Fireign Blog

The old saying goes, “give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” This same principle applies when looking at how corporations invest in philanthropy. Corporate social responsibility is defined many ways. For the purpose of this article, we will define it as the duty of a corporation to create wealth in ways that avoid harm to, protect, or enhance societal assets. There are thousands upon thousands of products manufactured worldwide, and with the rise of the industrial revolution they have come to be manufactured all over the globe. Unfortunately, this often results in extremely poor working conditions and even child labor. We have seen problems with this arise with such respected companies as Nike and Apple. Neither the company nor the consumer pays for these external human costs, but they are greatly affecting the way labor industries are operated in developing countries.

However, we have also seen that once these problems are brought to the attention of the public, they are rapidly fixed (or at least in the form of public relations and perception) and life goes on. Apple is now leading the way as they are ramping up their corporate philanthropy. But what about Tom’s Shoes or Ethos Water? These are companies that are giving back to the global communities by donating a pair of shoes for every shoe purchased, or giving a nickel for every bottle of water bought by a consumer. These ideas are great and full of good intentions, but they are only giving a man a fish. New waves of businesses are coming to fruition and are practicing sustainability in the supply chain, teaching that same man to fish.

Take The Naked Hippie for example. This is a company that sells organic screen-printed tee shirts. Their profits are then recycled back into the developing countries where their tee shirts are manufactured and designed. In fact, they are actually creating micro-loans that are given to women to start their own tee shirt businesses that are then incorporated into The Naked Hippie. Then there is Sole Hope, a company that provides shoes for children and jobs for unemployed adults. They train adults in the trade of shoemaking and pay them fair wages for their work. Sole Hope works with volunteers around the country to cut patterns for shoes from fabric and denim and rubber bicycle tires (for the soles). Those pre-cut patterns are then given to trained shoemakers in Africa who sew the shoes together and the Sole Hope team distributes them to children around
Africa.

These are both great examples of companies that are not only profitable, but they are reducing the high costs of improper human labor as well as providing a sustainable economic environment for these developing countries to grow. It is nearly impossible for any laws or regulations to be set that will reduce these external costs on a global scale. However, as companies continue to create sustainable supply chains, and consumers continue to become educated on the importance of the global economy, we will see that not only does it make sense from an ethical point of view to run businesses in this manner, but it will become a source of profitability and growth in the world of the corporations.

Perhaps you’ve heard this story before, so bare with me. A man was once granted one wish by a genie. He wished to see Heaven and Hell. The genie showed him two doors. He asked the man to open the first door to see Hell. It was a beautiful room that sparkled with gold and in the middle of the room was a table with a feast fit for a king. However all of the silverware was 6 feet long and everyone sitting at the table looked sickly and ill as if they were withering away. They could not feed themselves with such long silverware. Disgusted, the man turned away and asked the genie to now see Heaven. The genie pointed to the other door and the man opened it with haste. To his astonishment, the room looked the exact same, with the same feast and the same silverware, however the people looked fat and happy and full. He turned to the genie and said, “I don’t understand. The two rooms are identical but one is full of ugly, sickly beings and the other is full of beautiful, happy people?” The genie replied, “In the first room no one speaks to each other and they are selfish trying to hoard the feast to themselves. In the second room, they have learned to feed each other.” This idea explains perfectly the idea of “fit” when investors are assessing which social entrepreneurs they will be investing in.

Just as every business idea is different, so is every entrepreneur. For every product, every service, and every market, there are different sets of circumstances that lead to ultimate success. Different markets call for different company cultures and values in order to triumph. These are parts of the company that are generally created by the founding team. In fact, the company values are often a reflection of the founding teams’ values, and the culture of the company an expression of the beliefs of that team of how the business should be run. Thus, the investor needs to be able to not only assess the social business idea and the team, but the possibility of success that team has in the sought after market. Although one single candidate type cannot be perfect for all investments, investors generally almost always admire certain characteristics:

• Passion
• Brains, guts, and vision of the leader
• Coach-ability
• Judgment
• Charisma
• Commitment
• Empathy
• Integrity
• Optimism

As we have all undoubtedly seen before, business plans are a constantly evolving beast. They never appear as we first picture them too. There are a million business plan templates to help you write your own business plan, probably one to match each of the equally large number of great business ideas that are born every day. The key to unlocking the potential of each of these ideas though, lies with the entrepreneurial team behind it. Without a team in place that can see the changes that need to be made to the product/service, the process, or even the changes happening in the marketplace, it will be impossible to remold the social venture plan into one that breed’s success. When deciding what’s more important in terms of “the Horse or the Rider,” the Rider will always win out, as it is the Rider that trains the horse and makes the judgment calls on the track. There are many obstacles along the race that require much more complex solutions than just being the fastest and most passionate. When is the best time to make a move to pass a competitor? What adjustments need to be made when the weather turns? And even when is it time to try entering a different race? These are questions whose answers are vital to the success of the race, and only the Rider can answer them.

Of course it is always the case that entrepreneurs wish to be profitable. However by profitable, I am not only referring to the amount of revenue minus costs that their firm accrues, but by the measures of success the entrepreneur has set forth before executing the social venture. If the vision is strong and the entrepreneurial team carries out their business plan from an objective view, making changes when needed and shifting into markets best suited for the venture, then they should rest easy that high revenues will not be far behind. No entrepreneur puts the high stress on his or her self that is involved with the creation of a new venture without the basic motivation to see it succeed and become profitable. Therefore it would be foolish to think that “profitability” is the most important motivation of any entrepreneur. It instead should be a mutually understood concept by both the founder and the investor.

A friend of mine once told me that passion is the fire that drives success. Without fire the water would never boil. That is why this is the first characteristic looked for by most investors. This however, cannot be the driving factor in choosing to make an investment in the entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur has different ideas, plans, goals, and visions. These all create their motivations for success. Some want to be rich, some believe their idea solves a vital problem in the world, and some even just like the idea of being successful. As an artist delicately paints a blank canvas to show the world the picture in their head, so too must an entrepreneur be able to paint his business model in the form of his vision. Thus, the most important motivation an entrepreneur must possess is the drive to share their vision and the ability to motivate others to follow it.

From a list of natural disasters to a historic uprising in the Middle East, 2011 had no shortage of news stories, many of which had large global social and economic impacts. As we look forward to a new year with a CSR lens, here are 9 stories and trends that we believe will shape 2012.

1. Legislation brings CSR to the forefront

Several states, including California, Washington, New York and Michigan, have passed or are moving to pass legislation that would allow businesses to be set up as hybrid for-profit & non-profit companies, called a B Corp. B Corps are designed to help leverage business power to solve social and environmental problems. If nothing else, the legislation is sure to bring CSR to the forefront of consumers’ minds, perhaps a response to a growing consumer demand for high accountability and responsibility for businesses.

2. Slow year for donations – political campaigns

As if donations haven’t been hurt by the recession enough, the presidential elections in 2012 are likely to have an impact on public & private donations to non-profits as many donations will be headed to fund a poorly produced political commercial, coming soon to a TV near you.

3. Transparency, measurement & accountability

While many cities and businesses have made large strides to become more socially and environmentally responsible over the past several years, a lack of national and international measurement criteria and standards have made it difficult to gauge progress. This has resulted in a greater demand for transparency with businesses in their practices. Although not required by law, in 2011, more than 3,000 companies, and 404 Global 500 firms, reported carbon emissions, water management and climate change policies to the Carbon Disclosure Project who is investing more than $71 trillion into these businesses. The International Organization for Standardization also released the ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems, a giant step in creating international standards for the measurement and reporting of energy consumption. Furthermore, with the amount of information available through the web and social networks, businesses have too much to lose, too quickly, to let a scandal hit the Twitterverse. All of this 2011 progress points towards more transparency, measurement and accountability for businesses in 2012.

4. Alternative energy heats up – Solar gaining on wind

Despite a not so small government investment snafu <cough>, solar energy grew in 2011 and will continue to do so in 2012. There was a surge (pun intended) of utility-based installations between the second and third quarters of 2011, as well as a growth in installations at commercial properties. While technology improvements, supply and incentives will all play a role in the adoption of solar technology in 2012, the future for solar power looks bright.

5. Integrating CSR into business values

While CSR at many businesses has lived in a silo over the past few years, it will begin to creep its way into all aspects of company culture (where it should be). Through pro bono work and skills-based volunteering, businesses will seek to make CSR a part of their company culture, as well as use the opportunities to build knowledge and skills within their organization. IBM has 145,000 employees performing community service globally with many of those using their specific discipline skills to give back, and many large and small businesses are adapting CSR goals as part of their corporate values.

6. Social Entrepreneurship

Part of why I love staying involved in the entrepreneur community is because trends with start-ups always forecast emerging business trends. The trend of social entrepreneurship is hard to ignore. In fact, all three of Entrepreneur magazines Entrepreneurs of the Year run business with social missions, including Lee Rhodes at Glassybaby, who donates 7% of sales, over $650,000 to date, to various organizations, and Gabrielle Palermo, who is helping turn unused shipping containers into medical units in developing countries.

7. Violence up

While not a positive trend, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that violence and crime will be up in 2012. While 2011 ended with some positive economic notes, there are still 46.2 million Americans living below the official poverty line with one in seven relying on food stamps. Additionally, the new spark of public activism that ignited in 2011 is likely to continue into 2012, and while, all things considered, Occupy and similar movements have been relatively peaceful, there are many signs, including several police confrontations to date, that with large crowds of angry, desperate people, comes violent behavior (I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, or that it’s anyone’s fault. It’s just a frequent unfortunate reality).

8. Volunteerism up

Due to the high unemployment rate, we will likely see a rise in volunteerism in 2012 as individuals seek to use their free time to give back or, more importantly, use their volunteer opportunities as a chance to build valuable experience, resume highlights and a professional network

9. A shift in outsourcing

With the development of a middle class in China and India, as well as gas prices that have remained high, it is likely we will see a shift in manufacturing over the next several years, both bringing jobs back into the USA as well as outsourcing to new countries that offer cheap labor, including parts of South America and Africa.

Happy New Year from everyone at Fireign. As we reflect upon an exciting year in 2011, we look forward to the exciting things to come in 2012. #BeEpic

We’re all for creating ways for businesses and people to find success through doing good, so we were exceptionally excited to see the recent launch of Give To Get Jobs, a job search engine and website dedicated to helping individuals find cause-related jobs at for-profit businesses. Founded by Betsey Epstein and member of the Fireign family, Stacy McCoy, this mother-daughter duo is doing more than helping to reduce our unemployment rate but will also be donating portions of all paid job postings.

Headquartered out of Beverly Hills, CA, http://www.givetogetjobs.com is accessible to job seekers and socially responsible businesses all around the world. “From a startup perspective, this is the perfect time to get involved,” Stacy said. “Our job board helps individuals find “for-profit” jobs with a social mission and the social enterprise movement is taking off in the United States along with the rise in female owned businesses. Both my mother and I are happy to be developing a female owned startup that is impacting society in various ways.”

From an employee perspective, we’re personally excited about this unique opportunity to help find highly qualified job candidates in this increasingly convoluted job space. We hope other businesses out there seeking employees for CSR roles share our enthusiasm. If you are a job seeker, socially responsible employer or if you simply want to learn more about corporate social responsibility, social enterprise and Give To Get Jobs, please visithttp://www.givetogetjobs.com or contact (617) 775-6543.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”

-Henry David Thoreau

I recently finished reading a great memoir, Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which inspired this blog post. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and after moving from Somalia to Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia to Kenya she finally landed in Holland. Ayaan was able to gain refugee status and eventually earned her Dutch citizenship after running away from an arranged marriage. In Holland she studied politics and ended up being elected as a member of the Dutch Parliament. She actually became a household name throughout Europe. Of course here in the United States the news didn’t travel that far, at least I had no idea who she was and I felt like I should have known her name. She was a strong force in Dutch Parliament fighting for women’s rights, in particular Muslim women’s rights. One of her platforms struck a chord with me and really made me think.

Holland is a very liberal and open country. When they started granting refugee status to a large number of Muslims the Dutch let them form their own communities instead of forcing assimilation. However, as someone who grew up in these communities, Ayaan noticed that a lot of the violations of human rights, in particular women’s rights, that were happening in Africa and the Middle East were continuing to happen in these small communities in Holland. Young girls were still being circumcised behind closed doors, honor killings were still taking place, and domestic violence was a growing problem. Ayaan pushed parliament to research just how engrained these violent religious roots ran and unveiled that an alarming number of social injustices were being allowed to take place due to the formation of separate communities and schools. She lobbied for integration and assimilation and for this to fully happen Muslim schools had to be disbanded.

Often as Westerners who are “liberal” and champion human rights I think we feel that assimilation is a negative thing because it forces people to give up their own culture in the process. But when that culture has a particularly violent history, is it wrong to request a group of people to give it up in the name of assimilation? Another thing we tend to shy away from is labeling cultures or religions as violent for fear of wrongly stereotyping or appearing prejudice. But when the holy texts are particularly violent and the religion tends to follow the text literally, is it wrong to label the religion as itself as the producer of human rights violations? Ayaan had to go into hiding because of the death threats she received for speaking out against Islam and Muslim communities in Holland. A dear friend and director who worked on a documentary with her, Theo van Gogh, was even brutally assassinated for their work together. Ironically enough many of the death threats she received were from Muslims who were offended because she denounced Islam for its violent tendencies.

There is no doubt that Islamic culture has produced communities with violent tendencies. And if a culture is violent and clashes with Universal Human Rights ideals that we in the West often strive for, is it violating those basic human rights to ask them to give that culture up? I’m personally am not ready to answer that question myself, but I can thank Ayaan for pushing me to truly examine all sides of an issue.

Absolutely beautifully written article: How to walk on water. Check it out!

Being unemployed (like me) gives you a lot of time for introspection. It also tests your self-esteem, since much of our identity is wrapped up in what we do for a living (as opposed to how we live our lives, how we treat others, or how we act when no one is watching). For now, what I do everyday consists of sleeping too late, Facebooking too much, and networking too little; thus, my sense of self importance has been trimmed like fat from a Thanksgiving turkey to reveal a frighteningly simple portrait of who I really am—just a young man in search of his “true path” (though not so much in the romantic Paulo Coelho kind of way, more in the regular old hand-in-the-underwear couch potato way). Consequently, I have been asking myself a lot lately, “How can I feel more consequential (in the “save the world” sense, of course) even when what I do every day doesn’t amount to a hill of beans?”

The following five steps are my answers to this question (so far). They came to me in a dream one night and, I dare say, might be the universe speaking to you through me…OK, I was really just procrastinating in sending another cover letter, one which I hoped might actually be answered by a live human being on the other end who would realize that, although I don’t have “8-10 years of substantive work experience in the field of [fill in the blank],” I am perfect for the job: smart, nice, hard working…

I’m not sure if these five steps will work for you. If you already have a sweet job with the Obama Administration, good for you. But for the rest of you soul-searching, do-gooders trying to fill the vacuum that exists between your last great adventure and the next, I hope this helps pass the time and invites to share your ideas!

Step 1. Stop talking and listen more, especially to those who disagree with you (Obama says so). Try it for one whole day. Do it when you see your significant others, when you are instant messaging, emailing, or calling an old friend. Do it on your next date, in your next interview, when your boss is breathing down your neck. Do it when you are alone in the quiet of your own consciousness (be careful, you might hear something you don’t like). Now, turn on Rush Limbaugh and try it some more. Breathe deeply, nod, and repeat, “That is so interesting. He is sooo insightful.” Soon, you’ll realize that listening saves energy; and people mistake your stoicism for intelligence, your shyness for mysteriousness. Silence = more friends, less drama.

Step 2. Stop judging and think less. Just empathize (i.e. put yourself in another’s place) throughout the whole day. Do it with that rude cashier, that pushy subway rider, that whiny friend, your dog that just crapped on the carpet, the nagging voice in your own head. Then do something random to make those people smile. For a moment, you’ll feel unattached to life’s trivialities, “above the fray” of the rat race. You’ll appear charming, even enlightened. Some people will secretly think you are an angel. You may begin to radiate light from your head.

Step 3. Learn a shocking new fact from Google each day and use it to scare your friends out of complacency. “Did you know that an area of arctic ice twice the size of the UK just melted this past week; at this rate it will be totally free of ice by about 2030?” The cocktail party guests will gasp in disbelief. The guy bragging about his BMW will look silly. You’ll look brilliant. You might even pull a Sharon Stone ala Davos 2005.

Step 4. Advocate by testing your social network. Instead of forwarding that stupid chain mail to avoid seven years of bad luck, find a new cause on Facebook or Change.org and see how many people you can get to join your cause, how many signatures you can gather, how much money you can raise, etc. in one week. Write: “Dear Friends, this is really important to me and to the world. If you love me, please join/sign/donate.” Hit send. See what happens. You will feel like a change agent, once again, a citizen soldier, a crusader for good. Don’t freak out if no one answers.

Step 5. Express yourself. Think Madonna but with less pantsuit/lingerie combos and more ink. I mean, write something, silly! Anything. Start your own blog and make wild, unsubstantiated claims about the state of the world, propose impossible solutions to unwieldy problems, announce yourself as the expert on some obscure subject and invite discussion. No, really. Just sit down, stare out the window, write down exactly what you see. Now close your eyes and write what you feel—simple, unadulterated, honest feelings. Then, write down what you want from life—not what you “should” or “could” or “would”, but what you really want (e.g. I want to start my own NGO. I want to travel to India. I want to be a wealthy philanthropist. I want to inspire people…and get paid for it). Finally, write down ten things you can this week to start getting there. Writing allows us to name (and thus own) the space in our lives (oooh, that’s deep). Don’t try to be good at it (I’m obviously not!), just be descriptive. Give yourself a gold star.  Now, you’re a writer. Don’t you feel good?

So, let’s recap: Listen. Empathize. Learn. Advocate. Express. After 29 years and two really expensive degrees, that’s all I got for ya. It won’t get us a job in this economy, but it might help us feel a bit more important and lot more engaged while we’re waiting for an answer to those damn cover letters.