| TURNING SETBACK INTO ADVANTAGE |
| Written by Masami Sato | |
| Tuesday, 16 June 2009 | |
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How we should react when economy slows down.
How we should react when economy slows down. When the financial market is unstable worldwide, the first reaction of most people is to hold on to what they have and also cut costs. They also presume that practically everyone is doing the same thing, as that is the impression that newspapers create. Everyone ISN`T responding in that manner. There are many people and many ventures that flourish, whether the economy is down or not. And if you are wondering why it is so, the solution is available there where it is often likely to be overlooked. It will be a good idea to search for the answer together. Whenever there is a downward trend, whatever it is, the best way to overcome it is by rising higher than it. If we drift with the wind and go where it takes us, we might find ourselves in dire straits, waiting for the wind's mercy for deliverance. The fact is that when we know our strength and can hold sway over ourselves, we can rise above the mundane and not worry about what is going on all around. Let us visualise it properly. 'Go-getters' or 'Go-contributors' Consider a situation where we want much more - fatter profit, a salary boost, lengthier holidays, better freedom, and better prospects. When we want something, the first thing we tend to do is to go and get it. So, we call ourselves 'Go-getters'. And being a 'go-getter' is, let's face it, a sign of leadership, activism and an early-adopter mindset. This is of course one of the keys to the success formulae we often read about. But there is a problem. It turns out that when we use this 'strategy', there are some unexpected (but quite predictable) consequences. The crux of the problem is that after 'getting' and 'owning' a thing, what eventually happens is 'dropping' it. We either actually throw it away or become indifferent to it. So then we immediately shift our focus to getting more. And here's the real problem; the more we do that, the more we create a cycle that actually makes us continuously feel as though we do not yet have enough. It's like a carbohydrate addiction! But what if we turned our 'getting' into giving? Most of you are aware that the act of providing gives a sense of fulfilment. This ensues from gratefulness and not from panic or avarice. A person can go on providing more and receive more and know full satisfaction in the voyage of life. Our charitable and contributing approach will produce charitable and contributing customers and group mates whereas our concern about the cost and "getting tendencies" would bring in only like-minded co-workers. Companionship with such people is surely not welcome for us! Creative capitalism Many businesses see this now. They are now starting to give more and more in various ways. There's a veritable 'sea-change' going on as more people 'get' the role that giving can play in their business. Bill Gates is a class example. In a July 2008 lead article in TIME Magazine he referred to it as 'Creative Capitalism'. He opined that the idea of providing for others could become a crucial factor in encouraging people to buy one product rather than another. The gist of what Bill Gates is saying is that when an enterprise is associated with the idea of providing in any manner, that enterprise and its products become more appealing to clients. It carves out a niche for itself far above that of others. Creative Capitalism is the idea of taking things a step higher than the destination at which one would have originally chosen to make the compromise. When we can leverage our visions and initiatives in a way that helps and promotes the needs of the global society, we are conserving things, efforts and abilities in trying to win pro tem. Then we begin fashioning genuine success for us as well as for supporting our global financial system. The appeal of effective giving CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is the word used for delineating the process of business establishments giving back to the community. It is becoming an obligation on the part of enterprises to do so. But when they donate as a duty or just for creating a good impression, it would soon become easy to make out. However, it works as an interim ploy for survival. Business ventures and people who 'donate' become popular. The zeal and sincerity that prods them to act is recognized by the people with whom they interact. This response is on top of what is spun by way of the company's public relation efforts. So, what happens if we allocate some of the marketing budget to go toward giving? Giving gives rise to something greater than what we actually are. It has the power to inspire. And true inspiration is possible only when it echoes on the people whom we want to enthuse. And we are enthused only when we put our heart and soul into the procedure. It is simply not sufficient to listen to the interesting tales. One has to become part and parcel of the whole process. Everyone has this inclination to make one's own input - to one's immediate relatives, friends, and to the society at large. Transaction-based giving makes it happen automatically The facility for contributing became so much simpler because of a programme (or one can say a 'development') called Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the heart of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving revolutionises things. Let us use our creativity and analyse how. How wonderful is the situation where every time someone buys an ice cream, a child somewhere in an underprivileged country gets a cup of milk? Or a different scenario where with every subscription to a journal that you would like to read, a sapling gets planted somewhere where it was badly needed? Or whenever you ate out, someone routinely got fed out of its profit? Consider the scenario of someone attending a coaching session. It would be commendable if someone who needs similar coaching would get it as a direct consequence (and just at the cost of not more than 60 cents for the day's coaching). Or if a conference sponsors has arranged a speaker, part of whose income goes to help kids who has speech impediments due to deformities, wouldn't that be a matter to feel satisfied? Just by attending the conference and paying for it, you are becoming part of a noble cause. Imagine now if you could apply transaction-based giving in your own unique way to match your main products/services to engage your customers and team members to be part of the giving story. Here's how. The real win-win economy As of now, enterprises all across the world are realising the power of transaction-based giving. TESCO, one of the better known supermarket chains of UK, has correlated its sales in such a way that when someone buys a pair of school trousers from them, a child in Kenya gets a school uniform. Volvic is a Mineral Water Company that launched its scheme of transaction-based giving program last year. They help the cause of making wells in Africa. They call the scheme Buy1 GIVE 10 as it helps in generating a flow of 10 litres of water in the well, by every single litre of water they sell. Small to medium sized companies are now starting to take leadership in expanding this global giving movement through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a mechanism that has turned this transaction-based giving into something every one of us can be involved in. Buy1GIVE1 is the home of the most impactful transaction-based giving in the world because it connects any business of any size to any cause in the world. It's creating a global community of business givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 connects businesses, their customers AND charities in a way that hasn't been done before. And it all happens automatically. You can become a citizen of this global giving movement by simply getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. And if you own a business you can become a B1G1 Business through a simple online application and select your cause for your main product or service to kick-start your giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards 100% of the contributions to their international Worthy Cause Partners (there are now over 528 projects you can select) making the giving even more effective. Have you considered? * Half the population of the globe -about three billion people-is forced to survive on less than two dollars a day. * Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. * UNICEF has reported that more than 30,000 children die every day due to abject poverty, which makes it 20 child a minute and 210,000 a week. * 85% of the world's water resources are utilized by just 12% of its population. And of this, even 1% does not live in the Third World. * About a billion people have no access to minimum health care facilities. * Every year about 63,000 square miles of rainforests get decimated. Data From Global Issues Buy1GIVE1 Businesses- scrutinize these examples * Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au) * Education to education (www.kipmcgrath.com.au) * Medical treatment helping in medical aid (www.primanora.com) * Phone card to human interaction (www.ultimatecomms.com) * Meditation to restoration (www.meditate.com.au) * Weight loss to kids' meals (www.bodychain.com) * Aesthetic blinds to lights to schools (www.blindscouture.com.au) * Socks for comfort to feet free of frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com) * Coaching to train social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com) * And to get a complete picture, just go to www.b1g1.com. Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature's eternal secret So let's begin again from where we had set off-financial instability and succeeding in having what we need. The requirements are in reality quite clear-cut. It is just a triumvirate starting with the letter C - correlation, cooperation and community. When we can team up rather than break up and thus create a perfect way to combine resources rather than carry away from one another, we will perceive that there is so much more profusion and so many reserves present on the planet. And when we build relationships, not just with one another but with our innate selves, we understand something infinitely beautiful-that we're all ONE. Then we realise how simple it is to form an international society from something as commonplace as giving. And nature gives us a real clue to that. In nature, bees and butterflies pollinate flowers and create sustainable flower gardens for many generations to thrive on. It's been in front of us all along! When a fiasco inundates the world, it should be leveraged to turn it into a benefit to return to normalcy. Now is the time to acknowledge what we have got and forge ahead to succeed. And when a person opts to begin giving today itself, the sense of euphoria would be much more, notwithstanding the economic problems. And with this sense of elation comes a reawakening of hope that will remind him of how the power and direction of tide can easily change. And his giving might be that which brings about this change. The Article Author: Find out more about how Buy One Give One can transform your business using cause-related marketing. |
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