We Won’t Be Doing Much Business On A Dead Planet
This article was submitted to me by Christophe Poizat, the founder of the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs, who, using the social web and guerrilla marketing tactics, has single-handedly created the word’s largest Web 2.0 network of social entrepreneurs.
We Won’t Be Doing Much Business On A Dead Planet
It is a sad but true fact: we won’t be doing much business on a dead planet. The pristine beauty of our planet is at risk of being destroyed. What has taken hundreds of millions of years to elaborate could be forever gone within a few decades because of the negative impact of the human species has on planet Earth.
Because we have been cumulatively oblivious in responding appropriately to the harsh impact our way of living has had on our environments, we now find ourselves in the middle of a crisis where our survival is at stake. Never before has the planet been in greater danger. Never before has an immediate remediation been so critically needed and so vital for our future.
All the global issues we are facing must be immediately and collectively addressed. Even if it costs a few points of economic growth, we ought to find new ways of producing goods, new ways of consuming goods, new ways of conceiving and conducting our business activities and new ways of recycling waste in larger quantities. We must act together, as one family! If we don’t act now, we will soon face the risk of extinction. It is not being pessimistic, it is simply being realistic.
Fortunately, there has been a shift of consciousness in the last few years and many people now realize something must be done to urgently address all the global issues we are facing. We know we must eliminate extreme poverty. We know we must provide education on a larger scale. We know we must use natural resources more wisely. We know we must reduce our carbon footprint. We know we must work together in our everyday lives toward building a more sustainable model. We must act on the largest possible scale and in the shortest amount of time for maximum efficiency.
Today is the day! We must act now!
The world is in dire need of a new paradigm to bring more happiness to the largest possible number of people. We need to find and make more peace within ourselves before the world will be at peace. We must stop admiring values that are vacuous and people that propound and profit from them. Enough of those false values that lead to the delusion and destruction of entire generations. We must restore a community of shared values.
We don’t need to invent anything, only rediscover and rejuvenate what assured the survival of our ancestors, what provided a true, shared joy. We must evolve spiritually. We can’t afford to stagnate at this stage of the evolutionary process much longer. Sainthood for a handful of people is not what we are after. What we are after is a global shift of consciousness. It will happen when more people awaken and unite their hearts and spirits.
It will happen when people regardless of creed, color, religion walk hand-in-hand knowing that we are one family - the human family. It will happen when more people realize that when something negative happens on the planet or to a community or in our daily life we all suffer from the consequences. It will happen when we consciously reconnect with the core of our human nature and exercise our birth rights which makes us co-creators of our destiny.
191 countries, members of the United Nations, signed the UN Millennium Resolution in 2002 which aims to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. However, there is still an incredible amount of money spent on war around the world. Today is the time to transcend our differences and unite our energies to solve our many challenging issues.
Does it really matter to become the number one company in any given market at the expense of our common wealth and the well-being of the world?
Every day, more than 1,000 children die because they didn’t get a 15-cent measles vaccine. Almost 3 billion people around the world live on less than $2 per day. This is not acceptable. Have we really tried our very best? Governments play their myopic power games while millions of people die of malnutrition, curable diseases, lack of water and the consequences of greed, avarice and ignorance.
The solutions will not come and have not come from governments alone (if at all). The solutions will come from entrepreneurs - social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change that is sustainable and for the highest good of humanity. (adapted from Wikipedia’s definition).
Social entrepreneurs have the collective power to make a real difference in today’s world and can have a decisive impact for generations to come. Social entrepreneurs have the collective responsibility to take on - one by one - all the challenges humanity faces.
When the performance of traditional entrepreneurs is measured in terms of profitability, the performance of social entrepreneurs is measured in terms of the positive impact they have on society. Social entrepreneurs measure their success in terms of the contribution made toward resolving all the global issues currently threatening the planet and humanity as a whole - one by one.
It is imperative to encourage social entrepreneurship and to inspire younger generations by instilling the spirit of social entrepreneurship worldwide. As long as we keep measuring our progress in terms of financial and geographic profitability alone, we will continue to miss our essential imperatives. We will continue to fail collectively with consequences that are seriously threatening the survival of our planet and the future of humanity.
Social Entrepreneurship can change the world and can provide a better world for generations to come. Today is the day! We are one - one family, the human family. Now is the time to join in and do good works. Not convinced? Always remember, we won’t be doing much business on a dead planet.
About Christophe Poizat
Christophe Poizat is a professional dreamer, a social entrepreneur, guerrilla marketer, mentor, business coach, speaker, author with 20+ years of international consulting experience who has lived on four continents; for more details, visit: http://christophepoizat.com
Christophe is also the founder and administrator of the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs, a global Web 2.0 community for Social Entrepreneurs to connect, share, collaborate and promote social entrepreneurship worldwide. For more details, visit: http://inse.collectivex.com
Technorati Tags: christophe poizat, international network for social entrepreneurs, inse, social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, sustainability, web 2.0
January 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I appreciate the passionate appeal of Chris Poizat. I might be wrong, but social entrepreneurship alone will not move the world to take action. The business community (and by extension Wall Street) must also be engaged and worked with in order to develop some sort of consensus. In my opinion embracing profit motives and figuring out how to fit this social agenda into a business culture is critical. For the first time in decades there is a legitimate opening in the business community to discuss the idea of doing well financially while also doing good socially. We all must continue to push this door open and include as many communities (business, political and others) as possible.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hi Aman,
I completely agree. The social entreprenuerial sector is still small, young and growing - and mainly populated by small ventures. Not enough critical mass to engender the widespread paradigm shift that the planet so needs.
However, I think incorporating social and environmental agendas in for-profit businesses is no longer considered frighteningly radical. Take Google’s commitment to renewable energy and solving global poverty, and their willingness to commit millions of dollars to do so. Though their labor practices can use some improvement, Wal-mart’s initiative to green its supply chain is another bold move. These giants have the power to set better social and environmental standards that the business community and Wall Street can understand and follow. Hopefully more will follow, as stronger business cases are made (efficiency & bottom-line impact vs philanthropic tax write-offs) for incorporating social and environmental good into business agendas.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Grettings Aman & Lorna,
I would just like to share this organisation call Tzu Chi Foundation. See how it has created many social entreprenuers around the world and how these people have change their environment around them and other places around the world. www.tzuchi.org
February 27th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
All Christophe says is true but of the problems he mentions, what’s missing is the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about - overpopulation. The sheer number of people on the planet is creating a great stress that weighs heavily on all the other problems. Even underdeveloped countries that consume little by western standards feel the competition for finite land and water.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:21 am
I completely agree with you Kevin!
It would be great if the Church would endorse birth control….