I’m reading one of the most lucid business books I’ve come across in quite some time.
It’s Out of Poverty by Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises. In it, Polak outlines a number of compelling reasons why businesses must consider the burgeoning market of the world’s other 90 percent – the percentage of the world’s population that is poor. I’d recommend reading the book to learn first-hand about the practical ideas he offers that I believe would present viable approaches for any business — from socially-directed organizations to corporate multinationals. In Out of Poverty, Polak identifies a “don’t bother” list, and I think this might be an effective idea for addressing all kinds of business challenges that we are faced with every day.
Remember, Polak focuses on increasing wealth for billions of the world’s poor, so imagine the list you could come up with that would help zoom in on what matters most at your business, organization, team, or family, for that matter. This approach brings what’s important into laser-like focus, and, I believe, elicits the emotion and passion that initiates action.
For example, if Human Resources tells you they can’t find the “right talent” or qualified “diversity” candidates to include in their recruitment outreach, tell them:
1.Don’t bother if you’re going to sit in your office making fruitless phone calls, instead of meeting with organizations, events, individuals, and generally being creative about identifying the highly talented folks that do in fact exist.
(On the “diversity” issue, for example, a simple conversation with any existing employee of color on staff, could easily offer a few avenues to pursue, or even actual names of several qualified candidates.)
Here’s another:
2. Don’t bother claiming “we value our customers” when calls to the “customer care” department gets me directed to endless press-this-or-that-number. Or after you’ve paid your hard-earned money in exchange for goods from a store, the check-out person waits for you to thank him or her.