Business Quests in the Information Age

A contrarian's view

If we are serious about dealing with durable (human) development and the type of world we will leave to future generations (not only in the economically developed world), it is worth listening to well documented views from contrarians like Bjorn Lomborg, whose book Cool It I strongly recommend. Worth considering on this Blog Action Day I think. His presentation at TED Talks can be viewed at the end of this post.

What I like about what he develops is that:

1. he makes the case for immediate action on stuff that matters today and has consequences tomorrow, possibly preparing people and nations to better deal with threats that we cannot possibly fathom
2. his approach involves considering the issues of the human condition in an integral manner, not looking at matters in isolation
3. he considers the limited nature of current resources and outlines a path for a rational use of those resources to achieve the goal of a wealthier and more balanced world
4. taking an integral approach forces us to confront the contradictions of our current ways with barely conceivable imbalances between endeavours of different types and merits
5. considering costs and benefits and focusing on currently achievable steps while keeping an end goal in mind is precisely what will break the loosing game of the prisonner's dilema as outlined in a recent article of The Economist

A matter of objective

The impact of human activity on the environment and consequences on the habitability of the planet is a central topic of concern today. So much so that today is a "Blog Action Day", that is a day during which blogs around the globe are to publish content, contributions, views and perhaps (I hope) a few questions about durable development and global warming. My contributions will mainly be with questions since there seem to be quite a few factual aspects to sort out for any action to be meaningful.

In the recent years the importance of "greenhouse effect gases" in the atmosphere has been central in media coverage of global warming and because modern communication requires simplification (excessive somtimes?), everybody seems to be focusing on carbon dioxyde. The claim goes that we should curb emissions to avoid catastrophy (for Mankind "only", should it be reminded).

But is this not somehow focusing on means instead of focusing on meaningful objectives? At the end of the day, what good will it do us to live in a world with (irrealistically) lower CO2 emissions, but still plagued with ignorance, malnutrition, lack of democracy, untolerable exclusion of developing world farmers from world trade as a result of subsidies in developed countries and so on?

My professional experience in business has taught me that formulating a worthwhile objective is central to mustering an organization's resources to execute in the right direction, so perhaps the big discussion about global warming is actually the very best opportunity in human history to agree on a long-term objective. What world do we want in a century? What can we do now to move towards that? Is it merely focusing on cutting carbon emissions?

A convenient Nobel Peace Prize: challenges ahead remain

Thrilled is probably the best way to describe how I feel at the news that the Nobel Peace Price is to be shared between the scientific community represented by the IPCC and Al Gore. At a time when Exxon is going out of its way to influence public opinions and governments against taking radical action about climate change and when Fox is doing everything it possibly can (serving which masters, I wonder?) to exploit imperfections in An Inconvenient Truth, the Nobel Prize is exactly what is needed to further tip the balance in favor of immediate action. I suspect it is also a great moment for a very special production company called Participate, which I covered on this blog over a year ago.
The challenge is huge especially when one factors into what needs to be done about climate change the following:

1. China's explosive growth that is by no means environmentally friendly (see excerpt from Gore's documentary below)
2. the fact that the growth of the other BRIC countries is not necessariy more sustainable than China's
3. US indifference to Kyoto and hostility to accepting limitations and binding measures to curb emissions and move towards a cleaner and more sustainable economic model, which presumably cannot continue to be based on unchecked mass consumption of goods engineered for a limited useful life (programmed obsolescence is the technical word for it)
4. the ethical conundrum that we all find ourselves trapped into in the sense that the developed world reached its current level of welfare by using natural resources without consideration for their limited nature and therefore is not in a moral position to force less-developed nations to subject their growth to an overarching goal of durable development
5. the dynamics that are currently in place worldwide and which were very well described in a recent article of The Economist (covered here) arguing that game theory could be used to actually bring the world out of the current deadlock

Kiva's Great Business Quest

As ever when doing my research on the web, trying to find out what's new (and relevant for me), I have hard time saying how I "discover" interesting stuff. So, I cannot tell you how I found Kiva, but I can tell you that after some research on that organization I am totally fascinated by the greatness of its mission, using the global reach of tools of the Information Age to bridge gaps, facilitate economic development and change lives. However, this is far from being YAC (yet another charity)

Kiva operates a site that essentially offers all now standard  e-commerce functionality to let you choose to lend to specific businesses which need fairly reasonable amounts of money (at least by the standards of so-called developed countries). The cases are presented in a very summarized way and micro-credit organizations or NGOs will take care of qualifying the borrower and following the use of funds with Kiva's help, which in turn means that the lender (you) will get her money back most of the time.
Now, this goes well beyond charity: it's a real instrument of development (although I am not sure all of those little businesses respect the requirements of durable development - maybe the next frontier). I just love the idea that in this deal it's not about giving money to people, it's not about subsidizing poverty; rather, it's about giving a helping hand to people who do want to build their business and increase their prosperity in a lasting manner. I just love the idea that we are **not** "buying" their silence and acceptance of a lesser condition and unfair use of global resources like so many relief programs do; we are not buying their dignity, but instead facilitating their own personal quests. So Kiva's is not the simple quest of a bunch of generous souls in the US, it is the compounded business quests of all the little entrepreneurs in remote places of the planet who will do better in a matter of 6-36 months simply because some people decide to postpone an expense of as little as 25 € for that same period of time.

So you my dear reader, if you can afford to postpone one or more of your expenses by a couple of months, please do visit Kiva's website and consider it as a great way to share the luck you and I received at birth with people who have an equal right as we have to pursue their quests and dreams.

Here are a few comments from traditional media (it's so funny that the BBC still thinks in terms of national borders which is meaningless most of the time when it comes to the beautiful global reality of the Internet):

'Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.'
-- BBC

'If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.'
-- CNN Money

'Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.'
-- The Wall Street Journal

'An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity...All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.'
-- Entrepreneur Magazine

Good night and good luck

I went to see "Good night and good luck" today. Great picture, with a lot of insights for those of us who do not accept the idea that dissent means disloyalty, nor that there are only two ways of being for a citizen of the world's first defender of freedom and democracy ("either you are with us or against us" as the current President has said repeatedly). The movie is an inspiration for citizens who believe that active participation and respectful disagreement are part of a democratic process. It is also a call for us to make a proactive choice in the channels of information that we are using to stay in touch with what is going on in the world. So, no fellow human beings who also happen to be US citizens, you do not have to watch Fox News, but you may feel free to choose something else. Definitely go to see "Good night and good luck"; at the very least it is a good reminder of history. Because as US philosopher George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"... 

Little Gesture 60 years after Little Boy

Sixty years ago to the day a few good men performed their "duty" in planning, preparing and eventually executing a fateful attack that was to become known as the first nuclear attack in History. Hiroshima, its population and all life forms that found themselves in the region on 6 August 1945 were wiped out as they met Little Boy. Back then, as we are doing today, some people among our elected leaders, those who speak and act in our name, chose to use unfair and shameful means to pursue a fair goal, the end of war. Once again, this provides an opportunity for me to reaffirm the importance of the path versus the apparent primacy of the goal. Unfair means to serve a fair purpose corrupts the endeavour.

I would like to invite those of your who realize the dimension of the mistake that claimed millions of lives, both human and non human, to perform a Little Gesture on Saturday 6 August 2005 in memoriam. I invite you to do a little something that counts for you, whatever that may be, a prayer, a session of meditation, fasting, helping someone in need... anything you will do with your heart and soul. Not necessarily something big or spectacular. Not necessarily a big amount of effort. Something you will do with all your heart in the memory of lives destroyed in Hiroshima, and crucially as a tribute to Peace and Harmony today and tomorrow. In 1949 the Japanese Parliament proclaimed Hiroshima a City of Peace. Let us be People of Peace now.