AFIRCA TO LEAD A NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
The world has tried several economic systems. Until now none has been able to fulfill the need and aspirations of people around the world for a system that respects the right of ownership of property; fosters, engenders and rewards personal responsibility, creativity and enterprise; promotes socio-economic justice through principle based and not legislated equitable re-distribution of wealth as well as improving the welfare of communities and peoples.
Each of the economic system practiced before now had some of the features described above but however were not perfect as there were endemic flaws. Communism essentially denied the right of individuals to own property while destroying the motive for personal responsibility and creativity. On the other hand unbridled capitalism because of its emphasis on reward for innovation and creativity neglects the need for principled based wealth redistribution and is concerned more with taking advantage of opportunities for personal gain rather solving problems to improve community welfare. Excessive taxing to correct this moves us towards socialism that smothers the initiatives within the people.
The status of anyone within the capitalist system depends majorly on three things: the amount of personal responsibility the individual is willing to take; the value (skills, services, products, solutions) each individual brings to the market place and of course the environment in which the individual lives, such as infrastructural and macro economic environment. The problem with this system is that capitalism produces a few big winners, a number of average winners christened the middle class but a myriad of losers. It’s simplistic to say that everyone is responsible for his status but we must realize that all men are not equal in ability and socio political factors such as access to health care and education and good governance or a lack of it contribute significantly to the status of people in the system, especially in Africa.
Social entrepreneurship brings together the best elements of all the systems. It is a hybrid of the sound market based strategies such as creativity, innovation, efficiency, management and sustainability culture of the free market, blended with the focus on social engineering for the common good of socialism and communism. However, a major distinction is that focus on social engineering for the common good is not legislated as it is in communism and socialism, rather it is a value that is adopted and practiced by social entrepreneurs out of a desire to place the common good over and above the desire to amass wealth. Certainly wealth is created but it is not amassed, rather it is allowed to fulfill the purpose of realizing development and welfare for the communities and its people.
What makes an initiative a social enterprise is therefore not the nomenclature of the concern but the mission, values, processes and inputs that go into the enterprise. However it may be expedient to correctly brand the initiative so as to be properly positioned. Communism could not survive because of its serious flaws, the same for socialism. The earlier the world comes to the realization that unbridled capitalism is doomed, the sooner we will begin to focus on what we need to do to survive. I don’t know if the present global economic crisis is the last straw but I’m very sure that capitalism is doomed.
Africa and the rest of the third world are in a unique position to imbevent (imagine, believe, invent) a new world economic order called social capitalism or what Bill Gates has called Creative Capitalism. Note however that whenever there is a major economic shift, a major political change follows. The economic events leading to barrack Obama’s recent victory are the proof of this theory. Today Africans have the resources to imbevent this new world. Our continent is inundated with a plethora of major social problems. Up until now we have relied on foreign aid to combat some of these ills. Of course it won’t work. If socialism does not work in the west then transnational socialism in the name of aids will not develop Africa. What Africans do not realize is that the European union spends America spends more on one American cow ( in the form of subsidy to American cattle farmers than they spend on one African as aid.) apart from this more than 50% of the aid Africa receives returns to the west as payment for technologies and expatriate skills.
So how can we solve our problems? We have to engage our minds in creative enterprise using sound market based strategies but focusing on societal and community transformation for the common good. Can we do this? Of course yes, we can. The question is “will you be the change’?
Sunday, November 9, 2008
imbevent a new world
‘IMBEVENT’ A NEW WORLD
There are two new world economic orders coming to earth in very quick succession. The first one which will be ushered in as a result of the present global economic crisis is already upon us and the other will follow shortly. A new set of business values, information and skills are therefore required to not only thrive but survive in today’s economic world because in spite of the turmoil it is still very possible to be profitable and grow your business and economic fortunes. There is nothing in history to go to for solutions. The world has never been here before, to survive and thrive especially in the third world, we must ‘imbevent’.
You have to realize that wealth like matter is never destroyed; its ownership is only transferred in times of crisis. When Lehman brothers collapsed in the United States, Barclays bank of the UK was able to acquire its North American assets for a fraction of their value which still was a strange move as conserving capital is supposed to be the key strategy for banks in times of a credit squeeze and not acquisitions. However, the asset was so cheap it became irresistible to the English. Also, the 700 billion dollar bail out arranged for American banks by the government will also create opportunities for Asian banks (who have the greatest liquidity of all global banks having learnt to have massive cash reserves as a result of the melt down that occurred in Asia in 1997) to acquire American bank assets at massive discounts.
Understanding the present economic realities is important if you and your business must be correctly positioned. In subsequent editions of this column I will be writing a lot on what you can do to position yourself and your business correctly. Basically, there are three things you have to take seriously: heart- vision, mission and values; mind- information and hands- skills.
First is the positioning of your heart as an individual and the heart of your business if you are a business owner. By heart I mean your vision, mission and values. In the last two decades, there has been a lot of hoopla in management and business circles on these three components of business success. Most companies however did not pay attention to them and those who did relegated vision, mission and values to well craft words they hung on reception walls. They never became the driving force of the enterprise. Some companies however took it more seriously and actually adopted well reasoned out business hearts which to a large extent was installed in the organization. However, for a lot of these businesses they took a wrong heart. In the new world economic order, businesses with the wrong heart will not survive, how much less those without one.
Second is the positioning of your mind which really is your having the right information.
Every competent business person knows information is a key to business success, not just having the right information but getting it on time. Never before has the world experienced such economic interconnectedness like we do today. How could you have guessed that a sub prime mortgage crisis that began in Miami, Florida will cause the value of the shares you have in the Nigerian stock market to go down by more than 30 % in less than six months? Of course you would have been able to predict that, if you understand that debt makes the world go round and everything that goes round comes around. You would have gotten out of paper based investment the moment Northern Rock was privatized in the UK as the first major casualty of the credit squeeze, you would, if you knew that credit is the life blood of capitalism and foreign investors will dump their Nigerian shares which had been artificially pumped up by leverage buying to have enough cash to protect their more valuable assets in the west. If you knew! But you didn’t know that’s why you suffered looses.
Positioning your hands which is having the right skills is the third key to surviving. If you have the right information and can correctly synthesize them maybe you would have been able to predict the future which is important to your making the right investment and business decision. However, every time there has been a contest between predicting the future (speculating on paper based investments like stocks, mutual funds, bonds e.t.c) and creating the future ( creating real wealth by adding labor to resources through the process of enterprise) enterprise always come out on top. The number one skill in enterprise is what we have called ‘imbevention’. ‘Imbevention’ is the ability to look at the world of humanity and imagine solutions to human problems and through conscientious faith and intelligent work create solutions to improve human welfare in a spirit of service. Our goal is to ‘imbevent’ and serve humanity resources upon which today’s business and economic fortunes can be built for the common good.
The company –IMBEVENT- represents the philosophy that anything we can IMagine if we BElieve, we can inVENT. Reaching your potential as an individual, business or institution will require that you can imbevent. Our mission is to provide people, businesses and governments with the intellectual capital and empowerment required to survive and thrive in the coming new world economic orders through training and consulting.
There are two new world economic orders coming to earth in very quick succession. The first one which will be ushered in as a result of the present global economic crisis is already upon us and the other will follow shortly. A new set of business values, information and skills are therefore required to not only thrive but survive in today’s economic world because in spite of the turmoil it is still very possible to be profitable and grow your business and economic fortunes. There is nothing in history to go to for solutions. The world has never been here before, to survive and thrive especially in the third world, we must ‘imbevent’.
You have to realize that wealth like matter is never destroyed; its ownership is only transferred in times of crisis. When Lehman brothers collapsed in the United States, Barclays bank of the UK was able to acquire its North American assets for a fraction of their value which still was a strange move as conserving capital is supposed to be the key strategy for banks in times of a credit squeeze and not acquisitions. However, the asset was so cheap it became irresistible to the English. Also, the 700 billion dollar bail out arranged for American banks by the government will also create opportunities for Asian banks (who have the greatest liquidity of all global banks having learnt to have massive cash reserves as a result of the melt down that occurred in Asia in 1997) to acquire American bank assets at massive discounts.
Understanding the present economic realities is important if you and your business must be correctly positioned. In subsequent editions of this column I will be writing a lot on what you can do to position yourself and your business correctly. Basically, there are three things you have to take seriously: heart- vision, mission and values; mind- information and hands- skills.
First is the positioning of your heart as an individual and the heart of your business if you are a business owner. By heart I mean your vision, mission and values. In the last two decades, there has been a lot of hoopla in management and business circles on these three components of business success. Most companies however did not pay attention to them and those who did relegated vision, mission and values to well craft words they hung on reception walls. They never became the driving force of the enterprise. Some companies however took it more seriously and actually adopted well reasoned out business hearts which to a large extent was installed in the organization. However, for a lot of these businesses they took a wrong heart. In the new world economic order, businesses with the wrong heart will not survive, how much less those without one.
Second is the positioning of your mind which really is your having the right information.
Every competent business person knows information is a key to business success, not just having the right information but getting it on time. Never before has the world experienced such economic interconnectedness like we do today. How could you have guessed that a sub prime mortgage crisis that began in Miami, Florida will cause the value of the shares you have in the Nigerian stock market to go down by more than 30 % in less than six months? Of course you would have been able to predict that, if you understand that debt makes the world go round and everything that goes round comes around. You would have gotten out of paper based investment the moment Northern Rock was privatized in the UK as the first major casualty of the credit squeeze, you would, if you knew that credit is the life blood of capitalism and foreign investors will dump their Nigerian shares which had been artificially pumped up by leverage buying to have enough cash to protect their more valuable assets in the west. If you knew! But you didn’t know that’s why you suffered looses.
Positioning your hands which is having the right skills is the third key to surviving. If you have the right information and can correctly synthesize them maybe you would have been able to predict the future which is important to your making the right investment and business decision. However, every time there has been a contest between predicting the future (speculating on paper based investments like stocks, mutual funds, bonds e.t.c) and creating the future ( creating real wealth by adding labor to resources through the process of enterprise) enterprise always come out on top. The number one skill in enterprise is what we have called ‘imbevention’. ‘Imbevention’ is the ability to look at the world of humanity and imagine solutions to human problems and through conscientious faith and intelligent work create solutions to improve human welfare in a spirit of service. Our goal is to ‘imbevent’ and serve humanity resources upon which today’s business and economic fortunes can be built for the common good.
The company –IMBEVENT- represents the philosophy that anything we can IMagine if we BElieve, we can inVENT. Reaching your potential as an individual, business or institution will require that you can imbevent. Our mission is to provide people, businesses and governments with the intellectual capital and empowerment required to survive and thrive in the coming new world economic orders through training and consulting.
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