Natural Entrepreneurs: Following the flow to find the career of your dreams?

Does business need to be profit-greedy and your work hard? Of course not. Instead, your career is part of your life and we are no victims but creators of our own circumstances along the path we decided to walk.

"This economic crisis may be just the push you need to find the career of your dreams." is the subtitle of an interesting article in Ode Magazine. Author Dave Pollard contrasts the "natural entrepreneur" to the hard-working factory or office laborer. I myself did feel like an assembly-line worker in a factory with the only difference that I was chasing my email inbox.

So it it very refreshing to see Pollard's six points on how Natural Entreprenerus are different:

1. "They had found their sweet spot, the work where their gifts, their passions and their purpose intersected.
2. They had found the right business partners, people who shared their purpose and whose gifts and passions complemented their own.
3. They did world-class research to identify real needs that weren’t being met by any other enterprise in the marketplace.
4. They used a rigorous, continuous process to invent and commercialize products and services that met those unmet needs.
5. Instead of planning for the future, they had learned how to improvise, to adapt easily to changes in the economy and demographics.
6. They acted with integrity, operating in a way that resonated with their values, and made principled decisions, not opportunistic ones, in the long-term interest of their partners, employees, customers and communities."
   
   

Read the full article here, including the reference to his book.
Which side are you on?

Social Entrepreneurs make it into The Economist: Global heros saving the world?

When the conservative economic magazine The Economist is picking up a trend then it can't be a hype anymore. They run specials on (Social) Entrepreneurship and - wow - their titles even go overboard: "Global heros" and "Saving the World".

The first hero-article describes how - despite the downturn - entrepreneurs are enjoying a renaissance the world over. It brings back the famous phrase of “creative destruction” by Joseph Schumpeter from 1942. Then it busts five myths on entrepreneurs and covers the who-is-who o (American) entrepreneurs.

The second article 'Saving the world' covers how entrepreneurs are trying to do good as well as make money. Key messages resonate much with me such as "Social entrepreneurs often blur the distinction between making money and offering charity. Some use the profits from their main business to cross-subsidise their charitable work." (This mix I have lived the last two years). With dozens of comments it's a hotly debated article.

Also interesting: "In the long run, however, the best thing that entrepreneurs can do for the poor may be simply to see them as workers and customers." This - in an empowering, integrating way - is what UNDP's Growing Sustainable Business Initiative, who I am currently working for, is trying to do. Stay tuned...

A social technology to connect to the future: "Presencing"

Do you want to know how to create your future out of the present moment? Sounds like a spiritual question but MIT lecturer Dr. Otto Scharmer has formulated a ‘technology’ called “Presencing” that describes the process how creative leaders give birth to the future that wants to happen.

Recently I attended the first online class of Otto and his Presencing Institute. Out of the MIT he gives interactive lectures accompanied with group work with like-minded people from all over the world. I was very impressed how Otto describes 'soft' and spiritual processes in a language that “mind-people” can understand.

Otto has German roots but lives in the US and has extensively described the process and examples of Presencing in his ‘Theory U’ book. You can read the executive summary here. As illustrated below, the U stands for going down into the source with an open mind, open heart and open will, and then coming up by sensing and letting emerge visions of the future:



I have tried similar techniques in an ‘inspiration coach’ training and must say that this stuff actually works! ‘Going with the flow’ has been one of my recent mantras and plays a new major role on my work and private life. Have you made any experiences in this area?

World Economic Forum on Businnes & Climate Change

"UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored this connection in his address. "Climate change threatens all our goals for development and social progress," he stated. "On the other hand, it also presents us with a gilt-edged opportunity. By tackling climate change head-on we can solve many of our current troubles, including the threat of global recession." The Secretary-General cited the UN Global Compact, a voluntary initiative for companies vowing to uphold social and environmental principles, as a prime example of efforts to solve simultaneously multiple problems. He called for a new phase of the program – which he dubbed Global Compact 2.0.

The key, according to Ban Ki-moon, is credibility - which Compact companies earn and maintain through annual Communication on Progress reports. Recent polls - for example the Edelman Trust Barometer - show that only a third of people in the world trust business to do the right thing: "half what it used to be," Ban Ki-moon says. ...

While few trust business now, Ban Ki-Moon points out the irony that two-thirds of the world's people "think business should be fully engaged in tackling our common problems."

From CSRWire

Spirit in Business: The Expanded Consciousness of Inspiring Leaders and Entrepreneurs

Global crises such as the climate crisis, the poverty crisis or the financial crises are also “value crises” and symptoms of a “consciousness crisis”. Our motivation and capability to address such issues depends on our awareness of the bigger picture and our consciousness how we individually are linked to these issues. New leaders and entrepreneurs in the fields of Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability have become aware of this bigger picture. They have an expanded consciousness and followed their life-mission to be change agents and leaders in changing the world.

Change due to expanding consciousness can be seen in various academic, economic, societal and political fields. In economy, change can be seen in social and spiritual entrepreneurship, CSR and new forms of visionary and conscious leadership. In medicine, it is the trend towards holistic medicine including the growing acceptance of alternative healing. In physics, it is quantum-physics and in politics the election of Barack Obama is energizing globally.

There are many open questions: For instance, how has peace nobel-prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus seen potential rather poverty in Bangladesh when establishing Grameen’s micro-finance scheme? Why did Microsoft founder Bill Gates change his life mission from for-profit seeking towards fighting global illnesses? How are we transforming capitalism to make our global economy sustainable?

My thesis is that they have in common an expanded consciousness which is the foundation for extraordinary mission-motivation, leadership and achievements. What do you think?

Berlin: Becoming Europe’s new Social Entrepreneur Hub?

Recently I had the chance to attend the Xmas gathering of betterplace.org in Berlin. I have blogged about them before and during this visit a new ‘scene’ of social entrepreneurs in Berlin came to my attention.

Ever since I decided to combine ‘business’ with ‘social’ some years ago I felt about lonely in Germany. Sure Ashoka has an office and there are initiatives such as start social. However, in big business cities such as Munich and Frankfurt there are still plenty of people who don’t know what CSR stands for or how sustainability can make business sense.

Therefore, it was a positive surprise to meet real people behind social business ventures in Berlin. Next to the betterplace team there were people form the Bertelsmann Foundation and social entrepreneurs form smaller, upcoming initiatives such as:

• Genisis Institute: A think-tank to change charity thinking towards social business. Under the patronage of Muhammad Yunus.
• Good Root: helping foundations, NGOs and social investors to track and improve social impact.

Why does Berlin have this new social entrepreneur scene? Sure, Berlin hosts the German government and the German Global Compact network but there are neither strong industries nor big employers in Berlin, if not to say eastern Germany overall. So where does the new entrepreneurial spirit come from? Maybe it is “Die Not macht erfinderisch” (A German saying meaning “If you don’t have much, you are forced to become creative”). Certainly Berlin’s openness and international flair contributed significantly to this ‘new scene’.

Many ventures are relatively new and in there start up phase. I wish them all the best and hope that traditional corporate decision makers and politicians support these valuable ventures. I am going to move to Berlin in March 2009 to write my dissertation on Responsible Tourism. Will keep you posted.

Marry Xmas and a happy new year!
Juergen

UPDATE: Also selfHUB is an interesting center of and for Social Entrepreneurs in Berlin.

Video of Project in Mali: School construction in Niamana, authentic African Village

"Initsche" (hallo) and Bonjour out of the middle of Africa. After blogging about "high-flying" CSR topics, it's time to write about the "down-to-earth" development project I have dedicated most of my personal time and energy of 2008: the construction of two class-rooms in Niamana, Mali, West Africa.

Niamana is an ultra-authentic African village in rural Mali, about seven hard-rocking car hours away from the country's capital Bamako in the direction of Timbuktu. It is a place that - by Western measures - suffers extreme poverty of subsistence farming, without electricity, running water, cars etc. However, from a less materialistic and more romantic viewpoint it has its wonderful sides to it, as blogged here from my first visit.

The project is part of the Mali Initiative and includes the construction of two class-rooms to allow the education of up to 200 children per year. It is based on a needs assessment undertaken early this year showing that many hundreds of children of Niamana and surrounding villages have no chance to receive any proper education. Education is key for a better future including finding a job and caring about your family's health etc.

"Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world" (Nelson Mandela)

At the core of the project is the friendship established between Malian community leader Youchaou Traore and the Mali Initiative. Youchaou has been raised in Niamana and thanks to this, international visitors from Australia and Germany have had incredible authentic immersion experiences in the village. Friendships and hospitality are very important for Malians which means that we always been received much more as friends than as faceless aid-donors.

Youchaou and Niamana's mayor Karim Traore are both visionaries with aspirations. They motivate communities and give them confidence and guidance to unleash their potential for positive development. A key success factor of the Mali Initiative is to partner with exactly these kind of visionaries and leaders who translate their talk into action. This approach could be termed "aspiration-based" development. It is insofar different from needs-based or rights-based development that it's a paradigm change of seeing people with potential to develop themself seizes rather beneficiaries receiving aid. Therefore, this approach leverages opportunistic and entrepreneurial elements from Social Entrepreneurs.

"A vision is the right balance between realism and utopia. It is the just achievable"

During my stay in Niamana in Jan. 2008 (as described here) I got the vision to make Niamana's dream of two new come true with support raised in my home country Germany. I was inspired by the amazing support by Australians around Elise Klein and was sure to be able to awaken (com)passion with friends, former colleagues, businesses and organizations back home. Soon some friends raised their hand to found a charitable organization. We organized event, spread the word, got press coverage and made the target of raising the required 25000€ in time.

Currently, I am in Niamana together with two German supporters. The first concrete-brick was laid on 24th October 2008 and construction is fast under-way. 250 people and several donkey-carts helped to remove the rubble of the mud-bricks of the old, decayed rooms. Construction will be finished soon in November and then up to 200 children each year will have the chance to for a better future.

Compared to my corporate jobs at global players or my time at the UN Global Compact this might appear as a tiny grass-roots project. However, driving a project end-to-end and seeing real impact on the ground has been a great experience. I am looking forward to combine Social Entrepreneurial approaches to link Niamana with international visitors.

If you want to support this project or visit Mali email me at juergen.nagler@mali-initiative.org. See photos of Niamana construction or watch the following video:

Book "The Difference Makers": Jane Nelson from Harvard’s CSR Initiative and more

Africa-born Jane Nelson is an inspiring difference make in the field of Corporate Responsibility. Through the friend of a friend (the power of networking) I got connected to her allowing me to ask for some advice which I am sharing below. Currently, Jane is the Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and she is involved in numerous other organisations.

Recently, Jane also got featured in the book “The Difference Makers” published at Greenleaf Publishing (leading in CSR and sustainability books). The book tells the stories of how social and institutional entrepreneurs created the Corporate Responsibility movement. It’s an inspiring read to see how the personal stories formed these leaders’ life paths and allows the reader to identify with them.

Author Sandra Waddock uses an interesting style interweaving the personal background of 23 leaders with how they came about to create their organizations and initiatives including the UN Global Compact, Global Reporting Initiative, Millennium Development Goals, SustainAbility, Human Rights Watch and many more.

In the case of Jane, she grew up in South-Africa and Zimbabwe surrounded by rural poverty and racial tension. Early she developed a strong passion around issues of peace, non-violence, and sustainability. After Masters at Oxford she worked for Citibank and took a Sabbatical to attend the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. She never returned to the bank but then work for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in Africa and went onto her Corporate Responsibility career.

Despite being an eminent person, Jane has remained humble and doesn’t overlook simple things. Jane realized “that that the poorest people in terms of income have an incredible spirit, even though they lack a lot materially and they also have major problem-solving skills and entrepreneurial skills”, an experience that I can confirm form village visits in Mali.

Are you interested in making a difference in the field of Corporate Responsibility?

Jane believes that “there’s an increasingly essential role for social entrepreneurs to serve as bridge builders between large companies, foundations, governments, and communities in tackling social problems. There is a new kind of leadership required…”

When I asked her how someone young and passionate can make a difference, she responded with these five main areas as key options:

1. Key Intermediaries: such as WBCSD, ILF, WEF
2. Major Corporations
3. Development Agencies and UN: such as World Bank, DFID, GTZ
4. Academic Institutions and Think Thanks
5. Consulting Firms: such as McKinsey, BCG, Dalberg
   
   

Of course, as bridge builders, it's also our task to form new partnerships between these areas and all kinds of innivative hybrids. Finally, she encourages all of us to follow our heart and passion by saying “be an explorer!”

Unleashing the Potential for Sustainable Development in Mali

Thanks to a recommendation from my friend Mike Smith I got interviewed by A Developed World:

Juergen Nagler was enjoying successful career in the business world a couple of years ago when he was almost killed in a motorbike accident. He realized then that he wanted to do something more meaningful than sitting in an office cubicle and contributing to a corporation’s bottom line.

He started the Mali Initiative in February 2007 with a young Australian Elise Klein and a Malian community leader Youchaou Traore. Together, they have built a not-for-profit network of committed individuals and organizations to provide access to quality education in Mali, in order to break the cycle of poverty.

Education in Mali
Mali is one of the least developed countries in the world according to the United Nations, which estimates that its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was only US$1000 in 2007. Its young population of 12 million people, of which 50% are under the age of 15, comprises of Muslims, Christians and other ethnic groups living side-by-side. However, the lack of access to quality education have left the people in Mali felt disempowered.

Juergen explains: “The challenges in Mali were almost incomprehensible for a Western-mind: 7 out of 10 people in Mali cannot read and write, poverty and unemployment are dire and the country is dependent of foreign aid.”

Juergen strongly advocates Nelson Mandela’s belief that education is "the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. Education can enable a child to improve his chances of finding a job and providing for his family, to exercise his choices as an inform citizen living in a democracy, and then to finally pass on the baton to all future generations.

Local networks, local knowledge
The Mali Initiative takes a unique approach by developing local networks and partnerships and using local knowledge to build their projects focused on education and empowerment. All projects are lead by locals in order to create sustainable results. By taking time to understand local aspirations, Juergen and his team has been able to mobilize the community and use their raw energy and motivation to drive the projects.

Since 2004, they have raised $200,000, which have gone towards multiple projects such as launching a micro-credit organization for women,establishing a health center, getting street children to learn French, and establishing the Youchaou's School to provide quality primary and secondary education in Kalabacoro (on the outskirts of Mali’s capital Bamako). The school is considered one of the best in Mali and will be used for teacher-training in partnership with local representatives of the Ministry of Education.

"One World"
Backpacking through Africa and South America, it dawned on Juergen that the divide between the West and the rest of the world was just an illusion. “At the core, aren’t we all striving for our families to live in peace with proper shelter, education and healthcare?” This belief has fueled his commitment to work towards healing the divisions and creating "one world".

“Connecting heart to heart with the people of Niamana, a rural community in Mali without roads, electricity or running water, has made my sacrifices worthwhile,” he said.
Juergen’s vision for the Mali Initiative is to develop “a million of projects rather million-dollar-projects” that are sustainable and provide opportunities for the locals. He believes that everyone has the responsibility, in any decision they make, to direct their energies towards positive social change.

Make it Happen!
The Mali Initiative is registered as a charitable organization in Mali, Australia and Germany. They are looking to build an arm of the organization in the United States. If the initiative resonates with you and you would like to bring this organization to North America please contact Juergen Nagler at juergen.nagler@mali-initiative.org.

There are also other ways to get involved:
Participate in the Mali Initiative’s fundraising events
Join one of their Goodwill Trips to Mali
Volunteer in Mali or from home- Volunteers that speak French are definitely an asset to spreading the message and volunteering in Mali.
Donate to the cause:
-US$100 buys learning materials -US$200 a year of street child education sponsorship -US$2000 buys furniture and teachings aids for a classroom -US$7,000 secures a year of street children education for 35 kids -US$13,000 builds a classroom

For more information see: http://www.mali-initiative.org/

A Developed World is "an action-oriented social publication that uncovers the stories behind the work of social entrepreneurs and visionary leaders, who are changing lives around the world": http://adevelopedworld.com/

Refreshing Reflections on Ethics and the Process of Making Things Happen

Max Oliva has refreshing reflections on ethics on the CSR blog of the Instituto de Empresa (IE). Max and I have blogged a lot about the "down to business" side of CSR but this article is different because it goes beyond ethical reflections and adds "the process of making things happen". It stimulates questions like 'should I try to make a difference?'.

I find this highly interesting because it's thought-provoking to bring a fresh awareness of how we actually have the potential to bring change (rather focusing too much on the obstacles). Can you think global and go for new ideas? Have you unleashed your potential yet? These types of questions are touched by the statements below and the ones I am personally working on. I hope you, too, find the article inspiring:

"If ethics is the choice for the common good (global reach and including all living beings):

1. Deciding to act small because it is more comfortable… is not ethical;
2. Deciding to hold back (your proposals, ideas and actions) because you don’t want to go against “the group” … is not ethical;
3. Deciding to doing the possible instead of trying to make the impossible possible… is not ethical;
4. Deciding to use just a part of your potential (to “save” it for self interest purposes) … is not ethical;
5. Deciding not to act, to stay silent, letting fear stay in the way… is not ethical;
6. Deciding to conform to the “letter of the law” instead of persisting on the path defined by the “spirit of the law” … is not ethical;
7. Deciding not to try because nobody tried it before… is not ethical;
8. Deciding not to pursue the perfection and conform to what seems “negotiable” … is not ethical;
9. Deciding to postpone bold actions again and again “waiting for the right moment” … is not ethical;
10. Deciding to “play the game” and pretend that you are not seeing the manipulations underway… is not ethical;
11. Deciding to live in the realm of ideas, diagnosis and theories instead of taking the risks and going for actions… is not ethical;
12. Deciding to act only when all is scientifically proven, even when the truth is self evident… is not ethical;
13. Deciding to reject all radically creative ideas (yours including) when the “traditional-not-so-radical ideas” have not been working… is not ethical;
14. Deciding to reject every proposal that looks “idealistic” or “utopic” … is not ethical"

From: Corporate Responsibility Blog, IE