andreasw | The Pope and the CEO

Four Principles for Effective Negotiation

Every business person and entrepreneur negotiates as part of his or her job. It’s a daily task. But most of us have never been trained in negotiation. That can easily be changed. Start by reading “Getting To Yes,” by Fisher and Ury. When it comes to negotiation theory, I don’t think there’s a better book on the market. You can find the book on Amazon. If you want to get your whole company familiar with the four principles you may want to hire a firm to do some training on the topic (I’ve used Mediation Works Inc. with great success,) or you can start by reading a summary of it (A good one done Tanya Glaser at the Conflict Research Consortium) Their four principles are: 1) Separate the people from the problem; 2) Focus on interests rather than positions; 3) Generate a variety of options before settling on an agreement; and 4) Insist that the agreement be based on objective criteria. [p. 11] These principles should be observed at each stage of the negotiation process. The process begins with the analysis of the situation or problem, of the other parties’ interests and perceptions, and of the existing options. The next… Read more
The brand, the package, the story and the worldview

I have seen countless great products that do not sell due to bad packaging. Especially products from startups or emerging markets suffer from this: All the effort goes into the product and the packaging is a mere afterthought and does not do justice to the story behind the product – it does not tell the story to the potential buyer. Seth Godin recently had a great blog post on this very topic. Here are some of my favorite excerpts: Madecasse has a lot going for it. It’s delicious chocolate. It’s made in Africa (the only imported chocolate made on the continent with local beans). The guys who make it are doing good work and are nice as well. The question I asked them is, “does your packaging do its job?” I don’t think the job of packaging is to please your boss. I think you must please the retailer, but most of all, attract and delight and sell to the browsing, uncommitted new customer. …among people who haven’t bought, but might, understand that every one of them starts with a worldview. What are the beliefs and expectations and biases they have about the world? …no package can optimize for all… Read more
Essay Competition for Faith Based Enterprise Solutions To Poverty

We at the SEVEN Fund have just announced our latest essay competition: The S.E.VEN Fund (SEVEN) is pleased to announce its 2010-11 Essay Competition in partnership with the Washington DC-based Center For Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA). We are seeking essays on enterprise solutions to poverty from around the globe that are faith-based, faith-inspired, or interfaith efforts. The competition will award two (2) prizes of US $5,000. The submission deadline is October 15, 2010 at midnight Eastern Standard Time (EST). Winners will be announced on December 15, 2010. I encourage everyone to either compete in this or to send this to someone whose story you think should be told. I hope that the contributions will result in a wonderful book on this topic.
What things are most important to you?

I just came across some notes I took at a presentation I attended in the 90’s. I don’t remember where it was and exactly when, but I really like the ideas and wanted to share them with you. The speaker was Elisabeth Gibson-Mayer, and here are my notes: I ask people to draw a circle and then to divide it into pieces, using the following question as a guide: What things are most important to you? Then I ask them to create a pie chart around the question: How do you spend your time? I usually find a big gap between what people say is important to them, and what they actually do with their time. That gap sets up the equation that we then have to solve: What are you happy with? What are you unhappy with? What can we do to close that gap? What are some examples of situations in which you said no to a work request? No to a project assignment? No to a business trip? What are some examples of situations in which you said no to requests outside of work? What prompted you to say no? What did it feel like to say… Read more
What is Poverty? What is Prosperity?

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. Mother Teresa
Cool Business

The key to economic prosperity is to build a sustainable, growing business. Here is a story I read in an essay by Roland Hoksbergen, an economist from Calvin College, that describes the power of a scalable business model in emerging markets: (The book is called, “Economic Justice in a Flat World: Christian Perspectives on Globalization,” Edited by Steven L. Rundle, Paternoster 2009, 201-221. The essay is entitled “Transformational Development: The Role of Christian NGOs in SME Development.”) “Madame Lefèvre began a small Popsicle business in Haiti about ten years ago. She began with one freezer and sold out of her house. Today, she operates a business with 22 freezers, 40 employees in the factory and 500 merchants. Through this business, Mme. Lefèvre has affected her community by creating jobs that sustain hundreds of families in Port-au-Prince. Empowering others through employment, Mme. Lefèvre has helped individuals rise from poverty through work. When poor people knock on her door and ask for money, Mme. Lefèvre gives them some Popsicles and tells them to go out and sell. The next day they pay for a new load of Popsicles from their sales the day before. Of her over 500 merchants, most arrive each… Read more