Page 172 - Free the Idea Monkey

and bailed out customers having
trouble paying to get their cars
fixed. He reasoned that people need
to drive to be productive. He, like
many young people today, are onto
an idea that is changing the world:
you can do well by doing good. Business has much to learn from the
newest breed of Idea Monkeys.

But too often the people with the best intentions get in their
own way. For example, if the social responsibility movement spent
less time hectoring and more time pointing out the greater profits
companies can produce by implementing their ideas, they would be
more effective.

This is not about saying “no” to profits. It is about recasting
the issue in terms of “and,” as in “you can do X, which will increase
earnings and (by the way) contribute to the greater good,” instead
of “or,” as in “you can do well or make money, you can’t
do both.” The next generation of consumers has become
aware of what companies are up to and are rewarding the
ones doing good things.

The reason I loved Oprah’s Big Give is because she
promoted the idea of creative benevolence. And yes, the
network and sponsors made money. Yes, people were enter-
tained. Yes, lives were changed for the better. Yes, yes, yes.
Oprah gave us a great example of doing well by doing good. She
could have chosen to fire people who were not cold-blooded
business people, but she chose to be innovative. I believe that
at its heart, this way of doing business is an “innovation”
challenge. We need to think differently about the situation
and not make it a moral one.

That is the thought my business partner, Raff Vitón, came
back with after attending a Conscious Capitalism conference
recently. (Go to http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/)

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