Gutless Leadership and Health Care Suicide

One of my close friends is a hospice volunteer. Lately he is supporting a vibrant, full-of-life 80-year-old woman who’s got a bad heart and who’s chosen to die as fast as possible. She’s in an independent care facility that costs a lot so she’s decided to voluntarily starve herself to shut off expenses so she can leave some money to her full-grown children. I know. He’s tried to talk her out of it, but she’s determined. She wants to die because she can’t afford to live. Welcome to America.

Meanwhile our leaders do anything but lead. The Democrats are sissies. The Republicans are bullies. I think most of us are sick of toxic, dysfunctional, ego-bloated politicians pretending to lead our nation.

As I have stated months ago, as well as many great comments from the rest of you, (see Outraged at the Politics of Health Care and Will Marre’s Radical Solution to Health Care) the fundamental problem with a financially unsustainable health care system is that the profit motive is its key driver. This creates a crazy maze of confusion, waste, cost, and suffering. Today’s price of health care is driven by cartels and rich interest groups who compete like Gladiators for a piece of yours and my pie.

1. Thanks to the near elimination of antitrust safeguards, 7 big private insurers control over 80% of health insurance in our nation. These companies are designed to take in as much money as possible from you and pay out as little as possible. They make the insurance claims process confusing and time consuming for patients and doctors, which increases costs and time. This also discourages many people and even physicians from making totally legitimate claims, which increases profits by tens of millions annually. Of course we also know that insurance company claims representations are rewarded for denying claims or finding unethical loopholes to deny payments for treatments to insured persons for trivial reasons causing systematic suffering and in some cases avoidable deaths. Lately insurance companies have been raising premiums in huge chunks to make as much as they can before they are regulated. The obvious conflict between investor interests and our nation’s health care is so great it is breaking our economy.
2. Drug companies have created a closed, unfree market in the U.S., which allows them to charge many times, often 10 times, more for a drug than it costs in other western countries. The idea that Merck drugs in Canada may not be as safe as the same drug in Minnesota is an insult to all of us. The argument that American consumers need to pay higher prices to support U.S. drug companies’ research is simply wrong. U.S. drug companies spend much more on consumer advertising than all of their drug research combined. If business believes in free markets and globalism, then let’s have it. Free trade and a common world price for all drugs.
3. The medical profession has too many incompetent doctors doing procedures they shouldn’t be doing simply because these procedures pay well. It has long been known that the most expensive and difficult procedures are done at the lowest total cost and have the best results when they are done in well-equipped hospitals that specialize in those treatments by doctors who do hundreds of those procedures per year. If you need a heart bypass, go somewhere where they do hundreds of them. These “Centers of Excellence” save money and lives. The medical profession also needs to do a much better job of getting rid of incompetent doctors that cause the majority of malpractice claims. It would also be wise to establish special health courts to curb the abuses of trial-lawyers who game the system to win big awards on the basis of emotion rather than science and responsibility.

I could go on, but who would listen?

The core solution I believe is a universal insurance exchange that is set up as a national non-profit co-op “owned” by all American citizens run by competent executives and properly rewarded employees who have one goal—make sure that the most people have access to the best health care. This can be done with excellence and efficiency. Employees should be rewarded for quality and keeping people healthy not for denying sick people coverage.

We need something more than the best we get from compromising with the huge health care industry that has spent $425 million lobbying against us in the past 4 months. There is a role for private insurance companies, but we must level the playing field by creating a force of citizen power to create realistic and sustainable economics for health care. (The rest of my proposals are in previous blogs.)

Today our health care strategy is a mess because we are trying to turn a rusting ocean liner into a rocket ship. No matter what modifications we make to the rapidly sinking boat, it will never fly.

We must have a whole new system. One that gives people choice and confidence. One that rewards people for healthy lifestyles. One that is uniquely American. Not run by the government but by well-informed citizens who can blend the best of our fierce independence, distrust of bureaucracy and our collective heart for our common good.

I do not claim to have all the answers. But I am disgusted with Democrats who turned what should have been a health care revolution into a poison stew of who-knows compromises. The “brand” of the Democrats is whiny, victim, poor me thinking. They are also ready to compromise because they have no visible backbone and few ideas they are ready to fight for. The Republicans sicken me. Their “brand” is arrogant know-it-alls who only want to lower taxes, fight wars, remove regulations and promote a new aristocracy. Their “I’ve-got-mine and no-one’s-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do” mind set is a cowboy philosophy completely at odds with the higher purpose of society.

As far as health care goes, I am most impressed with Jesus’ advice. When the Samaritan came upon an enemy who was left for dead by the side of the road, he didn’t say, “Well, he probably deserved it.” Instead he took him in and got him medical attention and paid his bills. It seems clear to me that moral maturity demands we seek to reduce all avoidable suffering. If that were our motive and we didn’t compromise with the moneychangers, we just might come up with something simple, practical and affordable.

I, for one, don’t want the status quo. I don’t want some two-bit, best-I-can-get superficial leftovers approved of by the special interests. I am sick of hearing what’s possible.

What I want is a radically new way of looking at this challenge and the leadership courage to make our country a better place to raise our children.

How about you?

–Will Marre

Socially Responsible Leadership and Wise Leaders Who are Investing in the Future of Humanity

It’s easy to be outraged at the incompetence and greed apparent in business leadership. Titanic ethical failures like Enron, failures in judgment by General Motors and greed-induced insanity by our major financial institutions have caused millions to suffer. Leadership failure is so bad the Economist magazine reports that only 2% of consumers worldwide trust business leaders to do the right thing if it costs them profits. With business institutions having the most trans-global power on earth, that is breathtakingly bad.

But there is a strong minority of courageous and wise leaders who use their resources for much more than self-interest. More needs to be known about these wise companies who lead their industries, embrace sustainability and are investing in the future of humanity.

Take FedEx and Johnson & Johnson for example. They have partnered with Heart to Heart International, a health-based nonprofit whose main focus is to get life-saving medicine and supplies to victims in crisis. Their work has never been as important as now as they rush to get much needed supplies and medical support to help save Haiti earthquake victims.

Fed Ex and Johnson & Johnson make these efforts possible. Not only has FedEx provided significant financial support and transportation services to Heart to Heart, but they also have created Forward Response Centers—FedEx warehouses full of relief supplies that are ready to go to virtually any disaster zone in the world quickly and efficiently. These centers take up valuable space in FedEx warehouses, but they do it because they understand that business is about more than money. When the tsunami hit Thailand in 2007, FedEx planes were among the first to land medical supplies. These Forward Response Centers have made it possible for Heart to Heart to be among the first responders to the Haiti disaster.

Johnson & Johnson is one of the main generous providers of these supplies which include The Ready Relief Box, otherwise known as the portable pharmacy that contains such items as pain relievers, antibiotics, vitamins, first aid supplies and doctor’s essentials such as a stethoscope and digital thermometer; The Medical Surge Module, which can increase capacity at healthcare facilities by providing enough medical supplies for 2,000 patients; and The Personal Hygiene Kit, which provides hygiene care for up to two weeks and is vital after a disaster to prevent contagious diseases from running rampant.

And wise leadership is not limited to a few visionary corporations. Today the non-profit Grameen Foundation is focusing their efforts on economic recovery—both short- and long-term. In partnership with Sèvis Finansye Fonkoze (a Grameen Foundation microfinance partner in Haiti), the Grameen Foundation will build upon their existing efforts in Haiti of using microfinance and technology to help Haitians, especially women, move themselves out of poverty and build a more self-reliant future. The President of the Grameen Foundation, Alex Counts, states, “Please help us help the nation recover from this recent disaster and try, as hard as it may be to imagine, to help our local partners build a Haiti that is more prosperous than pre-earthquake conditions.”

So what’s going on with these enterprises? What drives their leaders to do what others refuse to do? In my 30 years of working with senior leaders I can only conclude it is, at its core, one thing. Wisdom. Plato defined wisdom as “a knowledge of the Good and courage to act accordingly.” He further described wisdom as the commitment to seek the right balance between “all that exists.” What we today might call sustainability. At the core, wisdom is moral courage. As philosophers from every culture, across time have noted, it is not enough to know what is Good. We must also act on that knowledge. The responsibility of today’s business leaders to act from wisdom is essential for our future. We are all increasingly connected and to act only on self-interest is poisoning the water that our children drink.

Sadly, nearly all leadership failure I have witnessed up close has been the result of many small decisions that compromise the wise choice into simply an expedient one. Too many leaders are driven by fear. Fear of being criticized by the Wall Street money-changers or fear of being second guessed by their own hard driving executive team. Fear makes leaders stupid. The neurobiology of fear literally extinguishes creativity, open-mindedness and moral reasoning. We need leaders who have the everyday courage to act on the “Good” as a way to create more value for all. When I counsel senior leaders I often ask them, “How much good can you do, right now? When I get a response I simply say, “Do that.” You see doing the best thing you can imagine in a sustainable, wise way always creates value that makes you and your enterprise stand apart. So it not only ends up being wise but also smart.

Most of the few great companies that are doing the most to restore environmental balance and benefit humanity don’t toot their horns about it. (Who knew FedEx planes were landing in Haiti full of medicine?) No, that’s not a good thing. In 2003, I founded REALeadership Alliance to do just that; help leaders and companies become clear on the good they can do. The wisdom of courageous leaders needs to shine as a beacon to inspire those who fear to wake up and get busy saving our world. It’s actually just wise business.

So what’s the best thing you can do? Transcend your own fear. We are all leaders. All CEOs of our own lives. Be wise. Stand for something that matters. Speak up every day for the best thing you can imagine. Everyday courage accumulates. Our consistent small acts of integrity change the future. We all need to lead.

21st Century Sustainability

Sustainability is a word that vibrates with multiple meaning. There are some who insist it is code for a green company to rip away our comfortable lives and force us into granola-eating consumers. For others it means eliminating waste from the way we make and consume things, reduce toxic pollution, wear clothes made of recycled plastic and drive hybrid cars. But increasingly it means something far more valuable to a new emerging group of business leaders, economists and far-sighted consumers. For them sustainability means a whole new intention of business leadership. When leaders decide they are going to harness the imagination of all their stakeholders to create as much value as they can, the world changes. It’s about time.

Who do you work for?

With the publication of my new book, Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner, I’ve posted a survey at www.SavetheWorldBook.com to help you determine whether you work for an enterprise that is helping forge a sustainable future or one that is trapped in the dying ideas of business-as-usual.  Who we work for is important.  If we want to change our future we must lead.  There is plenty to be hopeful about, and I want to get a pulse on your experience of the employer you work for or the organization you lead.

Recently I was doing leadership training for the Gap at their San Francisco headquarters.  I like the people at Gap a lot.  They understand how their huge global business can be a force for good, and they are serious about using their economic clout, market reach and worldwide workforce to create a better future than the self-consuming dinosaur business model we’ve trapped ourselves into.

It’s true; we live in a time when confidence in business leadership is at an all time low.  Just look at these statistics:

• 94% of the public does not trust business to regulate itself (AccountAbility).
• 86% view business as negatively impacting the public good (Harris Poll/Business Week).
• 76% of employees have observed illegal or unethical conduct by their employer in the past 12 months! (Harris Poll/Business Week)
• 98% of the public don’t believe CEOs are very trustworthy (NY Times).

This is sad. What’s really sad is that most of us would nod our head in agreement with these polls.  Business is the most powerful institutional force in the world, and the world doesn’t trust it.  That’s because human history has proven it’s not smart to trust that someone else’s self-interest will benefit you in the long run.  The Great Recession has just made that crystal clear.  But there is good news.  It’s that the world has changed.  Citizen consumers and citizen employers have awakened to the fact that we must create a new sustainable future.  One that works for our children.  All our children.  Perhaps nowhere is this more clear than in the market place which is changing at a breathtaking pace.

As more and more consumers and employees have demanded greener, healthier products responsibly made, the number, choices, and quality of these products has skyrocketed.  For instance, every major auto manufacturer is now engineering hybrid models that will be sold in every country in the next few years.  China has adapted tougher auto emissions and mileage standards than we have.  But for some companies like Gap, it’s more than just making t-shirts out of recycled plastic or organic fibers.  Increasingly it’s about human sustainability.

For instance, in Gap factories in developing nations they’ve instituted a personal and professional development program called P.A.C.E.  It’s designed to help under educated young seamstresses strengthen their literacy, their health, their life skills and business acumen.  Gap’s corporate social responsibility is investing in poor women because they are society builders.  And Gap is not alone.  In company after company I visit I see a roaring torrent of programs to enable employees to volunteer for their favorite cause, to raise their business standards on environmental impacts, and to promote health and human rights.

But wait, you say.  Isn’t all this just a little “greenwashing” and image polishing?  After all, it’s corporations that tare down the old-growth rain forests, over-fish our oceans, pollute our air, water and earth, and strip-mine our world from its natural resources.  Exactly.  All of that is true.  But it’s also true that global corporations and fast acting enterprises are the institutions most able to drive fast positive change.  They operate across boarders without political inhibitions.  They must respond in real time to consumer and employee attitudes.  Corporations are self-interested, but consumers determine where that self-interest leads them.  As long as we escalate our insistence on sustainable, responsible products and processes we will get more of them.

And now there is something turbo-charging demand for business responsibility.  It’s a new generation of employees.  The flood of 20 to 30-year old practical idealists who believe we can reshape our businesses into a force of progress and sustainability is raising the tide of positive change.  The energy of sustainability and social good is contagious, and I am seeing an epidemic of virtue take over business-as-usual.

This is not my imagination.  As Gen X independent thinking pragmatists take over more leadership roles, they are more connected to sustainable innovation, cutting bureaucracy and re-inventing our future.  And the new workforce of Gen Y and Millennials (those 16-30) are focused on re-making business into institutions of global sustainability.  What makes this new generation of leaders so potent is their number (126 million—far larger than the 75 million boomers) and their newly developed social technology which is driving change, informing attitudes and creating new business models faster than at any time in history.

I am hopeful this is happening in the nick of time.  We have ignored our problems for too long.  We’ve let what were little brushfires turn into a raging wildfire threatening our heath, our environments, our peace and every other important asset to our quality of life.

What’s the best thing we can do?

Participate in the business revolution!  I am seeing global companies life Gap, Nike, FedEx, and Johnson & Johnson transform themselves at a breathtaking rate.  No, it’s not perfect.  It will take years.  But the speed of change is accelerating.  Just 5 years ago sustainability and corporate social responsibility was something tree huggers and hippies whined about.  Today it is driving corporate strategy.  It’s time to turn up the volume of our demands for business to use their power and innovation to create sustainable value.  It’s time for us, no matter where we work, to transform our daily jobs into a global force for change.  We are the leaders of the sustainability revolution.  You and me.

So who do you work for?  Please take this short 5-minute survey and find out.  It’s a way to amplify your voice by helping us build a database to influence leaders.

And one more thing.  What do you think?  Do you have positive stories of companies, non-profits or individuals transforming the future?  Do you have personal aspirations to do so?  Tell us about them!

The Greatest Anti-Poverty Program in History

Today the Grameen Foundation is launching $27 on the 27^th. This is to commemorate Dr. Mohammed Yunus’ first micro-loan back in 1976. He loaned $27 to a group of impoverished women in Bangladesh who were living on less than $1 a day while working their hearts out. The economic system of the rural villages was designed by middle class traders to keep their village work forces in constant debt. The women that Dr. Yunus loaned his money to were making a profit of 2 cents a day. Almost immediately their profits increased 50 times to over a dollar a day. Within a few years Yunus had founded the Grameen Bank, which means Village Bank, and thousands of poor women have become self-reliant, often doubling or increasing their net income by 10 times within months of having a legitimate source of investment capital.

Today the Grameen Foundation supports over 200 micro-finance institutions operating around the world from Asia to Africa, China to the Middle East. There are now over 150 million families benefiting from micro-investment capital. The power of this business model is that it is a business. Interest is charged to support the micro banks so that they can loan more money and keep it in an endless virtuous cycle of reinvestment. Today the Grameen Foundation is operating with the wisdom of a global social enterprise by helping create software and other technology solutions to help microfinance banks operate with high efficiency. They are also creating micro-franchises so that village entrepreneurs can establish solar-powered villages while reducing the need for diesel and kerosene. They’re helping women become village eyeglass dispensers so that people over 40 can read on their cell phones and of course they have brought cell phone technology to tens of millions of people in the developing world. For the first time in history we can actually imagine a world without poverty driven by the values of self-reliance. After doing this for 30 years we now know that women are the world’s best poverty fighters because they reinvest in their children and their communities.

Today the Grameen Foundation is seeking to establish a constant and reliable source of donor income. They are asking us to contribute $27 a month every month, a little less than a dollar a day. What they hope to do with this sustainable flow of money is build a worldwide system that provides capital, education, access to basic health care, technology and leadership development to help the poorest of the poor lift themselves to a life of dignity. Their vision is a poverty free world.

I have adopted the Grameen Foundation as my central cause because I have never seen so much sustainable good achieved by integrating the best of business practices and the highest moral vision that human beings can aspire to. So I invite you to consider becoming part of this great movement to end poverty. Go to the Grameen Foundation and join up. I already have.

Taking a Stand for the American Dream

Since starting the American Dream Project I have been an active proponent of the strong values of our founders establishing a society that promoted the greatest happiness for its citizens.  This is happiness based on integrating the values of self-reliance and a shared civic concern for the common good.  As a nation we seem scared.  Our jobs have disappeared, our education and health care systems are broken and we owe nearly a trillion dollars to China.  Meanwhile we swim in a torrent of special interests that use the language “personal independence,” “maximum material success” and “sacredness of property rights” to marginalize the values of social responsibility, sustainable consumption and the sacredness of human rights.  It is frustrating that when we attempt to solve our problems using wisdom, creativity and higher values the debate degrades to a war of special interests trying to rig the future to their benefit.  The only counterbalance to their self-aggrandizement is citizen resolve to reach for new solutions.  Solutions that honor all our legitimate values but ensure fairness to all.

This is difficult.

That’s because we believe that what we know is reality.  But reality is a tricky beast.  The problem is that reality has at least two dimensions.  The facts of a situation represent the content of reality while the meaning of those facts is the context.    Our sense of meaning is driven by our values.  And for our values to be useful in making decisions they must be held in hierarchy.  Simply put, some values are more important than other values.  Values tell us what to do with facts.  That’s why it’s so important not to let others define our values or confuse us as to what’s most important.  Because, if we let them, they will create a closed bubble for us.  And in the bubble of their emotional logic their conclusions will make total sense.  Soon we’ll be interpreting all facts through the false reasoning of the bubble like clones in a frightened world.  This is not just a theory.  People who call President Obama a Nazi or a socialist and people who label conservatives as hillbillies and hate-mongers make the same error.  They are trying to recruit followers through fear.  This is very dangerous.  It’s what happened when Hitler hypnotized Germany.

When the courageous Christian pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was struggling to find ways to rid his beloved Germany of Hitler, he wrote a series of essays that point out the folly of being seduced by those who appeal to our fear and pride, and pointed out that followers become spellbound by slogans and repeated assertions that gradually become “facts” to morally passive followers.  As simplistic slogans are spread by an over-active media, a moral flu has the power to inflict a whole society. When our prejudices are enthroned in a twisted emotional logic that our self-interest is the premier virtue, facts and evidence that contradict our opinions are simply disbelieved and dismissed.  As a successful business owner recently said to me, “I know what I believe is true, so why should I listen to anything that would make me question my convictions?”  Why, indeed.

What Bonhoeffer, who was executed by Nazis three weeks before Hitler’s suicide in 1945, pleads for is for us to “take a stand.”  His call is to stand for love.  He called on Christians to save Jews because the great work of moral humans is to bring relief to all who suffer. He challenges us to consider “the outcasts, the suspects, the powerless, the oppressed…with new eyes of generosity, humanity, justice and mercy”.

In my view the greatest act of humanity is to relieve today’s suffering and build self-reliance so that all people can lift themselves to a decent, hope-filled life.  My work with the Grameen Foundation, who empower the poorest of the world’s poor to lift themselves by providing access to microloans so they can become self-sustaining entrepreneurs, convinces me that the vast majority of humanity has the will, talent and ingenuity to live a responsible life.  They just need the tools to get started.

To return to the beginning, I am saddened that demagogues in our nation can rally millions with fear-based messages with the primal message, “Every man for himself.”  I also worry that public spending that weakens our self-reliance and creates institutional dependencies is old failure path. The people I most respect are those who hold strong beliefs, recognize that evil is real, exercise timeless values and continue to have an open mind.  Above all, they refuse to be driven by fear, pride or intolerance.

For me there is a higher center that calls for civic engagement in the common good, the restraint of greed, and the promotion of self-reliance.  It is time to take a stand.   A time to stand for our highest values.  This is not time for fear and divisiveness.  It’s time for creative idealism and a fiercely open mind.  These issues are great questions of our day.  (For a view on my suggestion on healthcare that attempts to blend personal responsibility with citizen lead social responsibility, see my other posts: Outraged at the Politics of Healthcare and Will Marre’s Radical Solution to Health Care.)

So what do you think?  Am I missing the point?  What do you believe are the answers to our challenges?

The Gap Does More Than Set Fashion Trends

I recently came across The Gap’s social responsibility website. I was quite impressed and wanted to give a shout out to their efforts. While their contributions to Project Red and their stand against child labor are more well known, what I was most impressed with is their dedication to employee involvement in their CSR initiatives. Some of their initiatives include:

• 2000 employee community leaders who organize company-sponsored service events and act as ambassadors for their work in the company and the community.
• In 2008 alone they donated $10.3 million in employee-driven community investment.
• Their Money for Time program provides a $150 grant to nonprofits for every 15 hours of employee volunteer time.
• Their Take Five program offers exempt corporate employees five hours of paid time off to volunteer each month, or 60 hours per year.
• In Action Days are events organized by employees of Gap Inc. brands to provide local volunteer opportunities. Thousands of employees have participated, dedicating hundreds of hours to a wide variety of projects.
• Team Grants support employee team projects. When at least three store employees spend 25 hours volunteering with a nonprofit that supports underserved youth or women, Gap Inc. provides a $250 grant to that organization. Each store receives an annual grant budget based on store volume. Since the program began in 2006, it has grown significantly, increasing from 220 team projects in 2007 to 723 in 2008.

Will Marre, leadership expert, is a huge proponent of employee involvement in CSR initiatives. In “Personal Social Responsibility Drives Employees to More Deeply Commit to Their Organization’s Success” he cites research that reveals that 93 percent of American employees say it is important for their companies to provide them with opportunities to become involved in social issues, and 72 percent want their employers to do more to support a cause or social issue. Marre believes that the best way to engage employees and create deep loyalty is to provide them with opportunities to make a difference in their community. He calls this Personal Social Responsibility.

Gap Inc. is a great example of Personal Social Responsibility. On their website it states, “We see a direct connection between our employees’ volunteerism and their commitment to Gap Inc. Engaged employees deliver strong business results, which is good for the community and our company. In a 2007 employee survey, nearly all respondents said it is important for them to work for a company that invests in the community. Studies also show that when a person is emotionally connected to a cause, giving is related to positive emotions and personal happiness. The bottom line: volunteering makes people happy, and happy people make better employees.”

Personal Social Responsibility is indeed becoming the new trend of CSR. As Marre states, “In the real world organizations are finding success by transforming a paternalistic paradigm of CSR into a launch pad for inspired employees to “save the world” right where they are.”

Top 10 Things Every Business Leader Should Know About Strategic Sustainability

1. Sustainable Abundance is good for business. Every product and every service needs to be re-invented to create a sustainable future.  This is the greatest economic opportunity in history.  (Consider automobiles, light bulbs, airplanes, energy…. everything.)
2. High Sustainability Standards and Maximizing Human Benefits can generate “leapfrog” designs to invent new products and new business models.  (Toyota was creating the Prius while other car companies slept.)
3. Sustainability Thinking saves money. The relentless challenge to improve durability, re-use parts and eliminate packaging brings bottom line innovation. (91% of old Xerox copier parts are reused in “new” Xerox machines.)
4. Removing the Bad attracts new customers. Consumers and business customers are stampeding to choose the benefits of non-toxic, no-waste products (Clorox’s non-toxic Green Works Cleaners is their fastest growing product portfolio.)
5. Create a Cause Bigger Than Your Brand. Over 80% of consumers say they choose brands that support good causes because it makes them feel like they are “voting with their wallet.” (ClifBar’s brand in the manufactured nutrition bar business repeatedly earns the highest loyalty rating.  They famously support the organic sourcing and the buy local food movement as well as women and fitness initiatives.)
6. Sustainability Obliterates Costs. When smart people consider how to satisfy a need or want without waste or even cost, new business models spring to life.  (When Apple designed the ipod, eliminating the cost/waste of CD manufacturing, shipping and distribution was the natural outcome.  The ipod led to the iphone, greener product design and tens of thousands of digital apps which create user loyalty without more cost.)
7. Sustainability Drives Game-Changing Business Models. When leaders consider solving huge problems in sustainable ways, new thinking creates breakthrough businesses.  Before the radio, who would have thought of music with a band?  Before the light bulb, who would have thought of light without a flame?  (Today micro-entrepreneurs are installing solar panels on huts in the world’s poorest areas because solar generated OLED light is cheaper than kerosene.  Power without the grid.  Is everything possible?)
8. Sustainability Creates Smart Marketing.  Engaging your customers in the benefits and breakthroughs of your green and sustainable products requires a new level and a new type of communication.  It’s called smarketing.  Marketing that makes your customer smart.  (GE recently asked design students to come up with creative ways to use GE’s new organic LED lights.  Tens of thousands have seen their video on YouTube and the product launch is still months away.)
9. Sustainability Attracts Top Talent. The best science, engineering and business schools report that top graduates only want to work for companies that are serious about making a difference in creating a sustainable future.  (Ask any college recruiter.)
10. If You Don’t Fully Embrace Sustainability, You Are Toast. The debate over green is over and green won.  Consider the failures of GM and the transformation of Wal-Mart.  It’s better to ride the wave than drown in the rip tide of change.

For information on the speech or seminar, “Leading for Sustainability,” email candie@willmarre.com.

Will Marre Vision.org Interview about Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner

The critical issue of leadership today is MORAL INTENT.  If we get very effective people being leaders who don’t have worthwhile moral intent, we get what we’ve got.

In this interview at Chapman University in Orange County, California, Will speaks to Vision about, Save the World and Still Be Home for Dinner… about leadership, organizations, changes in the corporate world, personal contentment, and quality relationships.

Listen to it here.

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Engage with Will on Twitter or Facebook

What Comes Around Goes Around

One of my husband’s favorite television shows is My Name is Earl.  Earl’s new found belief in karma is the backdrop of the show in which Earl tries to set right everything bad he’s done in hopes that by doing good, good will come to him.  While the show is fun and entertaining, I think it makes a good point.  Call it whatever you want—karma, the spirit of the universe, God— I have to agree with Earl.  When we honestly do as much good as we can, it not only benefits those we serve, but the good comes back to us ten fold.  And this rings true in every aspect of our lives, both personally and in business.

So this brings me to my question, why isn’t every company in the world grabbing social responsibility by the horns and incorporating it into their core business model? In Don’t Underestimate Power of Social Responsibility Lisa Hickey asserts that the common phrase, “what goes around comes around” is especially true in business.  She states, “There is a perfect correlation between socially responsible companies and economically viable companies.” 

In The Business Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility several benefits to business are discussed such as building a reputation as a responsible business sets you apart, customers are rewarding responsible companies, and reducing waste and emissions saves money.  Additional benefits addressed in the article are as follows:

• A good reputation makes it easier to recruit employees.
• Employees stay longer, reducing the costs and disruption of recruitment and retraining.
• Employees are better motivated and more productive.
• CSR helps ensure you comply with regulatory requirements.
• Activities such as involvement with the local community are ideal opportunities to generate positive press coverage.
• Good relationships with local authorities make doing business easier.
• Understanding the wider impact of your business can help you think up profitable new products and services.
• CSR can make you more competitive and reduces the risk of sudden damage to your reputation (and sales). Investors recognize this and are more willing to finance you.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility also describes six driving factors for CSR: (1) the shrinking role of government, (2) demands for greater disclosure, (3) increased customer interest, (4) growing investor pressure, (5) competitive labor markets, and (6) supplier relations.

Will Marré, acclaimed CSR speaker and advocate, is a passionate voice for the benefits of social responsibility.  In Will Marre, Leadership Expert, on How Green Business Is the New Revolution of Business Strategy he’s quoted, “When you combine the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit, the new sources of value and points of differentiation you uncover yields topline growth, fiercely loyal customers, and committed internal and external talent.”  Marré takes it a step further asserting that when CSR is incorporated into the business model it creates the greatest economic opportunity in the history of the world.   He states in Social Enterprise: How to Save the World and Grow Your Business at the Same Time, “Every problem is an opportunity. In the next decades we will have to re-invent every product we use to be ecologically friendly, energy efficient and recyclable. Just the opportunity to change all the light bulbs in the world has a mind-boggling upside.  The opportunities to lift billions of people from poverty, educate billions to live in the 21st century and unlock the keys to sustainable living and sustainable relationships are endless.”    

So, I return to my question: Why isn’t every company in the world embracing their social responsibilities when there is nothing to lose and everything to gain?  Doing good is a virtuous cycle that positively influences everyone and everything it touches.  So let’s take our cues from Earl, and even if our reason for doing good is so that good will come to us, we’ll make the world a better place.

 

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