A breakfast seminar a few weeks ago. The stage is set for two extremely radiant thought leaders: Esko Kilpi and Ilkka Herlin(F). The main theme for the day was to approach a triangle that didn't use to (or did it?) have anything in common: the Business, green values and social media. Now this all has changed: social media has brought the essential elements together: around the customer - citizen.
The discussions were elevating. The brief history of Baltic Sea Action Group was a great thing to hear. It is a story of one man. But in my mind, it's also a story of building a brand - something that can be bigger than just us as individuals.
Timing is important in order to be heard
At our best we are a rich combination of our values, experiences and contacts. Bring in a pinch of passion, mix it with inspiration and other talented, passionate people - and there are no limits what can happen!
This is what Ilkka has built. His interests, career, family backgrounds.. it all has taken him to where he - this cause - is now. His passion and actions for the nature and the Baltic Sea had to wait for about ten years for others to wake up and join the cause.
During those years came another man, who after not becoming the president of the US of A concentrated his energies working against the climate change. His work has been spreading the word, waking up those others. Yet another influential man, Bill Clinton, has used his influence and networks to gather resources for the benefit of the things he believes in.
Wake up! Do nothing and we're gonna be in deep *you know*.
Looking for a change
Let's think about the traditional business drivers for a minute. Financial laws demand that business create profits to the owners. Everything evolves around the quarterly reporting for the P/E.
This responsibility to spend wisely applies, of course, to the public sector, too. What I am saying, is that short term planning simply isn't enough. It is extremely difficult to build financial models, scenarios if you will, that could actually bind together income from the further future with the expenditure invested today. In other words, how do we justify the cost of doing something slightly outside the scope of the next quarter, or two years in the public sector? How do we build the scenario in monetary terms?
Eternal growth is an impossibility
Esko put it this way: We all have been taught that full employment can only be achieved it the annual growth of GDP exceeds 3%. Thus what we need to do is to make sure that our expenditure grows; that's how we best help our neighbor in need of a job. What about the Third world? It's our turn, they claim! And all the statistics show that the poor planet just can't cope the exploitation of the natural resources. On the other hand, the amount of waste goes beyond reason.
It is our turn to give way to other people's needs.
But that doesn't have to mean the destruction of the western businesses! It just calls in for new business ideas, like recycling the raw materials. You just need to come up with the idea that turns recycled materials into desirable products thus generating lucrative business. Take a look at Globe Hope.
Not hurting the nature means most of all responsibility in all business processes. And this is where we bump into ethics. If the right choice costs more, your bottom line is bound to suffer. Mission impossible?
NO! In China you could, for a while, add plastics into milk to make it more nutritious - only as far as you got caught (and might lose your head). In Finland the waste company was able to dump the waste into storm drain - until it got caught and lost its reputation and hence business deals.
But it must be impossible to justify a bigger expenditure in favor of something general, say nature? There the cost is bound to generate no money, only something, not measurable, that will benefit somebody else, right?
WRONG! Nature is everybody's business. Businesses', too.
To be continued..
And the winner in Cannes is: BSAS
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