I was recently invited to Vietnam to participate as an Investment Consultant on behalf of potential large scale North American investors to review a development project in Yen Tu, Vietnam, a place of pilgrimage for Vietnamese Buddhists. My consultancy work in the area of investment and development is based on a simple philosophy: If it isn’t good for the world, it isn’t good for the courtry either. Coupled with a recent course on sustainability the whole effort had me pondering the best ways to encourage and increase sustainable international development which aids a country in reducing poverty without taxing the planet’s resources.

Development has the potential to do harm but can also be used to do good if it addresses the local needs in a sustainable way. But even high standards such as LEEDs doesn’t guarantee that the results will be positive. On the other hand, using investment opportunities such as Yen Tu to encourage Sustainable Development and the use of LEEDs standards will certainly help to create skills for the future. It increases local expertise related to sustainable building practices, especially when the work is performed primarily by local developers. And it ensures that newly acquired expertise stays local and gets used on future building projects.

From an investment perspective, one way is to encourage sustainable development is to share methods and approaches through active program participation, collaboration and educational programs which allow for project participates to learn new sustainable techniques, always bearing in mind that we can also learn something from the local participants. Some investors are interested only in getting a good return on investment and less interested in how the development work actually gets done. Savvy investors recognize that sustainable building practices bring higher returns, especially when looking a long term value of the project. (If you happen to have access to a few hundred million you’d like to invest, feel free to call me and I’d be happy to direct you on how to invest in this or other projects in Vietnam. After all, there is a very satisfying feeling when you invest in a project that makes a difference in the world while earning you a reasonable rate of return.) Given a secure revenue stream, which the Yen Tu project certainly promises (see details below), long term profits will always be higher when operating expenses are reduced, a natural outcome of lower energy and resource costs. It’s simple math.

» Continue reading “Sustainable International Development”

When I first met Susan McLennan, she was one of three speakers at a Life Entrepreneurship forum. As soon as I heard Susan speak, I knew that she was someone I wanted to learn more about.

The speakers before and after Susan told of their life stories, how they came upon some incredible personal hardships, how they overcame their hardships, what they learned, how they had subsequently built successful businesses and how they could help us in doing the same. They were terrific speakers and I truly enjoyed them.

But Susan took a very different approach. She started her presentation with just a sentence or two about her own background, quickly brushed past that part of the presentation, and went on to the story of her work as a PR specialist with her company Babble On Communications. » Continue reading “Susan McLennan, Sustainability, Social Justice and a PR Specialist’s Perspective”

(Re-published from April 17, 2008)

My recent ventures took be the the annual meeting of the CBBF (Canadian Baha’i Business Forum) where I was previously honoured with the opportunity to serve as a member of the board. The CBBF is an organization which promotes the principles of:

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Sustainable Development
• Gender Equality in the work place
• Value Based Leadership
• Ethical business practices
• Consultative Decision making
• A New paradigm of work

One of our invited speakers for the CBBF Annual conference was David Patterson, CEO of Northwater Capital Management, an asset management organization with $8.5 Billion under management which specializes in handling large investments such as pensions and utilizes it’s “market neutral fund of hedge funds”.

The conference theme was “Doing Well by Doing Good: an application of Values Based Leadership”.

David was understated and yet inspirational in his presentation and shared a number of concepts that were divergent from standard organizational theory.

He shared the notion that doing good for the whole system (world, community, organization and family) rather than self focus was strongly encouraged in his organization. The fundamentals of his approach – what’s good for the system is good for the individuals in the system and not necessarily the other way around. While it is difficult to accurately articulate his presentation, as much of it was supported by images of the Northwater working environment and it’s employees participating in world supporting and family events, he also based his assumption and methods on the success that his organization has acheived by using this approach.

In addition to the support of world and community, the company encourages open consultation through the elimantion of status based work spaces, even David has the same desk as other employees, and they frequently call random members into consultations to get alternate points of view.

David’s talk should be one of those talks presented at the TED conference where new and inspirational ideas are presented in many fields of endeavor. There are many companies that could benefit from his leadership model.

Garth Schmalenberg
Executive / Relationship Coach