I'd like to think that I am more of a Greenie than some of the Greenies I know, so here is the good business stuff you can learn from the environmental movement. Only a little is about being green, and for some this might be only about the profit baby :-)

I don't believe it's right to assume business is anti-environment, although our track track record could be better.

But what we can learn from our environmental friends is that our environment is a reflection of us ... a reflection of our choices ... a reflection of our behavior and most importantly a reflection of our values and focus. Not the values we talk about to feel good, but the ones we live by day to day. Our environment says more about us than our words will ever say.

And similarly your business is a reflection of you.

Like it or not, excuses don't cut it ... Your business is a reflection of you. If things are a mess, it's because of how you show up. If things are disorganized then it's because you have not been focused. Not only do you get what you tolerate, you also get what you dream of.

So here is a list of seven things a lucky person could learn from a Greenie.

Take them to heart and your business will love you for it.

#1 Because we can doesn't mean we should

Life is about choices, and just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. In just the same way as cutting down rain forests might provide immediate jobs and cheap timber, sometimes we need to take the high road and just do what is right. Leadership is not about doing what's easy it's about doing what's needed.

#2 Why so much waste?

Many business owners still haven't learned that it's often not just environmentally but also financially good to reduce waste in business. To many it seems hard, and therefore we put progress off until tomorrow, but reducing waste can be as easy as not buying something in the first place. Until my good friend Alkesh taught me a very special lesson. His food bill for a week was a third of ours. We didn't value food as he did and therefore threw so much in the rubbish bin. His lesson was that ... god is in everything ... food is god ... to waste food is to disrespect god. Maybe there is a 'god of profit' in everything. It might refocus things if you started to think you were dishonoring the 'profit god' just by buying unnecessary things or throwing stuff in the rubbish.

#3 The future is important too

I am so frustrated with executive remuneration around the world. If any one thing has brought this recession about it is the personal greed and 'gaming the system' that has come from remuneration schemes that reward employees for today, without a view of tomorrow. We must, must, must start to have 3, 5, 10, 100 year views of our business if they are to be strong, leadership-based and powerful long term. We need multi generational business. We must find a way to allow businesses to do what is 'right' even if it brings a small dip profit today. Anything else leads to companies being scuttled from within to extract short term value, rather than building value and strength for the future.

#4 Burning is not good!

You don't hear this so much anymore, but a guaranteed way to lose my respect is to tell me some version of your 'burn rate story'. Telling me how you are going to be losing money for five years while you capture a market is usually complete stupidity, and a waste of resources. Tell me how you are going to give me a return on every dollar spent and I'll be impressed. Words like "above and below the line" must die. Of course nothing can guaranteed a return, and sometimes it's difficult to show exactly how a customer was won, but we need to stop pretending it doesn't matter if a promotion has measurable value. Anything else is waste.

#5 Are you proud?

Probably pride more than anything else motivates a Greenie ... that is, that they want to be proud of how they did their bit. Did they make good choices and lead by example? Business should be no different. Are you proud of the long term legacy you will leave ... is it sustainable, do you think the grand kids will also be excited and proud? We believe that life is short, and we need to be proud. For us there is a set of measures every decision must go through. This is so simple but also so very very powerful. Does 'x' fit with ... WHAT we want to do ... HOW we want to do it ... and WHO we want to do it with?

#6 It's cool to nuture

I don't know why we get caught up with nurturing being too feminine ... a sign of weakness or a potential to be compromised. Sorry but that's BS ... It's much harder to do what's right, run a tight ship and care for people, but that's why it's called leadership.

#7 Being green isn't a word, it's a way of life

I don't mean to sound like I am taking some moral high ground with this, I'm not. Your life is your life and as far as it doesn't effect me, I'm not going to judge. I do however feel that following the points above is a great way to feel good. It's not about having something clever to say at a dinner party, it's about doing what's right and common sense. I promise that the more you do this, the more open and transparent that you and your business are, the better you will be. It's fun, and while it makes you smile inside it is also good for the bottom line.

I came across this slideshow on Mashables website today. It explorers the question of what is Social Media? Just look at the stats, this isn't going away, and more importantly it's so exciting and powerful you've got to get involved. Of course please excuse the reference to teen sex and you know I don't know how to use F**K in a sentence but enjoy the story anyway.

 

I was listening to a commentator today on National Radio talking about how the manufacturing sector, and especially exporters in New Zealand were in a really bad way. That doesn't apply to us, but he did help me remember three things about why I came back from Australia to help grow Queensberry. It's her 40th birthday next month, and while she has changed beyond belief these past 10 years she grows up next month.

I returned for ...

Passion

I came back to be part of some thing much bigger than myself. I have been passionate about this industry since I was a child and love photography, love weddings and love the creative people we work with. Queensberry is an aspirational brand.

The challenge

At the time I returned in 1996, New Zealand was suffering from a 'brain drain'. So many of our young people, like myself, had left or were leaving because they thought there was no real chance of great opportunity in New Zealand. They were pursuing jobs that paid by the pound (GBP), and exploring the world through their OE. Student loans meant many had no desire to come back. I wanted to come back and prove them wrong ... create a business model that was unique and then take on the world. We built intellectual property, and differentiate through design.

A spiritual connection with the land

I am often frustrated when I hear some New Zealand Maori talk about their spiritual connection with New Zealand as if it is only them that have this connection, and imply that because I am not Maori that somehow my connection is less. The truth is I pine for New Zealand when I am away, and miss it as much as I do my family if I am away for to long. We are however blessed with being so connected with the world. We try to act locally in each market but have a global focus. Travel is great, and this life allows us the benefit of both worlds.

A story told through photographs.

It is only fitting therefore that I should share a little of my beautiful country through photos. I found these on flickr. This is our land. I thank the photographers that took these images and have retained the links so if you click on any photo and go through to the photographers flickr page and find more of their story... enjoy.

New Zealand, a land of beauty, love and adventure

Welcome to the youngest country on earth

Jacqui sent me a link to this movie this morning. It's a very cool recording created by Mark Johnson founder of Playing for Change I love how in this next movie a man describes his music in such a spiritual way, he says ...

"According to our philosophy music has been a great power. Power to bring peace and to get enlightenment. Because it is a sort of meditation... Because you need a lot of dedication in order to bring the music a great art... When there is a great art, there is always heaven. That is why we believe through music, if you practice a lot, you meditate on it, you feel nothing else than peace. So we believe, through music we can get enlightenment..."

Beautiful ... and what a awesome cause ...

My regret if I did have one would be around business projects I didn't take a leap of faith to take advantage of. I don't however believe in regret as each part of ones life is purely a "step". None of us are perfect, and often we will trip. So long as we get up and do our best to put right what we broke, everything is good. If you like, all these moments become learning's ... they weave the colour and texture into the blanket we call life. I've always been proud of coming from a very entrepreneurial family, and one that has been astute at picking trends. #1 In the early 90's after years on Compuserve I discovered the web through that service. It was slow and horrible, so I wanted direct access but that was usually only available through the universities. Any way after telling my wife that "This is going to be huge", and after months of negotiating access and developing a business model so that others could also benefit, I went back to my day job. As we all know, we call them ISP's now, and the people who didn't get comfortable got very, very rich. It's interesting to note that many people that did start ISP's in the early days were kids in Mum's garage, who didn't yet have much to lose. #2 When working at Xerox my father and I developed a piece of software called Patch Manager (I still have a copy of my proposal to Xerox). As I read the Larry Ellison book Softwar and heard about the development of the Oracle Business Suite of products, I realised the thinking behind ours had evolved similarly, and was years before it's time. Xerox went on to spend millions on an alternative option that seemed in many ways a knock-off of our original idea. Although I believe that option was completely inferior, it was picked up by many corporates around the world. My boss, however, said that I was "an Account Manager, not a software developer" and made me get back to work. Unfortunately I was young and wanted to keep him happy rather than take a risk. I wonder if we had continued would we be an SAP or Oracle today? #3 In approximately 1997 I started a website called Photojunction for our industry where "everything photographic" came together. Long before anyone even thought of social media and social networking we had a site where photographers could share links, do reviews, rate sites etc. Although limited by the technology of the time and way off what is available today, it had the potential for a real community to develop. The problem was photographers at the time didn't have computers :-) We were caught in The Dip, with lots of other work to do. With a rapidly growing export business, we closed the site down (we kept the name though!) Even in our industry the sites that have filled this space are large and by my guess very profitable. Being first is only useful if you "stay in the line". Anyway life is like that. You make choices and move on. Sometimes however making 'good choices' involves not being scared, not trying to keep everyone happy, taking risks and going for it. No regrets though. I am excited about the journey we've had despite these learnings.