thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

Hope and justice means ‘getting your feet wet’ and sometimes, that can be extremely uncomfortable. (*from 12 Good Hours of Daylight)

After my last development post, some readers commented on the less desirable consequences of aid. Pointing out how we like to do these things, but the reality on the ground can be vastly different. We don’t really want well meaning charities simply handing resources into the hands of less altruistic local elites who can cynically manipulate the system.

The question is – how to sidestep the murky politics and get help directly to the people who need it the most?

In fact, there is growing disquiet with the way that aid programmes are impacting around the world and a growing debate about the impacts - positive and negative. The extreme message from some is that we should even stop some of these aid programmes.

“The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good” and argues they should just stop as discussed at Marc Andreessen’s new blog from an much earlier interview in 2005.

P.J O’Rourke once described government as, other people spending other peoples money with no real thought to the consequences because it was, after all OPM.

“A politician who portrays himself as “caring” and “sensitive” because he wants to expand the government’s charitable programs is merely saying that he’s willing to try to do good with other people’s money. Well, who isn’t?”

At TED Global (June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania) there was heated disagreement between Bono and Ugandan Andrew Mwenda on the politics of aid.

Where does the government money go? He argues that it goes disproportionately – roughly 25% of the Ugandan national budget – to “public administration”, in other words, “mostly patronage”. He points to 70 government ministers and 114 presidential aides, “who never see the president except on television… and then the President advises him, not the other way around.” There’s 333 members of parliament – “you need Wembley Stadium to hold our parliament.” Mwenda believes that cutting international aid would force governments to cut their own spending and address these core questions like corruption.

In a brighter moment, Madame Okonjo-Iweala told her own story about a doctor saving her sister’s life -”When someone is saving a life, you don’t care that it’s aid – you want the person to be alive” and urges us to do business with Africa instead.

To quote from a previous TED speaker Asraf Ghani (talking about Afghanistan)

“The aid system is broken,” says Ashraf Ghani in his powerful, reform-oriented talk. He discusses how to mobilize capital for state-building; why technical assistance fails; and why classic economic theory proved useless in Afghanistan, which is “dominated by the drug economy and a mafia.”

He emphasizes the necessity of investment (“A dollar in private investment is equal to 20 dollars of aid”) and design ingenuity to rebuild broken states. And he offers a blueprint: the 10 key functions that a state should perform, from providing infrastructure to enforcing the rule of law…Afghanistan should not be approached as a charity, but as an investment “

Better infrastructure has been mentioned quite a few times, Iqbal Quadir (also on TED) makes the point that 1 mobile phone can make a huge difference in countries without much infrastructure. In his video presentation Iqbal Quadir explains why “aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people,” and advocates a new approach to development from below, “by the people for the people.”

Microfinance and microenterprises programmes have been highly successful in transforming the geopolitical landscape in many of these countries. Even a simple thing like finding better ways to cook meals with cleaner burning fules can have a huge impact as Amy Smith’s story shows. (Fumes from indoor cooking fires kill more than 2 million children a year in the developing world.)

To put things into local perspective – this year in NZ we are talking about NZ$400m+ over the next budget period. Here are some comments on changes to NZ’s aid budgets from Paul Reynolds which is worth reading in full.

“Tucked away in the recent New Zealand budget was the welcome news that New Zealand had increased its aid and development contribution by $70 million.

The 20.2 per cent increase over the 2007/08 financial year was reported as being the biggest increase to Official Development Assistance (ODA) in decades, Over half the new funding will be spent in the Pacific, particularly in Melanesia, and Asia would also benefit.

The increase takes the New Zealand ODA to $429 million in 2007/08 or 0.30 per cent of gross national income (GNI). Further funding over the three following years would achieve 0.35 per cent by 2010/2011 and aid would have reached $601m.

This is in contrast with previous OECD figures which had NZ’s as one of the least generous of international donors, at US $257 million (NZ $361m) in 2006 – 0.27 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI). This in turn was reported as being far below the 0.46 per cent average effort by OECD countries and the no better than New Zealand achieved in 2005.”

I’d like to think that $400m and the private sector aid programmes are doing the very best they can – and that the unintended consequences are minimised as far as possible.

One great example of NZ aid that works, are these two water supply projects in Mongolia and Cambodia by sustainable engineering consultancy Synergine and a prominent NGO.

Intriguingly, a man described as “New Zealand billionaire Stephen Jennings is turning his focus from Russia’s oligarchs to new assets in Africa where his investment bank Renaissance Capital plans to double its investments to $1.3 billion this year.” Jennings also noted that “Africa’s longest expansion in more than three decades was fuelling demand for capital from overseas.”

It could be worth tracking these RenCap projects. Not all trade is positive, just as not all aid is negative. Person to person (p2p) microfinance for example works.

Microenterprise programmes seem to be the most successful. More debate is welcome on the role of trade which comes from Kofi at Annansi Chronicles.

See also my post at Idealog on Hans Rosling and gapminder software which shows new ways to present numbers to effect policy change. (The s/w makes it easy to view trends at country level for example.) See Granta on African voices and Jennifer Brea

As Derek Lind puts it in his song ‘Hope & Justice’ – be careful what you pray for – you gonna get your feet wet. Hope and justice take commitment and results take real effort.

“That puddle on the mosaic floor
Might just be what you’re praying for
It might be justice dripping at your feet
It might be justice be careful what you speak
You pray justice come rollin’ like a river
It’s a sure-fire bet – gonna get your feet wet“

I’d guess that most people want to see aid programmes continue – but how to make sure that the aid gets to those who need it most; and does so in a way that encourages local enterprizes and self help is the dilemma.

What do you think about the role of development aid? Can we do better?
development aid TED.com microenterprise TEDGlobal

Many organisations still see CRM systems as some kind of magic bullet.

Some vendors even oversell the features of their software when everyone knows that the benefits to customers, staff and owners will only come from successful business development strategies and management to match.

It is true that implementing a CRM system will enable business development processes to become more structured and focussed but: only if the management team uses the system to support sales, marketing and service strategies already in place.

In the early days of a CRM project there is often an emphasis on system skills. That is how best can we use the new system to support the various processes that are in place.

Hopefully the new system can be used to standardise, streamline and automate existing and new processes which will make life easier for all. What is sometimes missed though, are the longer term objectives which are ultimately to support methodologies and management in developing a resilient and resourceful business culture.

Often a key driver for purchase of a CRM is to provide a platform for winning new business by adding new customers and account management by adding new business to existing customers.

The skills needed to win new business and skills needed to optimise account management are complementary but not all sales people can do both well.

This is where the CRM might need different templates for opportunity management as different tactical considerations are at work. The sales manager needs to understand those differences and be able to provide resources if opportunities get stuck at any particular stage in the sales cycle. Providing that sales progress and process is documented inside the CRM then the sales manager has some key indicators to steer the various marketing campaigns typically based around acquistion, retention and growth goals.

Sales and marketing managers need to be able to make sense of all the data that is coming from the CRM and to also be able to adjust inputs to maximise results.

For example I have experienced sales calls where it is not clear to me what the value proposition really is. A standard question to ask sales and marketing people is; How is our offering different to our competitors? and then make sure that all sales messaging and proof statements will support that positioning. Note: the very best proof statements come from customer testamonials or other reference materials.

The CRM can then provide scripting guidelines for directed conversations about areas of mutual interest, but you will only get that chance if – you can communicate key points of difference and offer benefits to your target market.

Consequently, when you start customising your CRM settings you should be asking questions like

1. Do these changes support our sales methodologies and business development strategy?
2. Will they make it easier for our customers to buy from us?
3. Will they make it easier for our staff to provde the best levels of quality, service and value to customers? 
4. What is our sales metholodogy?
5. Does the system support our marketing campaign messages?

Mike Bosworth of Customer Centric Selling (as paraphrased by me) notes that it is more successful to:

“Ask relevant questions versus rendering opinions – people like buying but not being sold too..Sales are based on conversations” not sermons…
“We should enable buyers rather than selling to them.”

We do this by focussing on needs, goals and problems and working with buyer to use your product as part of the answer.

The real work in a CRM project can often be all about the tuning and articulation of sales methologies and practice management. As Mike Bosworth also asks in this podcast

“What are you automating? Do you even have a sales process?”

This is something that we like to help with so please call us with any questions or project needs in this area. Here is a list of related features on CRM that you may also enjoy.

• CRM & Knowledge Management
• What to Look for in CRM Strategy
• CRM as a Process Platform
• What is CRM Used For?
• CRM Thinking about Strategy 1

We have been watching a DVD on the life of Leonardo da Vinci which featured animations of some of the machines that he designed about 500 years ago. A remarkable life for a remarkable man – full of amazing insights.

My 5 yr old daughter recognised some of the machines because we have seen working models at the museum a while back. We have a deal in our house, that; when we get videos out she is allowed 1 kids DVD and 1 documentary so we can both enjoy learning about new topics. BTW – this works well – and she is now an expert on a number of topics and regales the family with fascinating facts at dinner.

(I have a Peter Drucker biography that noted his parents had some great dinner party salons at which the young (5) Peter was exposed to some of the brilliant leaders of the day at a very early age.  See The World According to Peter Drucker by Jack Beatty and I’d say that worked out quite well.) 

One of the stunning facts about Leonardo was that he found out what he was good at (art) early on and got an apprenticeship with Verrocchio which was about as formal as his education got.  The rest as they say – is history. We also found out that some of the anatomical discoveries could have advanced science by decades, if not centuries according to one medical commentator.

So how was one person able to be so brilliant at so many different disciplines in just one lifetime?

The answer is we don’t really know but some more modern thinkers are beginning to suggest that nurturing our innate creativity and improving the educational focus on creativity might be a step in the right direction. Consider this story as told by Sir Ken Robinson.

“I heard this wonderful story of a 6-year-old girl. A teacher was doing a drawing lesson with a group of 6 yr olds. And there was a girl at the back of the class who rarely participated, was not very enthusiastic about school. But while she was in this drawing lesson she was completely absorbed with what she was doing.

The teacher went up to her and asked what are you drawing and the girl said I’m drawing a picture of God. And the teacher said but ‘nobody knows what God looks like.’

And the girl said: they will in a minute.

Isn’t that great? Of course what happens is that by the time they get to be 25 she’s lost all confidence in her conception of what God might look like because she will have had 20 years of people telling her that’s wrong or that’s not the right answer.

So here’s my point really. We are born with immense creative capacities. We systematically root them out of ourselves in the process of educating people and now business and national systems are desperate to re-in store creativity in all of our people.

The point is children are born with immense creative capacities, but they lose them by the time they are educated.”

The quote comes from Sir Ken Robinson who was speaking at a Principal Voices event held in Bejing in 2005 discussing the future of innovation and education and the role of creativity in that process. He continues…

“So innovation internally is absolutely vital. But at a national and global level it’s absolutely essential if we are to keep pace with the growth in jobs, if we are to keep pace with the cultural challenges that are being presented by these processes of innovation.

“Well one of the major ways that people think they can do this is through education and they are right, education is the biggest investment we can make in our own future. The problem as I see it as I go around is that most countries are making a mistake. The mistake is that they tend to believe that we can face the future simply by doing better what we did in the past, we just have to do more of it.

“Do you know in the next 30 years more people will pass through formal education worldwide than since the beginning of history. If you add them all up until now there will be more of them in the next 30 years. One spectacular consequence already is a tumbling decline in the value of qualifications.

In short  – we have educating our children for an industrial model world that is disappearing fast. My first year at university was 1977, when I studied Vietnamese Politics (very current at the time) and eventually law, arts  and business – however computer technology changed my life in early ’80′s and that was something I could not have studied even if I had wanted to. Fortunately – being a creative generalist by inclination I was able to leverage a very wide range of experiences into a new emerging sector. 

To quote Sir Ken again… (list of other recent articles by Sir Ken Robinson are here)

On the whole we are educating people as if we are still facing the industrial revolution – which by the way required a largely manual work force and a minority of people doing intellectual work which is why we had the system structured the way it was

Back in April, I wrote about TED and mentioned the Robinson video on “Do schools kill creativity?” – Unknown to me, Sir Ken had been keynote speaker at 8th World Convention of the International Confederation of Principals conference held in Auckland, earlier that month in front of 1200 school principals and educators from around the world.

(See also a post by Brian Sweeney over at NZ Edge TED Conference: Edge Experience)

Testimonial from ICP: “Thank you very much for your Keynote address at the ICP Convention 2007 in Auckland New Zealand. We were indeed privileged to have the opportunity to listen to speakers of such calibre as yourself, to be inspired and to learn from a presentation filled with wisdom, presented with humour and passion.

We have had many favourable comments from delegates who were inspired by your words. We know that your presence added so much to the success of the convention. ” (9 mb Audio of presentation Out of Our Minds here 77mins -will play in the browser)

Hopefully, this is a positive sign of change towards a more exciting and creative education.

Last word goes to a local renaissance man, Paul Reynolds in a piece where he scratches his head as he ponders the “Blueprint – Growing Auckland’s creative industries“.

Paul’s comments are very worth while  reading and thinking about. See McGOVERN ONLINE: Blueprint – Growing Auckland’s Creative Sector for more.

Buried away in there is a comment that every industry needs to be creative to move forward and I would agree but that seems to have been missed by the official document.

Sir Ken Robinson