…
“The leader sees work as part of a larger mission - make a better society for all (institution builder).”
- Georges F. Doriot
(find book here)
Apr
23
by Miriam Garvi
This week’s news have been dominated by the less flattering aspects of ethanol production and combustion.
Since the mass diffusion of the car, radical ideas on how to address everyday needs of transportation and mobility are rare to come by - despite undesirables such as traffic congestion and pollution. As ‘inconvenient truths’ fuel anti-global warming trends, biofuels are being promoted as the sound alternative for any citizen adhering to social responsibility.
But how can ethanol production be a sustainable solution when it is so inefficient that more energy has to be put into the process than what comes out of it? Or when agricultural land is reclaimed for biofuel production thus threatening to make large parts of the world’s poorer, rural population dependent on the World Food Program?
Is this the best we can do? Economic interests aside, when fear drives innovation we are walking backwards into the future. We find ourselves embracing solutions which are not sustainable in the wider perspective. And which upon careful scrutiny may reveal themselves to do as much harm as good - depending on whose interests and needs are in focus.
Vision pioneering is about taking radical steps towards improved fulfillment, driven by a vision of the purposeful rather than avoidance strategies. There can be no progressive thinking unless we shift focus from the products and technologies that we know to those invisible qualities we want to enjoy.
Apr
22
by Miriam Garvi
I once read an article by professor Peter Pruzan where he makes this reflection:
“With the aid of our time’s alchemists - economists - money has been transmuted from a means to the end.”
Let me give you a little illustration of this point. As I was interviewing various people for my dissertation, I sat down with an investment manager at the Skandia Group, an international savings company. When asked what his team were all about, the answer was plain and simple; «We’re small and square - money for our pension beneficiaries, money for our pension beneficiaries, money for our pension beneficiaries…». Small and square? Now there’s an answer that’ll fit right into a business growth matrix or a market plan!
It is amazing how the ‘language of money’ narrows down possible options to one single end, namely maximizing profit - or to be more up-to-date these days, increasing shareholder value. This language makes no room for any reflections on whether +5% is the kind of fulfilment we’re looking for or if it is in fact merely a means for developing and sustaining what we are doing. If it is the latter, then the language of money is doing us the disservice of diverting focus away from the fundamental things in business and life alike, by reducing what we talk about and what we think counts to the measurable and simplistic.
A man with a vision once said: “Business is not about dollars and cents so much as about building for the future.” That future calls us to go beyond the measurable and simplistic and start thinking about the bigger picture.
Apr
20
…
“Profit is the metaphorical equivalent of the oxygen, food, and water that the body requires. They are not the point in life, but without them there is no life.”
- Mark Lipton
(find article here)
Apr
10
by Miriam Garvi
Earlier this week I was in Norway doing research for a book project I’ve been working on. Among the people I met was an elderly couple who had spent most of their working lives pioneering hospital care in the mountain areas of Taiwan.
They told me the story of how what is today a modern teaching hospital started with one man who took it upon himself to set up a small ‘treatment center’ of bamboo huts even though he had no other resources than his own drive and determination to do what was needed.
Today taking a professional stance often translates into arm’s length involvement. But then we forget something fundamental: one person’s dedication may be all it takes to set something in motion that can have a strong impact once it comes to fruition.
Apr
9
by Miriam Garvi
I recently came across this article in the Boston Globe (November 2007) entitled:
“Pursuit of meaningful work blurs the business, nonprofit culture gap”
And so I thought today that I would post this simple question:
Do you know what makes your work meaningful and fulfilling?
Apr
6
by Miriam Garvi
In our society, it seems as if the real winners are never those who take the first step. Most money is made by those deft enough to know exactly the right moment to move in and beat others at their own game. Business is for the survival of the fittest - those who have the stamina for playing the ‘gorilla game’.
But who defines winning? And who defines the prize? Chalking up a new sales record is an achievement, but then what? As shown by many a public company these days, it is no longer enough to be profitable - you need to keep exceeding expectations that are fueled by past successes. Expected growth is the curse of success.
It takes courage and conviction not to be drawn into this spiral. But if we are to see other qualities than short-term achievement we need visions that go beyond heeding to the loud demands and expectations of markets and institutions.
Apr
2
by Miriam Garvi
The other day I read about another initiative in alleviating world poverty. It seems that every new initiative these days involves the diffusion of some kind of golden recipe - as in ‘alleviating poverty through technology’ or technology saves the world. This time, the recipe was microfranchising: “The idea is to replicate sound business models and, consequently, to provide microentrepreneurs in developing countries with training and the necessary assistance for success.”
I could write about how such initiatives reek of a neo-colonialistic attitude where the Westerner knows how money is made and so our models of thinking are imposed on other populations without regard nor appreciation for their cultural settings. But today I will draw the parallel to what is happening in other areas of business life. In my study of venture capital, it became clear that a streamlining way-of-thinking is dominating business thinking today. By streamlining I mean these kinds of ready-made formulas, of ‘best practice’, of ‘business recipes for success’, of ’success factors’ - whatever we choose to call them - which are imposed on new ideas, snuffing the flame. As I wrote in the final pages of my dissertation, “it would be a loss indeed if venture capital [or micro finance for that matter or any other service aimed at promoting new initiatives] would mean the death of visions and ideas that can change our conception of the system. Without them, there would be little new to refine and we might never come to enjoy what we have yet to discover.”
It is time we start thinking about the implications of snuffing out the visionary flame with pre-made, easy-to-replicate business models that are designed with one thing in mind: namely how to streamline a business concept so as to maximize its perceived value on a financial market.
Mar
26
by Miriam Garvi
Look at this picture. Nothing but bare skies over a bare, snow-covered landscape.
But beyond what is captured by the camera lens is a moment rich in satisfaction and peace, a moment of untouched open space that awakens the hope of new beginnings. A breather from all the musts and the matters of course that frame our everyday life.
In our relentless pursuit of knowledge, we assemble everything we think we need to know about the ‘how tos’ and the ‘how not tos’. But this structure of fragmented pieces robs us of a quality so fundamental that it is known by the smallest child: that childlike innocence that allows us to believe in the unwritten page of new beginnings.
All too often what we see is blocking our sight. Unless we make room for the invisible qualities of life they will fall into oblivion, quenched by conventional professionalism. Vision pioneering is about unwritten pages and new beginnings: to start afresh by allowing fulfilling qualities to be brought out into the world. It is about new seeds taking form, germinating and growing so that we may be enriched not just monetarily but in a wider, human sense as we experience true fulfilment.
Mar
25
by Miriam Garvi
I spent part of this morning on the phone, taking care of some simple business. It turned out to be quite the interesting study of customer relations.
Call 1: I dial the number to my local bank.
Bank manager: - Elisabeth speaking.
Me: - Oh, is this not the … Bank?
Bm: - Yes, it is.
Me: - Aha. I am trying to figure out how to wire some money abroad over the Internet. Perhaps you could help me?
Bm: - I’m busy with a client right now. Can you call back later?
Me: - I thought I dialed your general number?
Bm: - Ehh… You did. But the call came to me nevertheless. Hm… let me see what I can do. Hold on, I’ll put you through to the cashier’s desk.
Question: Customer relations is about the client helping the service provider help the client?
Call 2: I call the swimming hall to book a massage.
- Welcome to … swimming hall.
Me: - Yes hello, I would like to book a massage for Friday morning if possible.
- Ehh, I don’t know if our masseur is in on Friday.
Me: - Perhaps you could find that out for me?
- Well the problem is that our binders with the scheduling information have gone missing. I’ll need to go look for them. Let me have your number and I’ll call you back.
(an hour later, an impatient customer tries again).
Me: I’m calling about a massage.
- Oh yes! That’s right! I’m very sorry about not calling you back, you see I haven’t been free to leave the cash-desk yet…
(massage eventually scheduled later in the afternoon).
…
Call 3: I need to reschedule a dental appointment…
Me: …I’d like to reschedule my dental appointment on the 25th.
Dental secretary: - Hold on a moment, please… Oh, that’s weird!
Me: - How’s that?
Ds: - You’re scheduled on both the 23rd and the 25th!
Me: - The notice I’ve received is for the 25th.
Ds: - Yes, but I have you in my computer twice! How can that be?
Me: - In any case, I need to reschedule for September.
Ds: - But twice the same week? Do you want to cancel both?
Me: - Eh yes, that would be good since I need to reschedule for September.
Ds: - Hm… I’ve never seen this before! What have they done here?
(customer still waiting…)
Ds: - Yes, so you need to cancel both? Ah! Now I know - we have training on the 23rd so they probably rescheduled everyone and forgot to cancel the initial date. [with a sigh of relief] OK! September, you said?
Question: if time is money, then how much should the customer be charging for lost time?
For some time now I have been wondering whether customer relations and customer service is in fact about clients coming to the rescue of bewildered service providers, as they offer suggestions out of sheer frustration on how to actually provide the service these organizations profess to offer.
Are we here for the customer or is it the other way around?
Philosopher Ayn Rand once said: “I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.” Well, if this is the dominant perspective in business, then perspectives have indeed been reversed so that we need think little about whether and to what extent the customer actually benefits from our ’service’ as long as we’ve gained a client - as long as clients add to our building.