Imagine my pleasant surprise then when after 25 hours of traveling by plane and bus to a small but beautiful community 3/4 the way down the spine of south Chile, just north of Patagonia, I found a vibrant, sophisticated, smart and highly motivated small city with a wealth of the essential ingredients needed to build a smart, creative, higher-wage economy.  I immediately jumped into numerous exploratory sessions with local entrepreneurs, community leaders and business people in the full range of smart sectors.  I left these meetings blown way by the energy, passion and dedication of the local business community and the local economic development professionals.   With the exceptional local guidance of Roberto Martinic, Director of Los Rios ARDP, and Fernando Marquez of Dalberg, we quickly discovered Valdivia had, in spades, the three essential ingredients needed for great things to happen: desire, leadership and assets.

Yesterday the 44th president of the United States was sworn into office.  His inspiring words, which touched all of us, were a call for renewal and for personal responsibility!  At ETG we are enthusiastically committed to actualizing his historic call to action.  We are ready to roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done.  We have partnered with leaders across the world who are working to ensure healthy, prosperous futures for their communities.  Sometimes they face barriers and challenges unimaginable to us in the United States, but, in Obama's words, they have kept thier eyes on the horizen and they have accomplished real transformation.  We are invigorated in our mission and we look forward to sharing our tools, our experience, and our resources with our clients and our colleagues around the world.

"For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do."

"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

Despite our current economic difficulties, the ETG team is looking forward to a new year!   We welcome our new president  and a new paradigm of economic development that holds sustainability as a core value.  If we can learn anything from this crisis, it's that long term, lasting improvements in quality of life and economic growth cannot be sacraficed for flashy short term gains. 

The economist magazine recently released a special Corporate Citizenship Research Report which found that businesses that are good "corporate citizens"  are also good at increasing thier bottom line.  ETG team member Kelli Pearson attended the conference and presents the following summary.

Summary of Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Conference
Sponsored by The Economist Magazine

The program started with a thorough introduction by Nick Holloway (Economist Intelligence Unit, Director for the Americas, Industry and Management Research) who presented some compelling results from a newly minted corporate citizenship research report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.   The economist research report was a good empirical and statistical overview, based on “the hypothesis that corporate citizenship can help improve the bottom line”.  According to the executive summary it has measurable tangible benefits—such as reducing waste and increasing energy efficiency—and more intangible benefits—such as improved employee pride, productivity, and loyalty, as well as brand health and reputation.  In order to maximize the benefits of corporate citizenship, the report found: there must be leadership and engagement at all hierarchical levels, but support and commitment from the top is crucial; there must be strong employee participation and buy-in; their must be clear measurements, tracking devices and goals, specifically financial metrics; Finally, there are significant financial advantages to forming partnerships with “non-traditional stakeholders” – i.e. public-private partnerships and alliances with NGOs and activist groups.

Overall, the focus of the conference emphasized a philosophical shift in corporate social responsibility (CSR) from “corporate philanthropy” to “corporate citizenship”; away from check writing, and towards a Michael Porter style concept of leveraging core competencies.  The essence of the “citizen” model is the core business concept of “expected return on investment” as applied to the world of philanthropy.  Whereas check writing is a hands-off approach, the new paradigm leads to more focus on strategy and engagement.   Basically, it is a strategic approach to achieving strategic goals beneficial to society as a whole, which simultaneously benefits the bottom line.  Several snappy catch phrases were tossed around to sum up the new concept, such as “doing well by doing good” (Kellie A McElhaney, Executive Director and Professor, Center for Responsible Business, Hass School of Business, University of California, Berkeley) and “a better way to bigger profits” (Ray C Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface).

Notably, throughout the conference there was an emphasis that everyone was in transition or “on a journey” towards sustainability –“it’s a market transition” said John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco.  Right now, he said, the market is open as never before to experimentation with sustainable innovations. John Demsey, Chairman, The MAC AIDS Fund (Estee Lauder) noted that there is a feeling of excitement and possibility in the air, and in this case, in the boardroom, that hasn’t been around since the 1969—which, he pointed out, was partly due to the tendency of hard times send people further towards their values. Ray C Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface agreed that we are all on a journey and his book “Changing Course Midstream” is partly a guide to help other executives gather the courage they need to start heading in the right direction.  He said that most people agree that something needs to change and that businesses need to start thinking sustainably, but that many people are scared to make the first steps.  He described social and environmental sustainability as the first two engines on a three-stage rocket, with profit at the tip.  Throughout the conference there was a palpable feeling of an emerging new vision of the corporate and business roll in the public and social landscape, encapsulated in the concepts of “citizenship” and “sustainability."

Link to report

Dr. Eric Hansen with Albanian President Bamia Topi after the Albinvest Retreat (25 October 2008)

Dr. Eric Hansen just returned from a successful leadership retreat for ALBINVEST in Albania.  The retreat resulted in great team building, significant increase in social capital, identification of key strengths and challenges, strategic planning, and breakthrough ideas and action initiatives.

One of the themes and guidelines for the Albinvest Retreat was “self-responsibility.”  Albinvest staff agreed at the onset that they would take personal responsibility to ensure that they accomplished their objectives for the retreat.  The retreat was a great opportunity to connect with other staff outside of the normal office context, vision and brainstorm breakthrough ideas, and set some new directions with the help of outside facilitation.

Excerpt from the Report of Recommendations and Next Steps:

The Albinvest Team Building Retreat was held on October 23-25, 2008 in Vlore, Albania.  Twenty-two Albinvest staff members attended and the retreat was hosted by Diana Leka, Project Manager of the EC-UNDP Regional Trade & New Investment to Albania project, and facilitated by Dr. Eric Hansen, President of the Economic Transformations Group, Inc.

The purpose of the retreat was to create the context for Albinvest team building, review of Albinvest’s operational program, key achievements, operation contraints, and result in the development of the elements of a vision and roadmap for Albinvest going forward.  During the retreat, numerous sessions were conducted to: 

    (i) Review of strategy in each department - what has worked and why? What are the key lessons learned? Understanding organizational priorities. 

   (ii) Review of roles and responsibilities within each department. Understanding of information and communications flow across departments. 

   (iii) Review of roles and relations including information and communications flow with third parties including Government Departments concerned with FDI, Industrial Zones and Export Promotion; and other stakeholders including Chambers of Commerce.

Overall, the retreat resulted in the following:
•    A more positive “esprit de corps” among Albinvest staff
•    A vision of Albinvest as an organization in the future
•    Improved understanding of where to improve lines of communication and teamwork
•    Improved clarity of Albinvest‘s strategic priorities
•    Improved understanding of individual staff roles
•    The capability to build an action plan that will enable Albinvest to fulfill its duties and be more productive