understanding opportunity and risk
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PIECES OF THE JIGSAW February, 2009
Last night I chaired an event in central London. This was for about 50-60 people from several different countries a number of whom had flown in specially for this occasion. It was good to see the wind of change bringing different people together with one common focus - to create something better, better than we have had - with personal responsibility for creating that change.
Before I introduced the other speakers, I spoke at length about the slow realisation that was creeping into business. This realisation was far removed from the highly damaging traditional business philosophy of "maximising profit at any cost". Such a philosophy tended to make businesses feel they existed in isolation from the rest of the world, almost, and in a near state of war with suppliers, customers, competitors (a mirror image of the same countries). Such a philosophy meant a vast expense of resources running to stand still. And as the pace of change throughout the world increased, so would the need to expend even greater resources running to stand still. Clearly this is not sustainable - and the damage caused in the name of profit (or nationalism) is immense.
But ... piece by piece, area by area this was changing. The smart people were starting to realise that with the scale and scope of the challenges facing us all, no one person had all the answers, no one organisation, no one country has all the answers. And so is being born the concept of "collaboration" - hardly a new concept ... but new enough for the harsh world of business and global diplomacy.
Collaboration is being spoken about and acted upon in many high level areas. It means creating sustainable business through the appreciation of the full spectrum of business activities, an appreciation that each of us, and each business, exists in a community, in a society - and it is the responsibility of sustainable business to ensure the growth and development of each community and society it touches, to ensure a stable platform of growth for everyones benefit. Business does not exist in isolation. None of us exist in isolation. No country exists in isolation. We are each a piece of the jigsaw. The more pieces that are missing, the greater the probability of falling through the holes.
Creating sustainable development for organisations and for countries requires collaboration - a sharing of information, of skills and abilities. Why re-invent the wheel? Re-inventing the wheel is costly and risky, and in this day and age of finite resources and new challenges, it is quite simply madness.
We are better than this. We have to understand we are better than this. We have to begin the process of sustainable development through collaboration in order to overcome the challenges approaching over the horizon, and take advantage of the opportunities. This is the same for a company as it is for a country. We are not medieval kingdoms any more.
Last night was good to see the wind of change in action. I look forward to creating more.
I am a father. I know many others who have children. I know that throughout the world there are tens of millions of people who have children. I do not know these people. Yet ... I know we all share a common goal - and this is to make the world a far better place for our children. This is what unites us. This is what will cause the wind of change to blow across the borders and gather together the disparate and the sometimes acrimonious pieces of the jigsaw together to stop the pointless squabbling and squandering, to create a sustainable future.
This is something we all have to work towards. I always tell people - we are in this together. If you fall, be sure I will pick you up, because if I fall then for sure I want you there to help pick me up. We stand or we fall - together.
Regards
JS
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