The American (Bad) Dream

The American Dream expresses the aspiration for a "better, richer, and happier life." Hmm... The minimum wage in New York currently stands at just under $15,000 and the national average wage stands at about $31,500. By contrast it is forecast (NY Times, July 15) that Goldman Sachs employees “could on average, earn roughly $770,000 each this year or nearly what they did at the height of the boom.” This average includes every banker, trader, mailroom and janitor at the firm, or over 50 times...

Ethonomics

Ethonomics is a word that will that spread, so don't be freaked out by it. Most recently used by Fast Company magazine to mean a hybrid of technology, design, and social responsibility that is about ethics in the marketplace. Progressively the concept of the triple bottom line will become the quadruple bottom line - in my opinion. The fourth element will be about ethics, or the state of being. If the motivation for dealing with profits, people and the planet does not come from the heart, ...

Enternships

Internships are harder and harder to find for young students interested in business. At the same time, many startups have a tough time justifying taking on new people on the payroll. Bootstrappers have always known how to get work done by means of begging, buying or borrowing labor. Students who might have been drawn to the idea of big business as being able to provide greater opportunities for learning than small business, can now see how working in an entrepreneurial environment can give th...

Weisure may be redundant

The word 'weisure' was coined by Dalton Conley, New York University sociologist (and author of Elsewhere, USA: How We Got from Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety) to indicate the 24/7 life where work and leisure interweave. Weisure makes a value judgment and comes across as critical of the way in which many western men and women live 'lesser' lives because of its instant and in-touch nature.  I see the experience as ...

Health or sick reform?

Someone Must Pay for Health Reform is the title of an article by Catherine Arnst in Business Week (June 1, 2009). She says that, "there are only three ways to pay for universal coverage: Raise taxes, cut payments to medical providers, or ration care." How can it be in this era of systems thinking that such a view can prevail? It assumes that the current US view of healthcare delivery is about health, when it is actually about sickness. The whole current argument rages around a sick sy...

Disservice is unsustainable service

Disservice is an act intended to help, that turns out badly. How often do you have a disservice experience? Frequently, I will wager. When disservice happens, I figure it results from an absence of  generosity. If the concept of service is purely one that seeks sales and lacks a genuine desire to serve, then it is unlikely to be sustainable. There is currently a major US TV advertising campaign for a 'service' called xoom.com, that offers to transfer money more economically than ban...

Sustainable Justice

With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second. More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state and federal governments about $55 billion a year. Given the poor outcomes, is this expenditure worthwhile? American justice makes a poor job of considering the system of which we are all a...

Worldly Happiness – Transcendent Happiness

We all seek happiness. Most of us want worldly happiness: things, experiences, relationships. At work we want business success. Where does that lead us? In most cases to wanting more. That is why so much of business counts growth as the reward: growth in sales, market share, profits. It produces frustration, stress and suffering. What if we could get ourselves to move on from that repetitive cycle? Where would we be headed? Most probably towards transcendent happiness. In business that may so...

Being and Doing

You can read the graphic many ways. The vertical axis represents the 'given wisdom' about business performance encapsulated in the phrase, "what gets measured gets done". The horizontal axis represents a view of management based on emergence, arising from systems thinking. While in your business either style may predominate, they are not mutually exclusive. I would like to suggest that the successful entrepreneur is able to blend the two, with a slight leaning towards the horizontal axis. ...

TechnoServe: hand up not handout

The latest story from TechnoServe is about Peet's Coffee buying coffee from Rwanda. TechnoServe programs focus on developing entrepreneurs, building businesses and industries, and improving the business environment. Partnering with Peet's they are working on developing a vibrant coffee industry in war-ravaged Rwanda. Peet's have announced that they will sell a special blend of the Rwandan coffees in their 191 cafés and online this summer (2009). Business Week (May 4, 2009) has an article abo...