Is it really possible to make business cool in 2013?
The surprise answer is yes! Business is cooler now than it ever has been. I'm sure you know that already with all the buzzwords being tossed around like entrepreneurs, social good, and startups.
But what you may have not thought much about is why? Why is business suddenly cool again or I should say hot?
To a large degree, the answer lies in the financial crisis. You remember that little ole' catastrophe, don't you? Five years this month, the banking system in America collapsed due to the largest bankruptcy filing in the history of the world. That's not an exaggeration! The fourth largest global investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went belly up on September 15, 2008 threatening to take the world's fragile system of global credit down with it.
While investment banking's algorithms proved innately flawed as well as the human beings who relied on them, basic business 101 tools were found to have gone awry. The absence of "trust" in the mortgage securities and lending industry proved to be disastrous for the U.S. and global economies.
It proved once and for all that greed was not good at all for anyone except perhaps a handful of "lucky" bankers at the top of the heap. For the rest of the modern world as it teetered on economic collapse, only the U.S. government could save its people from bad business practices.
Suddenly post crisis, old-fashioned values like integrity and public good were back in style. It simply confirmed that despite high-tech financial innovations that modern business relies on, from mom & pops to global financial institutions, daily business is still based on trust. Four thousand years after the first international trade markets began in Ancient Babylon, individual honor and reliability continue to be the foundation for modern economic systems.
Half a decade after the devastating display of irresponsibility in the mortgage markets, American entrepreneurs are once again reinventing themselves. We are not transforming already existing financial systems, or retooling the fossil fuel industry, or overhauling century old corporations. Been there, done that. It's an exhausting use of wasted time to "convince" established institutions that have proven resistant to change to profit from doing good. They need us to show them how, by doing it ourselves. You really can teach old dogs new tricks, witnessing the gradual acceptance of the green economy is proof enough that yes, we can!
Instead, "we," meaning the socially good entrepreneurial community, are simply creating something wholly new away from systems that have shown themselves no longer adequate for modern needs.
This is happening in New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, Colorado, Boston, Florida, Washington D.C., Austin, Houston, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Ohio, Iowa, Berlin, London, Spain, South Africa, France, Brazil....just about everywhere in the world is changing the way they do business to do better, in fact, they are doing much better, by devoting their energies to doing good through what they do for a living every day.
An exciting new world is opening all of us up to new possibilities. No matter where you have been in this cycle- just starting out or doing business the 20th century way for decades, you can join the new movement for business for a better world. It's never too late to change, and never too early to begin.
This is the first post for a new blogging page I have set up in addition to the many articles I and my colleagues write for Good-B (Good Business New York: the network for social entrepreneurs) and Huffington Post Green, Impact and Small Business pages.
I will be posting here a couple of times weekly my thoughts and new trends as I see these develop. You can find tools, news, information and advice for entrepreneurs as well as consumers. I will also be co-posting awesome articles by business colleagues, thought leaders, and friends.
So please feel free to comment with any of your ideas and join the conversation - even if you see things differently. Respectful debate is healthy and good for all of us as we co-create a world that works better for everyone in this 21st century. Just remember the simple guidelines of no name calling or verbal abuse and your comments are encouraged! We are all in this together and everyone is welcome to share their thoughts on how business can be cool again by being good.
To share your ideas and blogs, just shoot me an email or add your ideas to the comment section.
Looking for to hearing from you and to creating a new Economy of Trust with you!
What does an Economy of Trust look like to you? We want to know...!
xoxo Monika!