What Your Business Needs Right Now

November 22nd, 2009 by Nate

I had originally planned to write the final installment of this series about the various speakers at the People Report Best Practices conference, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that it’s not really about the individual speakers, but about the picture they painted as a whole. If you’re interested in learning more about those who spoke, you can do so here. I think our time together today, however, would be better spent discussing the overall state of affairs as I see it.

The biggest takeaway I brought back from my week in Dallas was the sense that American businesses (with a strong push from the service sector) are beginning to more strongly embrace Neville Isdell’s idea of “Connected Capitalism.” [<-- This is the best business-related video I've ever seen, by the way.] Neville is the recently retired Chairman of the Board for the Coca-Cola Company, and he’s been using his speaking engagements this year to outline his thoughts on what he believes is a critical turning point not just for business, but for society as a whole.

He believes that “one can pursue both business and improving society at the same time,” and I happen to agree with him. As many of the speakers at the conference alluded to, there is no reason you can’t run a for-profit business and do things that benefit the greater good at the same time. In fact, I believe that in this day and age of media- and marketing-savvy consumers, the businesses that will end up succeeding to the greatest degree will be the ones who embrace the culture of caring for their employees and all the people that their organization serves.

If I have a choice between two restaurants in my neighborhood, and their competition on selection and price point is pretty much the same, which one do you think I’ll give my business to – the one whose ads I see more on TV, or the one whose employees provided a month of free meals to the family next door when they lost their mom in a car accident? Which one do you think I’ll consider first when I’m looking for a new job?

We need to stop thinking about business as this separate thing that all of us do when we leave home for the day, and then forget about when we come back at night. We are not robots; we’re people. And people don’t stop caring about their neighbor when they pull into the company parking lot in the morning. Why not give your people the chance to both earn a living and make a difference in the lives of those around them?

And I’m not talking about donating $5.00 once a month to the company fundraiser, either. Yes, those things are good, and yes, we can contribute, but we can also do so much more. And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t even take that much effort to make a big impact. In fact, 15 minutes a week is more than enough time to start changing lives. The proof of concept is already in place – my team has been doing this for months now. Take a look at some of the results, and realize that we’ve been doing this with no media awareness, no marketing budget, and no salaries. We haven’t spent a dime, and we haven’t earned one. But we have changed lives . . . both others and our own.

People enjoy doing this kind of thing because it has meaning and value. There are over 500 of us doing it right now because we want a quick and convenient way to directly impact the lives of the people close to us, and the ItStartsWith.Us system allows us to do it.

What I realized at this conference is that we are arriving at a place in corporate culture where businesses are looking for a way to integrate themselves into the very fabric of the communities they serve, both to give their employees a more fulfilling work experience, and also to build trust and a real relationship with their customers.

I think we can help them do that in a powerful way.

Neville makes a great point in his talk: “Globalization without localization creates alienation. Businesses need to be seen as ‘us’ and not as ‘them.’” This should be obvious, but it really hasn’t been. Businesses are us. They’re made up of our families, friends and neighbors. We spend much of our lives there. We should make them better.

If we can find a way to help our companies be in the business of improving people’s lives in addition to providing a service, three things will happen. 1) Recruitment, retention and company culture will improve. 2) Real trust and real relationships will develop between company and customer. 3) Profits will go up.

I know this sounds like a simple plan, and that’s because . . . well, because it is. This stuff isn’t rocket science. Help people make a difference that’s meaningful to them, and everybody wins. Period.

Your people already do this on their own . . . your job is simply to allow them to use their passion for helping others as a natural extension of your corporate culture. Make that connection for them, and I believe the rest will fall into place.

I hope you don’t read this article and think I’m vain enough to claim these ideas as my own. Better people than I have been telling us this for a long time. But I do very much believe that we live in a time and place where building on these ideas in an effective manner is easier than ever before.

So what does your business need right now? It needs to start caring about something more than itself. It needs to be more involved in the lives of those both in and around it. In short, it needs to start acting less like a business and more like a person. Figure out what that could look like for your company, and then give it a try. Don’t be afraid to take some risks. If your heart is in the right place, your people will appreciate it, even if it doesn’t quite work the first time. Just make sure to learn and grow from the experience.

I believe the ItStartsWith.Us system works in the business realm, so I’m partnering with a number of companies right now to implement the platform in early 2010. If you want your company to get involved, feel free to drop me a line. I’m always interested in ways we can work together to touch people’s lives and make a difference.

So now that I’ve said my piece, what do you have to say? Does this make sense to you? Do you think I left something out? What about your business . . . do you think something like this would help? Let me know what you think in the comments below – let’s discuss.

Photo Credit: Andy Bokanev

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