One of my favourite Saturday morning programs is Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue on ABC Radio National.
Saturday morning, the 16th of February 2008, she was talking to Don Watson, one time speechwriter for former prime minister Paul Keating, and these days author and the expert you turn to for discussions regarding the English language.
Don’s best selling book ‘Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words, and Management Speak Are Strangling Public Language' stays on the best seller list.
As one reviewer aptly points out, “He takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, the buzzwords like valued customers, the weasel words like downsizing, reengineering, and the incessant cant that politicians speak to us and to each other in, with their clichéd, impenetrable, lifeless babble.”
Geraldine and Don were discussing Kevin Rudd’s historic ‘Sorry’ speech in Parliament on Wednesday, February 13th 2008.
The conversation ranged from the significant effect of Kevin Rudd writing his own speech and avoiding the common ‘pestilence’ of the modern day speechwriters. Avoiding words the public is weary of hearing, like ‘moving on’, ‘transparency’, and ‘impactful’.
To all who heard Kevin Rudd’s speech, it was heartfelt and genuine. Even if you don’t agree with the apology, his speech was moving and came from deep within his heart and soul and not out of the head of a third party.
The apology was a courageous move for Kevin Rudd. Not every Australian agrees with the concept of an apology. And writing his own speech accentuated that courage. Very few prime ministers write their own words.
Don Watson made a comment that can be applied to your small business.
He said countries become courageous when they do courageous things.
Those words equally apply to a business. Companies become courageous when they do courageous things.
So what’s courageous? Plucky, spirited, audacious, gutsy, bold, daring and above all, brave.
Read any women’s magazine, and you’ll read stories of everyday families leading courageous lives. Families who have children with overwhelming disabilities who have to find ways of incorporating those disabilities into a life of normality. Families who have to be brave all day, every day, just to get through the day.
Bravery in business takes a different form.
It’s courageous for a business to take a different stance to issues of morality than other businesses. It’s courageous for a business to set itself up purely to give to others, rather than giving to itself. It’s courageous for a business to defy the trend of their industry and walk a different path.
For instance.
In the 1980’s, before maternity leave became an issue, child care facilities were the hot topic. They were scarce and expensive. And most employers were completely against contributing to the cost of child care for their staff.
Why?
These companies were run by men who were the young fathers of the 1950’s. Child care was women’s work. If you want children and can’t afford child care, stay at home and look after your children. Just like their wives did.
But Lend Lease had a different perspective. Spurred on by the rise of women within their company to executive status, they opened the first company based child care centre. To much applause from women everywhere. And the brick bats and jeers from the rest of the corporate world.
It’s hard to believe, in 2008, that such a decision a mere 20 years ago was considered courageous and ground breaking. But Lend Lease really bucked the corporate system and dared to be different.
It didn’t take too long before other larger companies recognised the importance of company based child care in retaining their best staff. And today, it’s not unusual for the company you work for to offer assistance with your child care.
But I am mindful that this is not the case with all companies. But it’s no longer a ground breaking issue. It’s more a matter of what your company wants to give you in return for your services.
A business started purely for a social cause is Taylor and Khoo. It’s a fashion and homewares label started in 2002 by Kylie Taylor and Valerie Khoo for the sole purpose of helping disadvantaged orphans at the Sunrise Angkor Orphanage, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The owners of Taylor and Khoo, Kylie Taylor and Valerie Khoo, derive no income from this business. All proceeds are used for food, medicine and other basic necessities for the orphanage.
And they also give back to the Cambodian community.
Apart from raising funds for the orphanage, Taylor & Khoo helps to generate new income for Cambodian small businesses and individuals. Instead of buying from a handful of factories or suppliers, Taylor & Khoo sources its production to a wide variety of individual seamstresses, small family businesses and workshops that employ disadvantaged groups.
Both these women have full on, high profile jobs in their own right.
Kylie Taylor is group managing director of Baldwin Boyle Group, a public affairs consultancy in Melbourne.
Valerie Khoo is director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre, Australia’s leading centre for writing training. And is also editor of the Small Business Enterprise Blog for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Any business, whether making a profit for you or not, takes time, dedication and commitment. And for these two women to so selflessly give of themselves and commit themselves to the bold dream of helping a community thousands of kilometres away is plucky, spirited and gutsy.
Daring too. It can’t fall on its face. There are too many children and adults who benefit from this venture to countenance the spectre of failure. The pressure to succeed is always on.
These friends have won 5 awards for their audaciousness.
2004 Family Circle Women Who Dare Awards
2005 Australian Humanitarian Awards
2005 Australia Post Small Business Awards Special Judges Commendation
2006 UTS Alumni Leadership Award
2006 Anthill 10 Coolest Companies in Australia.
Imagine winning a ‘coolest company’ award for being a giver!
All the money won from these prizes was redirected back to their orphanage.
Professions are classy ghettos. Ghettos in the sense of:- like people living together in similar circumstances. In this case, change living to working.
Accountants, solicitors, doctors, architects all embrace similar types of ethics. Their professional institutes demand a sense of cohesion about the way in which they work.
And few break that mould.
But I’ve discovered a doctor who is very courageous.
He’s actually a customer of mine. And I’m unable to use his name because he doesn’t need, nor want, the recognition.
But this is how this suburban GP runs his practice.
He abhors the over use of medication to treat patients.
For example.
If you visit him and you’re a Type 2 diabetic, he’ll prescribe the minimum of medication and prescribe the maximum of changes you need to make in your lifestyle to reduce the effects of diabetes. Such as diet and exercise.
If you’re a smoker and are experiencing smoking related illnesses which haven’t reached the stage of being life threatening, his first prescription is to stop smoking.
If you’re overweight and have obesity related illnesses, he also sends you to a nutritionist, dietician and gives you no choice about discovering the benefits of exercise.
If you have high blood pressure caused by stress, along with the minimal medication is a list of things to do to change your lifestyle to bring down and maintain low blood pressure. He prefers you to maintain your low blood pressure through exercise, diet and a more relaxed lifestyle, than by medication.
I hope you’re getting a clear picture of how this doctor runs his practice on a self help basis.
He started this when he discovered he was growing intolerant of the revolving door of patients who refused to change their personal habits to help themselves. He was alarmed at the number of patients who think popping a pill is the magic cure.
He thinks patients are over medicated and under informed about the benefits of lifestyle changes.
He’s such a firm believer in lifestyle changes being more beneficial than medication, he will no longer see a patient if he can see they don’t want to help themselves. If you have a persistent, hacking cough and want to keep smoking, that’s fine. He simply refers you to another doctor.
He’s discovered that many people embrace this ‘daring’ philosophy and his practice is now so busy, he will only accept patients if they’ve been referred to him by an existing patient.
Audacious, bold, daring and brave. And busy!!
Perhaps this is the doctor of tomorrow.
Do you do things that defy common wisdom? Do you move out of your comfort zone to achieve the results that will take you to places you never dreamed possible? What’s your ground breaking initiative that could turn into tomorrow’s norm?
As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I know there’s someone, somewhere who will discover a bold, new way of doing things. Share it with us.
I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.
Take care,
CAROL
Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.
We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.
Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.
A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.
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