Smart Steps

At the same time, there are serious red flags for society. The Internet is less controllable than governments might like, which threatens certain assumptions. Now we can be completely anonymous -- essentially licensing speech without responsibility. We've never had that in the world; it's always been possible to find out who said what.

What comes next? Here's a thought experiment: We've seen a tremendous increase in the production of Webcams, in the number of personal Web sites built, and in all things related to personal online publishing. When everyone is a Web publisher, what will they publish?

Eric Schmidt is CEO and chairman of Novell Inc. Prior to joining Novell Inc. in 1997, he spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems Inc., where he was chief technology officer. He has also been a member of the computer-science research staff at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Schmidt previously appeared in FC 25, June 1999 ("How to Manage Geeks").

Bill Shore

Founder and executive director
Share Our Strength
Washington, DC

I've learned that charitable intentions are not enough. We won't solve our problems that way. You can't just redistribute wealth -- you have to do more, teach more, grow more. You have to create new wealth: community wealth.

The first five years of the new economy have demonstrated that in striking ways. For our organization, it's been like being the only ones not invited to the party: The economy was booming, stock options were everywhere, the markets were open, and we weren't part of it in any way, shape, or form. The benefits didn't even "trickle down," in the old sense of the phrase. The new economy proved the notion that nonprofits have to find a place at the table by creating wealth and by gaining access to capital markets on their own. Nonprofits do have valuable assets. They have unique expertise, valuable proprietary knowledge, intellectual property -- all with commercial applications related to fields beyond what they're working on.

Money is a tool for building capacity. But wealth is only one path toward solving our problems, and creating wealth is only one lesson of the new economy.

Bill Shore (bshore@strength.org) is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength (SOS), a Washington, DC - based antihunger and antipoverty organization founded in the wake of the 1984 famine in Ethiopia. In 1997, Shore launched Community Wealth Ventures, a for-profit subsidiary of SOS, to provide strategic consulting services to corporations, foundations, and other nonprofits interested in creating community wealth. Shore previously appeared in FC 2, April 1996 ("The New Prophet of Nonprofits").

J.T. (Ted) Childs Jr.

Vice president
Global workforce diversity
IBM Corp.
Armonk, New York

In the past five years, I've realized that customers are the most powerful arbiters of workplace diversity. My effort to diversify the workforce has moved from being a moral imperative to being a strategic imperative -- shifting the conversation away from affirmative action and toward the marketplace. Morality yields goodwill, not good outcomes. Ultimately, promoting diversity is good for business.

I recently made this statement to government workers: "You're not the most powerful influence on equal-opportunity enforcement -- the marketplace is." I want managers to be driven primarily by the fear of losing customers who won't spend their money on a company with a reputation for unfair treatment. When driven by the almighty dollar, executives will do what's right. Don't underestimate the sound of "cha-ching." More than ever, your customers need to be able to look into your company and see people like themselves. Not just in the mail room or at the reception desk but at all levels of the organization. If your company's people don't look like your customers, then your customers might conclude that you're excluding people like them. Don't let them entertain that idea.

Ted Childs (childsjt@us.ibm.com) joined IBM in 1967 and is responsible for the company's workforce-diversity programs and policies. Childs previously appeared in FC 36, July 2000 ("Difference Is Power").