Are you serious about good business?

In his seminal paper , our late founder concluded.

"Clearly, profits can be used very effectively in ways other than traditional investment and profit outcomes. Moreover, this is not charity, it is business--good business. One P-CED firm could be expected to spin off dozens of new firms and businesses, all of which create new jobs and all of which operate under traditional free-enterprise practices. That is, if a spin-off business were to profit a million dollars a year, the owners can bank the money for themselves and their stockholders as is the normal practice. There is nothing wrong with individuals becoming wealthy. It is only when wealth begins to concentrate in the hands of a relative few at the expense of billions of others who are denied even a small share of finite wealth that trouble starts and physical, human suffering begins. It does not have to be this way. Massive greed and consequent massive human misery and suffering do not have to be accepted as a givens, unavoidable, intractable, irresolvable. Just changing the way business is done, if only by a few companies, can change the flow of wealth, ease and eliminate poverty, and leave us all with something better to worry about. Basic human needs such as food and shelter are fundamental human rights; there are more than enough resources available to go around--if we can just figure out how to share. It cannot be "Me first, mine first"; rather, "Me, too" is more the order of the day."

Terry died 4 years ago in efforts to tackle corruption in Ukraine - A local NGO described how the lives of those in greatest need had come before his own.

Ukraine is now a country where people enlist in the army and give up their lives with little if any expectation of financial compensatiion. The root cause was bad business and

For this reason I was alarmed at the idea in the following video that it was meaninful to enlist in the army and die defending your country for low wages.

The White Paper delivered to Bill Clinton had made a warning that those in poverty, finding themselves increasingly marginalised to the point that their existence was threatened, would rise up to defend themselves.

It was which guided his activism for a living wage. 10 years ago in Ukraine he warned:

"Increasing pensions and salaries, to move workers and retirees a little further out of poverty-level income, were condemned as budget busters that Ukraine’s new government cannot afford – despite the fact that not doing so essentially guarantees perpetuation of graft and corruption.  Elimination of graft and corruption, and raising the overall standard of living for ALL Ukrainians rather than a few insanely greedy oligarch clans, was the main underlying and implied reason for the Orange Revolution – at least from hundreds of people, activists and otherwise, I talked with on the ground during and after the Revolution.  Further, as director for any sort of peace institute, Mr. Aslund is obliged to review the connection between poverty and peace.  Peace does not and cannot exist for people in poverty, unless they are harshly suppressed by government or other forces.  Poverty is a horrible existence and lifestyle, and is bound to breed violence, not peace."

"Therefore, it is appropriate to question, how, precisely, fulfilling the very things that the revolution was about constitutes “betrayal of a revolution.”  Betrayal would be to NOT take those actions."

The article was a response to Anders Aslund from the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace, who had changed Ukraine's government with 'Betraying a Revolution in Washingtom Post.

With a war now raging, Aslund has become another advocate for a 'Marshall Plan'  Not the one that actually exists as a plan, of course.

In the world of social innovation ,it seems, denying the existence of others is par for the course. It's what kept the plight of Ukraine's orphans invisible for so many years.

Similarly, this video aims to deny the existence of social business practitioners to create reputation on what they are going to do.      

When it comes to Maslow's Heirarchy of  Needs, as I've learned only recently, there is an 8th level of self transcendance.

The 'Mashall Plan for Ukraine put those in greatest need first. 

'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. '