Tag Archive for scalability

The Clean and Green Club, July 2021

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Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip: July 2021

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“Does It Scale?” Is the WRONG Question

Instead of worrying about whether something scales, ask about whether something is worth it. This advice comes from Seth Godin, https://seths.blog/2021/06/non-machinable-surcharge/ , whose daily column is almost always one of the first things I do each morning, before I start a work shift or have breakfast or jump on my exercise bike. The same column introduced me to the wonderful Italian word sprezzatura (the column has a link to explain it).

I found this particular post extremely validating. I’ve always prided my business on its lack of scalability. I don’t do cookie-cutter “solutions.” I have general principles that guide what the British call “bespoke”—custom work that acknowledges one size almost never REALLY fits all. The consulting clients I work with get answers that are about them, their business, their goals—and how they can develop and implement profitable social change that harnesses their firm’s capabilities and interests—their firm’s unique “secret sauce.” The same with my resume clients. I’ve literally done resumes for people who referred a colleague doing the exact same job, and the resumes were very different—because each client had a unique history and a different set of career goals. I see my out-of-the-box thinking and ability to borrow solutions from a different industry entirely as strengths. In fact, when I’ve tried to scale, I’ve mostly floundered.

Years ago, I decided to ignore the common marketing world advice to “stop trading hours for dollars,” even though I have some physical limitations on how much I can be at the computer. I have a pricing structure that balances affordability with feeling sufficiently compensated, I manage to get significant leisure/outdoor time every day, travel a lot (in normal times), and perhaps I have fewer material desires than many of my marketing colleagues who brag about their fancy houses and cars. I don’t need a Ferrari; I’m perfectly content to share a 2005 Toyota Corolla purchased in 2011 and an inherited 2012 Honda Fit with my wife. I don’t need a 6000-square-foot mansion and realize that now that the kids are grown, the relatively modest antique home we share is bigger than we really need—but I also feel I live in Paradise, nestled between a mountain and a river on a working farm, a 15-minute drive from town. As long as both of us can manage stairs and driving, and there’s no dire political emergency that would make our home unsafe because our country had become unsafe, I see no reason to move. If aging-in-place requires a live-in caregiver at some point, we have the space—and meanwhile, we have plenty of room for overnight guests.

So I consider myself mostly a success. I’ve had impact in the larger world and opened some minds wider (less impact and fewer minds than I’d hope, but enough to feel I’ve made a difference), have a blessing-filled life, and find joy and gratitude every day. And it’s thrilling that Seth Godin, who anyone would consider a success, gives his blessing to this mindset.

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Discover why Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield, futurist Seth Godin, and many others recommend Shel’s 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (and download a free sampler). Autographed and inscribed copies available.

View highlights from (and listen to) more than 30 podcasts ranging from 5 minutes to a full hour. Click here to see descriptions and replay links.

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Good Business: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the World

Good Business: The Talk, Fight, Win Way to Change the World, by Bill Novelli (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021)

Who knew that centrist activism is a thing? Meet Bill Novelli, a Renaissance Soul who did marketing for one of the largest CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies in the world, ran a PR agency, led several nonprofits including Tobacco-Free Kids and AARP, served in the Peace Corps, teaches social responsibility at Georgetown University’s business school, and…(too much more to list here). Republicans call him a Democrat while Democrats call him a Republican.

I often joke that my left-wing friends call me a capitalist tool while my right-wing friends call me a communist dupe, so I can relate. But I identify as an unabashed progressive who happens to support ethical capitalism; Novelli identifies as a proud centrist—but one who’s willing to “talk, fight, win” and willing to “stress the system” by engaging in multiple points and strategies at once (p. 39).

Novelli is a great cross-pollinator and coalition builder. He amplifies voices from corporate, nonprofit, religion, government, grassroots, and academia. He finds value in each of these career paths, and in those who synthesize these different silos or jump among them.

He’s also a long-term, big-picture thinker. Early on, he became a convert to ethical business that does social/environmental good—after succumbing to pressure to do the wrong thing and realizing he’d made a huge mistake (pp. 34-35). Since then, he’s worked to transform business culture so no one is forced into those kinds of choices—continuing to use the story skills he learned as a marketer in his later work as lobbyist, nonprofit executive, and educator. He promotes the broad messages that:

  • Social change is profitable (including measures aimed at the bottom of the economic pyramid)
  • Competitors need to work together to solve big problems
  • Nontraditional employees (such as elders or people with disabilities) can thrive and help their organizations thrive
  • Early interventions can ripple out to make enormous changes (e.g., brain exercises for preschoolers can reduce prison populations decades later—p. 304).

Where I found the most value was the detailed case studies: the specifics of how, what worked, what didn’t, the immediate and long-term outcomes, and their impact: taking on big tobacco, pp. 61-128; fighting to get a Medicare prescription drug benefit, pp. 129-166; protecting Social Security, pp. 167-198. For instance, we discover Tobacco-Free Kids’ single-sentence mission statement, “We work to save lives by advocating for public policies that prevent kids from smoking, help smokers quit, and protect everyone from secondhand smoke”, its four public policy pillars, and even punchier vision statement: “A future free of the death and disease cause by tobacco” (pp. 108-109).

The book is peppered with great quotes like these:

“Society is increasingly looking for companies…to address pressing social and economic issues…Profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose…[they’re] inextricably linked.”—Larry Fink, CEO, Blackrock (p. 9)

“Why can’t we sell brotherhood like soap?” (quoted without attribution by Novelli, p. 39. I tracked it down to G.B. Wiebe, quoted in a footnote to Philanthropy in America by Dwight Burlingame)

“It is never easy for…warriors to transform themselves into peacemakers, to shift from the comfort of combatting a…demonized enemy to…acknowledging an enemy as simultaneously a bargaining partner.” (Mike Pertschuk, former head of the Federal Trade Commission, p. 119)

“Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by attacking back.” (Piet Hein, mathematician, paraphrased by Novelli, p. 269).

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About Shel

Speaker, author, and consultant Shel Horowitz of GoingBeyondSustainabiity.com helps businesses find the sweet spot at the intersections of profitability with environmental and social good — creating and marketing profitable products and services that make a direct difference on problems like hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change. His 10th book is Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World.

If you’re not already a subscriber, please visit http://goingbeyondsustainability.com and scroll to the very bottom left corner. You’ll find lots of interesting information on your way to the subscription for, too.

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