The other night while speaking with my wife about achieving goals, she made the comment that I needed to think more like a rocket than fireworks. That, in the interest of achieving my "goals", I needed to have a trajectory with a goal as the destination... versus shooting straight up in the air, looking pretty, and then blowing up. It was one of those conversations where a simple visual…
Following up from my post last week where I said "there is going to be a HUGE market for providing that capacity ", I was asked for a few examples of where I saw opportunities for products / services. 1) Urbanization and migrants With over 200+ cities with more than a million people, and a few hundred million expected to make a move to the city, this is one of the largest opportunities for…
At about the 5th minute of the above clip, Mike Daisy, who is being interview on TechCrunch TV about his observations of a visit to a number of Apple's China suppliers, says something that I felt was HUGELY profound: "I think that there is a great responsibility. That when you export your jobs around the world, you should be exporting your values with your jobs. And if you do not.. and if you…
There was a time where China could legitimately stand up and say that they were "cleaner" than everyone else, and use a per capita statistic to back that information up. Over the years though, it has grown tougher because the audience (1) began adjusting for the fact that China had hundreds of millions of farmers who had 0 footprints, and thus China was able to game the numbers a bit and (2) milli…
A couple of months back while speaking to a group of 200 international students at the Global Youth Leadership Conference in Shanghai, I was asked to speak about leadership and the next generation. A keynote that I have delivered to other groups before, I decided to focus less on the intangible "leader" and "organization", and focus more on the role of the individual leader. The importance…
If there is one thing that the recent rash of scandals in China's charities proves, it is that China has a long way to go with developing a credible and robust culture of philanthropy. A few weeks back there were the pictures of a woman named Guo Meimei caught posing with luxury cars and accessories, while talking about her connection to China's Red Cross. Not the first time that the Red Cross…
When charged to keep an economy running at 10+% economic growth year in and year out, there are going to be times where shortcuts are going to be taken, and accepted. At times, the shortcuts are (fortunately) benign enough to not have a wider impact on the economy, community, or environmental, but in China the issues of financial malfeasance, environmental destruction, and consumer safety have beg…
With the conversations around systems and sustainability still largely a moving a target that bounces between emotional polar bears and destructive weather systems, I honestly cannot think of a better time for a focus on understanding the systems that exist in our economy, the impact of our economy on our environmental systems, and taking steps towards applying an economic value to those externali…
For many startups organizations, particularly those in the non-profit sector, finding support from volunteers can be vital. Website developers working in their spare time... An accountant to help close the monthly books... an HR Director willing to help develop HR structures and hiring practices... are all (at times) necessary engagements that can have a profound impact on the success and stabilit…
By now, if you are at all exposed to the world of nonprofits, then you are mos likely aware of the recent news surrounding Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea” and Founder of CAI. IT is a story that in short has “shocked” many, crushed the dreams of some, and have lead to a lot of questions of “how could this have happened”. There has been a lot of commentary about the events, and one of…
When thinking of the issues we face environmentally, and the recent links to climate change, we often speak about issues on a global level without considering the local issues/ impact of those discussions. A condition I think about often as the discussions around climate change and environmental protection continue to be hobbled by issues of ecology vs. economy. On a recent trip through the Ya…
Over the last few weeks, one of the issues that I have been focused on my twitter stream on is that of social entrepreneurs, more specifically how the term “social entrepreneur” largely implies an organization that (1) solves a social mission and (2) rarely grows bigger than anything “cute”. That, while there are certainly a few organizations like GroupOn and Whole Foods that have broken out of t…
Through the recently released China Charity Donation Report 2010, released by the China Charity & Donation Information Center, the issues of NGO transparency were once again highlighted. An ongoing issue for many, the main data point that was highlighted almost all the coverage was that 90% of the public was not satisfied with the current levels of information being released. Something…
Last night, while speaking at the Wokai Drinks for a Better World event, I chose to highlight the tangibility of the impact that one person taking a single step can have on the environmental, economic, societal, and community issues we face. In doing so, I went through my personal journey to establish and support organization that were working in the above areas. It was an attempt to in part in…
In an Charlie Rose interview, Jack Ma is asked - and speaks extensively - on CSR and philanthropy in China. Interviewed before the now famous Gates and Buffet dinner, the interview couldn't have come at a better time. Founder of Alibaba and Taobao (two of China's most trafficked e-commerce platforms), Jack Ma holds a god like status in China. His voice on the matters of CSR and philanthropy…
