Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

By Masami Sato

How we should react when economy slows down.

When the global financial market is in turmoil the first thing most people think of doing is holding onto things and cutting expenditure. And they automatically assume (because the newspapers tell them) that everyone is acting that way.

However, each and every person ISN'T doing so. There are sections of the society which prosper, come what may. Those, who feel surprised about this odd equation, can find the clue for it in a most obvious place where they might have missed it. It might be worthwhile to analyse it 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'

Let's say we want more - more profits, a pay raise, more holidays, more freedom, and more opportunities.

When we yearn for a thing, our response is to try to get it. By that yardstick everybody is a 'Go-getter'. And a 'go-getter' is understood as a dynamic, enterprising person with leadership qualities. Such an attitude is a prime requirement for succeeding in life as we understand it. Nevertheless, there is an innate conundrum. When these approaches are put into practice, there are certain unanticipated, though unavoidable upshots.

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.

Then our interest swings to something else. This continuous swaying of interest is the biggest issue; the widening interests becoming a never-ending circle of desires so that we are never satisfied with what we have. It becomes a sort of junk food dependency!

So what if we turned our 'desire to get' into a desire to provide?

Most of you are aware that the act of providing gives a sense of fulfillment. 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 generous and giving attitude creates generous and giving customers and team members while our price consciousness and 'getting attitude' attracts precisely those types of customers and team members. And they're the very ones we don't want!

Creative capitalism

Most enterprises are conscious of this now. Companies have now started providing for others in myriad ways. A complete change has come over as companies understand how the idea of giving is crucial to their business. In an article in TIME Magazine in July 2008, it was Bill Gates who coined the word 'Creative Capitalism.'

He explained that helping others might be the fine deciding point that could persuade people to prefer one product to 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 about rising above what we reluctantly settle for to reach what we truly aspire to. When we can capitalise on our ideas and imagination in a way that benefits and nurtures the wider community and network; we stop wasting our resources, efforts and talents in trying to temporarily win. We start creating the real win for ourselves and for the sustainability of our global economy.

The attraction of effective giving

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the phrase that's often used to describe giving back at a corporate level. It's becoming almost a required part of corporate business practice. Yet when it's done out of a sense of obligation or with the intent to just make ourselves look good, people eventually get what it is. It still is a temporary strategy.

Individuals and enterprises that 'contribute', appeal to everyone. Their fervour and conviction about what they do are acknowledged by the people with whom they build up relationships. This acknowledgement is in addition to the official public relations campaign of the establishment.

What is likely to be the upshot if some of the capital meant for marketing is apportioned for contributions?

Giving creates something bigger than who we are. Giving creates inspiration. Inspiration can only be created when it resonates with the people whom we want to inspire. And we get inspired when we are involved in the experience. It is not just about hearing the nice stories of others. It's actually participating in those stories. After all, we all want to feel good in life by making a contribution-to our family and friends, to our company and to our community.

Transaction-based giving makes it inevitable

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?

Imagine if every time you subscribed to a magazine you love, a tree got planted automatically just because you bought the magazine? Or every time you dine out, you fed a child in need? Automatically again.

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).

Where a motivational speaker at a conference is connected with a charity, part of his income might go to helping kids who have speech problems due to facial defects. It will be a matter of great satisfaction for the participants at the conference to know that their very participation is helping a deserving 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 actual winning 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.

Mineral Water Company Volvic also rolled out their transaction-based giving program successfully last year. For every 1 litre of Volvic people buy, Volvic gives funds to build wells in Africa in a program they call Buy1 GIVE 10 (since every 1 litre sold essentially creates a flow of 10 litres in the well.

Lesser to middle level businesses have now begun to spearhead the movement of increasing the idea of global giving through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a procedure that has turned this transaction-based giving into something each and every human being can be part of.

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.

Any person can become a citizen of this phenomenon of global giving merely by getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. Those who have their own enterprise can become a B1G1 Business through applying online and selecting the charity and the primary service or product for launching the giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards the entire contribution amount to their international Worthy Cause Partners (more than 528 projects are available for members to choose from) thereby making their contributions highly productive.

Do you know?

* Half the world-nearly three billion people-live on less than two dollars a day.

* Even in the 21st century, which is the age of the internet, there are about a billion people who have never put a pen to a paper.

* Poverty and malnutrition robs the lives of 20 children every minute, 30,000 every day, and 210,000 children every week, as per UNICEF records.

* Just 12% of the people worldwide utilize 85% of the water available for human consumption. And this 12% does not belong to any of the underdeveloped countries.

* About a billion people have no access to minimum health care facilities.

* 63,000 square miles of rainforests are destroyed each year.

Statistic From Global Issues

Buy1GIVE1 Businesses- scrutinize these examples

* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)

* Learning to learning (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)

* Medical treatment helping in medical aid (www.primanora.com)

* Phone card to communication (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 protecting feet from frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com)

* Coaching to train social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)

* And for an overall look, simply go to www.b1g1.com.

Discovering what we are looking for-Nature has got the answer

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 collaborate instead of isolate and when we can create an effective way to add to each other instead of taking away from each other, we discover there is so much abundance and resource already available in our world. And when we connect, not just with each other but with our true selves, we discover something really interesting-that we're all ONE. Then we understand how easy it is to create a global community from something as simple as giving.

And the truth is there in all its glory in nature.

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 crisis hits the world, we can see an opportunity to get back to the simplicity. It is now actually time to be grateful for what we have in order for us all to keep thriving.

And when you choose to start giving today, you will feel so much better despite the economic challenges. And when you feel better you will discover a renewal of hope and you will remember all tides change and the down will soon be up. Giving today is the one thing that you can do to change everything. - 31955

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