Friday, February 24, 2006
When is Partnering Worth It?
After winning an award for life achievement in music, Carlos Santana was interviewed by a TV reporter. Each time the reporter asked about a highlight in his career, Santana described the admirable behavior of another musician or friend or family member.
In closing the interview, the reporter asked, "After all these years and all the kinds of music you've played, what is the legacy for which you are most proud, Carlos?" Santana leaned toward the reporter with a warm smile on his face and replied, "I am becoming the people I love."
As I write this entry; much of the week's news is dire.
Mass killing and rape continue in Sudan (http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3057008); AIDS is still spreading at an alarming rate, especially in Africa and for women (http://www.aids2004.org); a new study shows air pollution is affecting some ocean animals' ability to make the calcium for their shells (http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2261.htm). I could go on.
Yet, rather than turning off the news, turn on to some small way you can "become" the people you love -- or admire.
Even speaking out about the actions you admire, as Santana did, is encouraging one kind of behavior over another -- in others and in one's self.
Here are four remarkable organizations that have forged practical partnerships to leverage their capacity to serve, bringing out the better side in all participants:
~ ApproTEC
More than 35,000 poor families in East Africa have used ApproTEC
technologies to start profitable businesses that are generating over $37 million per year in new profits and wages and enabling the families to feed and educate their children and escape their poverty.
Here's one snapshot of their approach. ApproTEC secured funding from USAID to promote their micro-irrigation pumps in Mali -- a very poor country in West Africa. Their partner, SC Johnson, is supporting ApproTEC to market the pumps to pyrethrum farmers in rural Kenya. SC Johnson is the world's largest user of pyrethrum, a natural eco-friendly pesticide grown by 200,000 very poor farmers in Kenya.
By using the pumps, the farmers will be able to dramatically increase their yields and their incomes. Newest board member Jeffrey Brewer (founder of CitySearch.com and GoTo.com) is helping take the ApproTEC "business" model to scale (http://www.approtec.org).
~ Cause Marketing Forum gives annual "halo" awards to the best business/nonprofit programs and hosts a wealth of meetings, seminars, and articles on how nonprofits and businesses can work better together. Get their ezine, "Cause Marketing Today" (http://www.causemarketingforum.com).
~ Community Wealth Ventures helps nonprofit organizations become more self-sustaining by generating revenue through business ventures and SmartPartnerships with companies.
They also help companies improve their bottom line through the design and implementation of community investment strategies (http://www.communitywealth.org).
~ To make it easier for blind and dyslexic people to download and listen to books and seminars, Audible (http://www.audible.com) and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (http://www.rfbd.org) joined forces to make Audible's services easier for them to use.
Over the past decade, my passion for partnering has grown. I've seen the right partners, with the right method, accomplish extraordinary feats and deepen their admiration for each other as a consequence. Some partnerships enabled smaller businesses to out-market much bigger competition. Others have catapulted a cause into global attention.
Still others have cultivated deeper, more diverse business and community ties.
If you'd like to learn exactly how to forge a SmartPartnership, get my newest book. It's called _SmartPartnering: How to Delight and Service More Consumers While Spending Less_ -- and the free tools listed inside are easily worth more than five times the $20 cost of the book.
I personally guarantee that it will help any manager of any kind or size of
business, nonprofit, or government group craft a strategy to expand their visibility and value.
In closing the interview, the reporter asked, "After all these years and all the kinds of music you've played, what is the legacy for which you are most proud, Carlos?" Santana leaned toward the reporter with a warm smile on his face and replied, "I am becoming the people I love."
As I write this entry; much of the week's news is dire.
Mass killing and rape continue in Sudan (http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3057008); AIDS is still spreading at an alarming rate, especially in Africa and for women (http://www.aids2004.org); a new study shows air pollution is affecting some ocean animals' ability to make the calcium for their shells (http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2261.htm). I could go on.
Yet, rather than turning off the news, turn on to some small way you can "become" the people you love -- or admire.
Even speaking out about the actions you admire, as Santana did, is encouraging one kind of behavior over another -- in others and in one's self.
Here are four remarkable organizations that have forged practical partnerships to leverage their capacity to serve, bringing out the better side in all participants:
~ ApproTEC
More than 35,000 poor families in East Africa have used ApproTEC
technologies to start profitable businesses that are generating over $37 million per year in new profits and wages and enabling the families to feed and educate their children and escape their poverty.
Here's one snapshot of their approach. ApproTEC secured funding from USAID to promote their micro-irrigation pumps in Mali -- a very poor country in West Africa. Their partner, SC Johnson, is supporting ApproTEC to market the pumps to pyrethrum farmers in rural Kenya. SC Johnson is the world's largest user of pyrethrum, a natural eco-friendly pesticide grown by 200,000 very poor farmers in Kenya.
By using the pumps, the farmers will be able to dramatically increase their yields and their incomes. Newest board member Jeffrey Brewer (founder of CitySearch.com and GoTo.com) is helping take the ApproTEC "business" model to scale (http://www.approtec.org).
~ Cause Marketing Forum gives annual "halo" awards to the best business/nonprofit programs and hosts a wealth of meetings, seminars, and articles on how nonprofits and businesses can work better together. Get their ezine, "Cause Marketing Today" (http://www.causemarketingforum.com).
~ Community Wealth Ventures helps nonprofit organizations become more self-sustaining by generating revenue through business ventures and SmartPartnerships with companies.
They also help companies improve their bottom line through the design and implementation of community investment strategies (http://www.communitywealth.org).
~ To make it easier for blind and dyslexic people to download and listen to books and seminars, Audible (http://www.audible.com) and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (http://www.rfbd.org) joined forces to make Audible's services easier for them to use.
Over the past decade, my passion for partnering has grown. I've seen the right partners, with the right method, accomplish extraordinary feats and deepen their admiration for each other as a consequence. Some partnerships enabled smaller businesses to out-market much bigger competition. Others have catapulted a cause into global attention.
Still others have cultivated deeper, more diverse business and community ties.
If you'd like to learn exactly how to forge a SmartPartnership, get my newest book. It's called _SmartPartnering: How to Delight and Service More Consumers While Spending Less_ -- and the free tools listed inside are easily worth more than five times the $20 cost of the book.
I personally guarantee that it will help any manager of any kind or size of
business, nonprofit, or government group craft a strategy to expand their visibility and value.
