It’s Friday morning – the ending of another phenomenal Summer Brand Camp. Before we head out, the week is culminating with the Changers of Commerce meeting. What an amazing way to end an otherwise amazing conference. About 30 Changers showed up – ready to listen to some of our leaders – old and new. Kat Cole started us off with a quick lesson in conscious capitalism, then shared the video Jim Knight and Brandon Hill created. http://youtu.be/btaKGKgw5AM Of course we all want our businesses to grow and thrive. But there is so much more to it than that. We have a social responsibility as industry and community leaders, business owners, critical team members…and humans. Jeff Power of Pangeo Coffee and Global Hope Network International took us on the journey of Habiba and Wubshet – two members of the village of Gambella. This village simply wanted “a different life for our village and for our children.” Many of us in our tribe are so generous with our time and dollars. However,” …don’t just drop money on poor areas,” says Jeff. That doesn’t help. It’s a band-aid to much bigger issues, and isn’t sustainable. Jeff and his team taught the village what they needed to do get Gambella on a path to success. “Just because you don’t have a formal education doesn’t mean you can’t be intelligent.” What Jeff taught them seems so simple: Water. Food. Wellness. Income. Education. But was it? No, but it was worth it. A new water system, tested, failed, rebuilt in part because of a town water committee and funding, and now sustainable. One acre of land with robust crops because of a drip irrigation system and a group of town members dedicated to its success, now producing 1.5 metric tons of food and a new fully-functional storefront. The town is now “getting fat” in the words of a fellow Ethiopian – with 3 meals per day for the last four years, and money because of the abundance of crop they are able to sell to other communities. With a good water supply and healthy and abundant food comes wellness, but proactive wellness lessons were needed.Teachin the tribe how to prevent disease by knowing proper handling of human waste and hand sanitation has cut infant mortality by 80% (to almost zero) and adult illness by 80%. With these newfound lessons, income and education can be on their radar; one amazing example is a women’s business group that opened a tea shop serving tea and homemade cakes next to the camel stream. (Location, location, location!) Seeing the success of these tea shop owners, earning $10-$20 per day, the entrepreneurial bug hit Gambella, with soon 40 businesses opening their doors. The future of Gambella is looking bright for the 200 children in the village. By building a location and finding educators (in that order), Gambella Primary School, voted the best primary school in their district of Kenya, is the reason many are moving to the area. It was amazing to see full faces, happy smiles, hopeful parents and children – knowing they are on a sustainable path for growth and success. How does this translate to the rest of us? Joni Doolin put it best – their stories, their impact, their need –it is overwhelming. Their model works. This connected capitalist model works in the most extreme examples. Let’s spread it far and wide. Ryan Scott, a first time #PRSCamp-er, talked about why his company, Causecast, is at its prime: They manage employee giving and volunteering by helping transform the communities in which they work and the company culture in which they work. Why does Darden “Serve Up Hope?” Why Does Timberland give their employees 40 hours a year paid to spend volunteering – including reforesting desert lands? Is it an employee retention tactic? Sure. Is it for the PR? Maybe. But ultimately, it’s the right thing to do. Why don’t we all do it? How can we get every business to support causes – all the time – deeply – and authentically? Obviously much of it boils down to logistics and technology. Everything from storytelling scaled to your company, payroll functionality, sharing tools to put the power into the hands of employees, and mobile applications all takes time, but with a company like Causecast, the model built is there to help companies succeed. Who hasn’t heard about the tornado devastation in Moore, OK? Did you follow it on social platforms because of your interest, desire to help, or helpless feeling? If so, you likely saw Jessica - @blogging4jobs – live-blogging a tornado. Jessica showed us the path of the tornado, and her route that day from home to school, crossing the tornado’s path. She showed her lost storage unit and devastation. She jumped into action and used social media for social good, the way we all want to use it. Jessica used twitter to communicate, to provide a tornado assistance and donation guide via her blog, with over 45,000 page views on that … [Read more...]
