governments through NGO’s to reach the end beneficiaries. Unfortunately, there is no standards for reporting impact, so it is impossible for donors to get a consolidated report of their donation impact across multiple agencies. In effect, the non-profit industry is where the airline industry was in 1972.
On March 11, 2008 World Vision, one of the leading NGO’s ($2B/year), gathered together 15 organizations to discuss the possibility of developing an inter-agency DM&E system that would benefit the entire non-profit industry. If successful, the system (code named “Spark”) would enable all non-profits the ability to capture impact data into a common platform and report back to donors. It is believed that providing higher quality and more transparent impact reports to donors will increase accountability and ultimately result in higher donations to the organizations that provide this information to it’s donors.
2008 WEF Faith Panel
March 8, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Watch the above 2008 World Economic Forum (WEF) video to see Rick Warren (starts at 40:13) and others discussing how religious institutions can address the world’s problems. The audience was given an opportunity to ask question. There were two Muslims, a Catholic, a Rabbi, and a evangelical Christian (Rick Warren). It was apparent that the Catholics have done the most humanitarian work at this point in time. A representative from Catholic Relief Society in the audience pointed out that Catholics take care of 20% of all Aids patients, but receive only 3% of USAID money.
Some good points:
- Rick Warren: “I don’t care why you do good, just do good. We do good because we believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and HE told us to take care of our neighbor.”
- Rabbi: “Deeds, not words. If Jews & Germans can come together to save Muslim refugees from Kosovo, then there is hope.”
- Imam: “The root of problems is extremism..the rational side should control the issues.”
- Rick Warren: “I’m not interested in Interfaith dialog, I’m interested in Interfaith projects, like solving Aids.”
Creative Capitism
March 6, 2008 by markhsmith · Leave a Comment
Bill Gates at WEF 2008
Bill Gates talks about Halftime, the pause between his Life 1.0 (Microsoft) and Life 2.0 (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He starts full time at Gates Foundation in July 2008.
His talk is the role of the Corporation in the World.
Some points:
The world is getting better, but it’s not getting better fast enough and it’s not getting better for everyone. There are a billion people that live on less than $1 day. Why do people benefit in inverse proportion to their need. Capitalism needs to be refined so that it benefits everyone. Capitalism harnesses self-interest in a for those that can pay, philanthropy benefits the poor who cannot pay.
Recognition is an added incentive to for-profit companies in lieu of payment–the market will reward companies that are recognized for doing good. This is creative capitalism. Profit for self-interest + recognition for corporate philanthropy = creative capitalism.
Examples:
- President Bush signed the Priority Review. For those drug companies that come up with a solution for a “forgotten” disease, will get a priority review. Getting their state-of-the-art drug first priority in the FDA approval process. This could be a $100M
- Get African coffee farmers the right market for their product.
- Bono’s Red campaign was born in Davos, which has generated $50M for Aids in Africa.
Bill Gates encouraged all corporation to use Creative Capitalism–give their top thinkers a percentage of their time & talent. He says this is better than cash, because it taps into the brain power. Glaxo-Smith Klien & Sumocomo are example. If companies in a sector simply matched what the leader in that
NGO’s can create measurable s to measure & recognize non-profit organizations. By recognizing non-profits, we can encourage the creative capitalism movement.
The largest companies can have the biggest impact. It’s engineering your product so that the product can reach the lowest 1/3 of the population. It has to be promoted by the CEO and become part of the DNA. When it becomes part of the DNA, it will drive itself within a company. “A computer for everyone.” Microsoft’s slogan drives innovation.
A company should stick to what it knows well. The company’s mission and philanthropy should be tied together.
The idea of NGO’s getting cash directly from corporations is not the best solution. NGO’s need to ask for innovation, something that goes with their core products & services. Also, NGO’s have traditionally suspected that for-profit companies need to do everything for free, when in fact, it’s OK for them to make money somehow in the process.
Bill Gates would like to see his legacy be: Within 15 years, I would like to see 15 diseases wiped out. Huge changes in the mortality rates, which changes the birth rate and makes education possible. We’re spending $3B/year.
Bono on the UN Millennium Goals
March 6, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
The UN has developed the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Monitor website. Whatever measurement systems we develop should incorporate their measures. MDG has measurements by country.
As I understand it, funding can be cut off for any country that is not meeting the MDG goals, so the monitor report is key.
The burning questions: If the UN would be unwilling to give development money to a country that is not meeting its MDG goals, would PEACE or World Vision give that country money anyway?
Bono took the WEF to task for NOT meeting the goals.