World Vision

By: Patricia Brannan and Linda Lloyd Da Silva Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Business

Working with Communities and Partners to Build a Future of Hope

Approximately 2.6 billion people—more than 40 percent of the world’s population—live on less than $2 a day. What’s worse, even though some countries have made progress towards economic equality for their citizens, more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where the income gap is widening. The richest 40 percent of people in the world take in 75 percent of the world’s total income, while the poorest 40 percent earn less than 10 percent of the income.

In this harsh setting, low to no income, hardworking parents in the poorest parts of the world cannot feed, educate, and provide health care for their children which causes decreased access to health care, fewer children attending school, and higher instances of malnourishment and stunting in children. These children face the life-long consequences of chronic poverty and prolonged malnutrition: increased susceptibility to disease, chronic fatigue and anemia and poor motor and cognitive skills. This insidious poverty that affects individual families begets impoverished nations that are unable to create lasting solutions to the complex problems of development, social equality and justice.

Organizations like World Vision have been working with the marginalized poor for decades. Since its founding in 1950, World Vision has been partnered together with communities and governments to make a serious and sustainable impact on poverty and its causes, especially as they affect children. World Vision began its international work as a child sponsorship organization responding to the needs of hundreds of thousands of orphans at the end of the Korean War. Over the next several decades, World Vision expanded its work throughout Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Resources from child sponsorship assisted poor children and their families with food, education, health care and vocational training. Today, 3.8 million children, their families and communities benefit from World Vision’s community development programs that focus on vital needs such as food, security, water, sanitation, education, health, leadership training and income generation.

In recent years, World Vision expanded its community development work to include advocacy efforts, focused particularly on issues related to child survival and poverty alleviation. It became more active in working with governments, businesses and other organizations in addressing issues such as child labor, children in armed conflict and the sexual exploitation of women and children.

In fact, World Vision and its microfinance subsidiary VisionFund International, has become a leading humanitarian and advocacy organization with some 40,000 global members, including part-time and temporary staff and employees of microfinance institutions, to implement these programs in nearly 100 countries.

Committed to long-term change, World Vision consciously connects people. Whether by enabling people through microfinance networks, or linking donors in rich countries to children and families in poorer countries through child sponsorship, or by matching communities with major private, foundation, or corporate donors wanting to invest in large scale initiatives in agriculture, water or health, or by creating networks of caring individuals that campaign for changes to unjust economic and development policies, World Vision believes that getting people connected is the best way to make a difference.

World Vision’s relationship with Hogan Lovells, an international law firm, is one example of partnership that ultimately has positive effects on impoverished communities, and that is especially valuable during difficult economic times.

As with any complex global organization, World Vision faces a myriad of constant legal issues, notwithstanding its nonprofit and humanitarian status. To mitigate these issues, Hogan Lovells manages against the ever present threats and potential for legal complications that come from ongoing and routine employment law and contract review matters, its corporate governance and connections issues among the multiple legal entities which constitute the World Vision global structure, its registration and the protection of the trademarked name and logo, and its regulatory compliance.

Because quality legal advice and support can be very expensive, and because every dollar spent on legal services generally is considered “overhead,” World Vision began looking for law firms that were able to provide the necessary pro bono professional support, while supporting its mission to the poor and marginalized of the world. So, in late 2007, Hogan Lovells committed their expertise to the organization. The General Counsel for World Vision International (WVI), Tim Burgett, reconnected with a fellow member of the University of Virginia School of Law, class of 1989, Kim Reed, who was then an attorney in Hogan & Hartson’s Moscow office. Their initial conversations led to more extensive discussions with the Hogan partner who headed up the firm’s Community Services Department, Patricia Brannan. All agreed to a commitment to jointly pursue a significant partnership for pro bono legal services in numerous global jurisdictions for WVI

The relationship began on a somewhat limited basis with some employment law assistance from Hogan’s Moscow office, as well as intellectual property matters and discrete research projects from the firm’s Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices. As World Vision grew more adept at identifying issues where Hogan could assist, the connections between the two organizations continued to expand. And as the economy floundered in late 2008 and 2009, the value of the pro bono support by Hogan to World Vision was keenly felt.

Over the last two years, Hogan has provided significant services to WVI, including extensive employment law support from the Los Angeles office, as well as corporate, tax, and regulatory compliance advice from Washington D.C. Recently, WVI decided to establish a new office in London for its president and senior executives, so lawyers in the Hogan London office stepped up to provide substantial advice and support in the areas of corporate registration, tax, and employment.

When World Vision decided to join with other partners in pursuing an innovative approach to develop key software for the humanitarian industry by forming a low-profit limited liability company (L3C), Hogan’s Washington D.C. office supplied experienced lawyers to evaluate the corporate governance and ownership aspects. And when World Vision needed to analyze how it handled the personal data of some 3.8 million sponsored children, the Brussels office of Hogan coordinated a 70-country review of data privacy laws, often “twisting the arms” of correspondent law firms in countries without a Hogan presence to try and achieve pro bono or reduced cost services.

The relationship continues as Hogan & Hartson enters a new era. On May 1, 2010, Hogan & Hartson combined with London-based Lovells to form Hogan Lovells, which consists of an international legal practice including Hogan Lovells International LLP and Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP (referenced together as Hogan Lovells). Hogan Lovells now is comprised of 2,500 lawyers in more than 40 offices on four continents, making it an even stronger collaborative partner for World Vision’s global mission. The Hogan Lovells pro bono practice has an unmatched legacy of commitment to pro bono legal work. Forty years ago, Hogan & Hartson became the first law firm in the United States to form a separate practice dedicated to providing pro bono legal services for those in need. In 1997, Lovells became the first European law firm to hire a full-time lawyer to spearhead its pro bono program. The combined firms support the efforts of seven full-time lawyers whose only mission is to identify, staff, and develop meaningful pro bono work for Hogan Lovells’ lawyers.

The goal of the practice is to involve Hogan Lovells’ lawyers worldwide in legal work that draws upon their experience in order to improve the lives of those without access to justice or the means to hire lawyers, and to meet the legal needs of charities and nonprofit social enterprises. That practice enjoys the full support of Hogan Lovells’ management team. The new management of the combined firms identified good citizenship as a core value: “We embrace our responsibility to give back to our communities through pro bono and community service work and we are committed to a diverse workforce that is inclusive and welcoming.”

The future promise of the relationship is great, and it builds upon a firm foundation in the work done to date. “Hogan Lovells has become an integral and vital part of the efforts of my Legal Department to address the legal requirements of our World Vision clients,” says WVI General Counsel Burgett. “I especially appreciate the central coordination efforts of Pat Brannan, as my team knows that whenever we identify a need that potentially could be met by Hogan somewhere in the world, all we have to do is call Pat, and she runs it through the appropriate internal channels to see if a lawyer offering just the right practice background is available. Hogan lawyers are partnering with us to provide high-quality legal services at the lowest possible cost, so that World Vision can be as effective as possible in meeting the needs of the people it serves."

Southwest Airlines Soars to New Heights

By: Emily Haggstrom Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Business

Employees and Executives Lead the Carrier to Record Profits and Bolster Corporate Collaboration

Between strict Federal Aviation Administration regulations, necessary or unnecessary, flying has become a chore. If squeezing into an economy seat with no leg room wasn’t enough, fliers now have less room because in an effort to save a little cash passengers are hauling every possible piece of luggage and property onto the plane and cramming them under the seats and into overhead compartments. Flying isn’t just about paying for a ticket anymore; passengers pay for everything short of boarding the plane. There’s a fee to book a reservation, to change that reservation, to board early, to get an economy seat, to upgrade that same economy seat, to another slightly larger economy seat and when your legs still don’t fit, the airline will then charge you to stow carry-on luggage, and don’t forget the receipts are an extra charge as well. By the time a flier sits down in the seat, the cost of the flight in some cases could almost double.

To add to the misery, the costs come at a time of economic instability when many people are nickel and diming; so it is no surprise why many Americans are aggravated by all of the added expenses associated with flying. Passengers are not only wary; they’re just plain glum and grouchy. In the second quarter of 2010, airlines reported $2.1 billion in ancillary revenue, which constitutes only six percent of the total reported industry revenue according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Baggage fees alone accounted for $893 million for airlines, who continually claim to be struggling. Yet, second quarter 2010 profits have been the highest reported since 2007.

And while most network and low-cost carriers battle with constant pricing fluctuations, Southwest Airlines stands out from the rest.

In an effort to stay true to their business mission, Southwest highlights what they are doing for fliers rather than focusing on what other companies are not doing.

“We offer exceptional service at a low fare to the places that our customers want to go,” said Southwest Communication Director Beth Harbin, “We’ve always had a very strict eye on costs and maintaining costs, which has allowed us to offer low fares while also making money. Southwest has maintained its success for over 37 years by staying true to that mission.”

It is because of this mission that Southwest has continued to build its customer base, expand its market share and grow the brand through its September merger with AirTran. The majority of the success has been largely due to the “Bags Fly Free” program that has continued to build the company's passenger base. Harbin emphasized, “We stand out in our customer’s minds by doing things more than just low fares but doing what’s right. We focus on ourselves and what we can do in areas of controlling costs. This allows us to offer our same great service without having to go to our customer every couple of months because we need more.”

Southwest stands transparent, admitting that of course they raise fares occasionally, but Harbin emphasized that it is brand trust and preference that continues to draw consumers and prospective employees alike. And while other airlines continue to add fees and hike fares, Southwest knows that its ongoing sustainability is because consumers know what they are going to get when they fly with Southwest.

In addition to low fares, free bags, and new locations, friendly counter agents and an amusing flight staff and service-oriented ground personnel work to make the experience more enjoyable for fliers. Southwest’s leadership places substantial importance on hiring employees who genuinely enjoy customer service. Flight crews on Southwest are known to ease the tension of flying and the boring flight instructions through jokes, singing and even rapping, commanding the attention of flyers who wouldn’t have listened otherwise. “They are our biggest assets and are what keeps customers coming back,” said Harbin.

Each employee is encouraged to be themselves and “own it,” which is evident from Southwest’s internal statistics that show for every one complaint received, there are 11 more commendations that follow. “The culture is amazing and they treat their employees like no other place I’ve worked before. On my end of the job, every now and then you get some glitches but generally people are really happy with us, and that’s very rewarding,” said Heather Dejo in Customer Relations.

Employees at Southwest live the maxim of the Golden Rule which dictates, “treat others as you would like to be treated,” and “do the right thing." Southwest’s leadership realizes that by treating their employees fairly, they will in turn create a harmonious environment for their customers. By demonstrating their appreciation for employees who “own it,” Southwest’s management gives them, through the various locations, a budget that they can contribute or invest into community programs and initiatives, further solidifying bonds of trust and brand recognition.

Recognizing that the competitive landscape is ever changing, Southwest continues to forge new relationships with customers in low-cost, meaningful ways. Aside from providing transportation to commercial fliers, Southwest also provides transportation for thousands of businesses through its cargo program, offering “Must Ride” tickets to loyal shippers. "Just like our customers ‘riding above the wing,’ our ‘below the wing’ cargo customers are very important to Southwest Airlines as well. Cargo has been a terrific source of revenue for Southwest Airlines for many years, and we feel that it's important to recognize and reward our loyal cargo customers for their continued support of Southwest Airlines,” said Wally Devereaux, Director of Sales and Marketing, Southwest Airlines Cargo.

Southwest’s success also rests in its ability to strategically engage in businesses practices and to choose new markets. Just shy of 40 years this coming 2011, Southwest has quietly gained market presence with a solid acquisition of Salt Lake City-based Morris Air in 1994 and the build up to its 69 locations across the United States. Through the most recent merger with AirTran, Southwest will now become a major player on the east coast with definite prominence in the Atlanta area. “We’re accustomed to finding ourselves in new places. These new locations offer new changes and new chances to develop,” said Harbin.

And develop they will. Currently Southwest operates its low budget model by maintaining a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft which all employees are trained to work with and on, providing obvious and immediate cost benefits. With the addition of AirTran and its 717 Boeing fleet, Southwest will likely expand and accommodate smaller market locations while still managing its low-cost structure and powerful corporate culture.

One thing is for sure, Southwest’s strategic growth is proving profitable again with third quarter gains earning Southwest a net income of $205 million. This statistic could rise in the fourth quarter as business and leisure travelers experience the new corporate culture from the Southwest-AirTran merger. The low-cost carrier will certainly shake up locations where network carriers have been king, once again proving why passengers continue to buckle up and fly with Southwest.

DING!

To learn more about Southwest Airlines, please visit www.southwest.com.

Emily Haggstrom has a B.A. in Journalism and Media from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a member of the Level One Society in Denver, Colorado and sits in on various charity committees. In an effort to impact her local community she also volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Inc. as well as Denver Health Medical Center.

Getting It Right

By: Triche Guenin Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Business

During Turbulent Times

Tough economic times. As a leadership team, for Denver Health Medical Center, what options should be considered?

* Raise prices? * Limit services? * Change the mission? * Sell more to current customers? * Go after new customers? * Cut costs? * Focus on improving internal efficiencies?

But wait! New patients are swarming. Unfortunately, many cannot pay for services provided. However, because of the corporate mission, these patients must be serviced. Those who can pay usually do not have to pay the full amount. Costs continue to go up, so raising prices won’t help. This is the current operating environment that the nonprofit healthcare system faces. And it’s getting worse. As the population ages, an increased number and variety of services are required. Concurrently, a higher percentage of people are trying to weather the economic downturn. Many, who may have previously had health insurance, either no longer do or are now eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, which pays only a portion of what is charged by the healthcare provider. Many times, conditions are more severe because patients wait too long to access care. For those hospital systems which are a city’s safety net, patients cannot be turned away. So, on an annual basis, the level of “charity” work continues to climb.

And looming in the background are the legislative changes that will impact the who, what, when, where, and how of healthcare delivery. This is the scenario in which the CEO of Denver Health, Dr. Patricia A. Gabow, and her executive team recently found themselves. Waiting and continuing on as usual was not an option. Instead, they chose to work on the organization’s infrastructure. By doing so, Denver Health has positioned itself to leverage its streamlined and innovative service offerings as well as its increased focus on the patient, as healthcare reform is figured out and the economy begins to turn around. Although the end is not yet in sight, the journey has begun and benefits are being realized.

“Getting It Right: Perfecting the Patient Experience,” a new healthcare initiative, was formally introduced to Denver Health in May, 2004. Recognizing that healthcare delivery in hospitals had not changed substantially in decades, this new program was aimed at changing the culture by focusing on workforce development, customer service, patient safety and quality, the physical environment, and internal efficiencies by using information technology as the “glue” to support all of these initiatives. “We have been doing things the same way in hospitals since I was in medical school many years ago,” Gabow said.

“In this redesign process we remove redundancies, use technology wisely, and save money through increased efficiencies.”

As a result, Denver Health has been able to create a culture that is committed to reducing waste in order to achieve a perfect patient experience and to be a model for the nation.

But, where does a leadership team start? Changing the culture requires major changes in the strategy of its executive team. So, Denver Health, with its almost 5,000 employees, focused on the critical elements needed to impact the culture of its organization.

Fast forward to 2010, and Denver Health is one of the leading institutions in the country on several fronts. Ranked nationally, they are one of the leading hospitals in the country implementing lean thinking and health information technology to optimize the flow of services and products through the entire service chain. Besides that, Denver Health was ranked first in the country for its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in 2006 by the Pavilion for Women & Children. In 2007, the Wellington E. Webb Center for Primary Care ranked Denver Health as the #1 community health center immediately adjacent to an acute medical care center in the country. And, the organization received the first Leed Certified Green designation for a public safety net project, and was the first emergency department in the region to provide emergency and urgent care under the same roof with their Adult Urgent Care Clinic, Pediatric Urgent Care and Emergency Department, Adult Emergency Department and Level I Trauma Center. So what did the Denver Health Executive Team do? They developed a five-pronged plan to focus on the “right” issues: people, process, communication, reward, and physical environment.

Right People

The right people were needed to nurture a new culture, and current employees had to adjust their attitudes in order to accept, endorse, and thrive in a new work environment. To do this, expectations, incentives, and support were put in place. For potential employees, a robust candidate selection process was established. Denver Health began using Talent Plus, a tool that identifies the key factors to enable top performers to reach success. It was implemented to screen potential employees for the innate characteristics that will help them function at their highest level. This program has also been used by the Ritz Carlton.

Right Process

Most process improvement initiatives produce optimal results when coupled with a system improvement effort. Denver Health is no exception and has taken on a massive technological overhaul resulting in improved patient care and cost avoidance by eliminating waste. In addition, its formalized Lean Initiative, which has received international recognition, has netted more than $60 million in savings by reducing costs and/or generating additional revenue, in just five years.

Right Communication

To ensure that proper information is communicated in a timely manner, Denver Health instituted several forms of structured communications like departmental huddles; scripting; SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) which is a communication method used when discussing patient issues; bulletin boards focusing on departmental metrics; and intranet sites with access to current organizational endeavors.

Right Reward

Recognizing individuals, as well as team accomplishments, is key. The STAR Award is given to an employee for going above and beyond his/her normal duties. A star employee's name is publicly posted and the recipient receives monetary compensation in his/her next paycheck. STAR Award nominations are submitted by co-workers and patients alike. A Team Award is also provided to groups that implement a project with substantial savings or revenue generation. The team then shares in a portion of the organization’s financial benefit—up to $500 per team member per project.

Right Physical Environment

Although not statistically proven, employees who have pride in, and enjoy, a safe physical environment have higher work force satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased customer satisfaction, proving that the right physical environment can make a difference. For many years, Denver Health has continued to upgrade and remodel existing facilities, as well as add new facilities and associated services, with its newest building planned for completion in September, 2011. The Denver Health campus covers 28 acres in downtown Denver. There are also eight neighborhood clinics and 12 school-based clinics throughout the city. Each of its new facilities houses state-of-the-art technology and equipment which helps attract the best physicians and staff in the nation.

As a part of its culture change, and in alignment with its “Right Process,” Denver Health has more than 200 employees trained in Lean principles, and more than 1,500 employees who have participated in 300 Rapid Improvement Events (RIE’s). These four-day intense sessions culminate in major and minor changes that are implemented in just one week!

Denver Health defines “Lean” as a systematic approach of continuous improvement. It is based on principles and tools that are used to identify and eliminate waste throughout the organization and has become embedded in the culture and strategies of Denver Health. The organization is committed to deliver value, as defined by the customer, without waste and on demand; standardize and improve the delivery of services; require deep personal experience to achieve transformational learning; and expect mutual respect and shared responsibility to achieve higher performance.

Phil Goodman, manager of Lean Systems Improvement further explains, “Denver Health utilizes a two-pronged approach. One focuses on addressing complex cross-departmental issues (RIEs); the second focuses on leveraging a cadre of Lean Black Belts. These employees are dispersed throughout the organization and either individually or in small teams implement process improvements to address everyday issues.”

As part of their performance appraisals, supervisors and managers are evaluated on their department’s improvement efforts, as well as their support in providing professional growth opportunities to their employees. Even the members of the executive team are expected to be champions throughout the organization and participate annually in at least two RIEs.

Usually these events require a collaborative effort between stakeholders, both upstream and downstream, for the process being improved. In some cases this requires bringing in personnel from outside Denver Health. Recently, these activities have expanded to include entire organizations outside of Denver Health. For example, with new legislative guidelines for graduate medical schools set to take place in July, 2011, Denver Health collaborated with three other local teaching institutions—University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and The Children’s Hospital—to work on a common goal—zero work hour violations while meeting the new medical education requirements.

It’s been more than five years since Denver Health’s executive team made a commitment to “Perfecting the Patient Experience” and considerable progress has been made, with all indicators pointing in a favorable direction — improvements in finances, patient outcomes, quality of care, and patient/workforce satisfaction. In fact, Denver Health was recognized by the Colorado Performance Excellence award program as a Timberline level recipient in 2009, for its unwavering commitment to providing high quality, safe healthcare.

The foundation of the success that Denver Health is experiencing is based on a two-fold effort—a collaborative effort across the executive team members and a shared respect and mutual understanding of the organization’s direction throughout all types and levels of employees—to provide excellent care for all.

This new found culture shift will enable Denver Health to weather the economic conditions and continue to “Get it Right.” “As an industry, health care can no longer afford to do things the same old ways,” said Gabow. “We must overcome the inertia of the status quo in medicine and tackle the problems that stem from reliance on outdated methods.”

Triche Guenin is President of Denver-based Partners Through Change, Inc., a process improvement firm that facilitates organization in becoming more efficient/effective in everyday operations. To learn more, visit www.partnersthroughchange.com.

Charitable Giving Redesigned

By: Ben Bryan Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Business

An Interview with Dennis Whittle

Tough times exist in the world of philanthropy and charitable giving. The New York Times reported a 5.7 percent decline in U.S. charitable giving in 2008, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently documented an 11 percent decline in giving to the 400 largest U.S. charities for 2009. Nonetheless, GlobalGiving, an innovative online marketplace for philanthropy and charitable giving, saw a 9 percent increase in dollars channeled through them, to the more than 1,000 pre-screened social enterprise and charitable projects they present to donors.

Dennis Whittle, the CEO and a co-founder of GlobalGiving, attributes this success to collaborative leadership – not within his team, but rather collaboration between GlobalGiving and the leaders of progressive corporations that have turned to GlobalGiving to design “giving” programs for their companies and employees.

Leadership Gap

Management experts like Peter Drucker have written about a paradigm shift in how people gauge personal satisfaction. In the past, Drucker and others argued, the gauge was the acquisition and accumulation of material goods, but increasingly it has shifted to finding meaning in one’s workplace and in every day choices. Whittle believes that it is the progressive corporate leaders who not only understand this, but are acting on it by integrating it into their corporate mission.

This paradigm shift plays out most directly, Whittle goes on to explain, with today’s high quality workers. With more choices, they increasingly prefer a workplace where their values concerning social good are aligned with the values demonstrated by an employer. When this alignment is present, the employee is five times more likely to promote their employer and its mission to others. Retention of quality employees at these companies is demonstrably higher.

Consumers have more choices as well, and increasingly they are choosing products from companies that promote social enterprise. Whittle cites PepsiCo Inc. as one such company. Through its high profile Pepsi Refresh Project, the company is contributing $20 million annually to small scale, community-based social enterprise efforts chosen by consumers.

Whittle sees a clear “leadership gap” between those corporate managers who have embraced this new “value-oriented” paradigm, and those who haven’t. Progressive corporate leaders know that engaging their companies and employees in social enterprise efforts pays off—internally by attracting and retaining high quality workers, and externally with positive impacts on their brand.

GlobalGiving’s Business Model

Whittle also credits the GlobalGiving business model as contributing to the company’s success. The company’s mission is to, “Build an efficient, open, thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.”

The company evaluates and prescreens social enterprises and charities around the world, many of which are entrepreneurial and innovative. Then, they are presented on the GlobalGiving website so that individuals can select ones that they wish to support. They make a “direct connect” donation online through GlobalGiving’s charitable foundation, a registered 501(c)3 organization. Donations given through GlobalGiving go straight to project execution, and the company provides transparency to both the donor and the recipient organization throughout the process. Donors receive updates regularly on projects they support. GlobalGiving charges a 15 percent fee for its work.

Although individual donors remain a significant focus of GlobalGiving, increasingly, corporate leaders seeking social enterprise channels have turned to the company because of the same attributes that have made it attractive to individuals: confidence that recipient organizations have been thoroughly vetted, the “direct connect” donation concept, transparency and feedback.

The Origins of the Marketplace Concept

The idea of a marketplace for donors to connect directly with social enterprises and charities originated in work that Dennis Whittle and his GlobalGiving co-founder, Mari Kuraishi, undertook with the World Bank, where he spent 14 years. In 1997, they were asked to develop innovative ways to combat poverty. So to generate ideas and solutions, they conceived a contest for social innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world to compete for World Bank funds.

The two day contest “changed my life” according to Whittle who was impressed by the energy, creativity and commitment of the contestants. Their solutions to seemingly intractable problems were not just somewhat better, but “were orders of magnitude” better. What emerged was the concept of an ongoing, virtual marketplace for these social innovators and entrepreneurs so that they could access and compete for donor and charitable funds on an ongoing basis. Whittle and Kuraishi left the World Bank and became entrepreneurs themselves, launching GlobalGiving as a start-up company with all the attendant challenges that entrepreneurs face. This experience has given Whittle a “visceral” appreciation for the work of entrepreneurs and is a key factor in GlobalGiving being a robust champion of social entrepreneurs.

As the name of Whittle’s company, GlobalGiving, implies, its scope and reach is worldwide and has attracted global companies such as Google to its platform. Through GlobalGiving’s platform, these companies can now easily access projects around the world.

But the changing landscape of philanthropy and charitable giving, empowered by technology and particularly the internet, means that a company no longer has to be big to have an impact on social issues. Small and medium companies can now be participants, and in the words of Dennis Whittle, “can really turn the dial on social, economic and environmental issues.”

GlobalGiving can work with small and mid-size companies to develop custom programs with a local or national orientation, or that target specific areas of social, economic or environmental interests. Such programs can include simple features like gift cards for employees and customers or more complex and tailored giving programs with communication tools such as company-unique web pages.

The New Collaboration

The tough times that the philanthropic and charitable sector is experiencing have accelerated another and very important collaboration, Whittle points out. Traditional models for both receiving funds and delivering services have been supplemented in recent decades by the work of social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs have been using business principles to solve social problems and deliver social services – business principals that oftentimes are investor driven and therefore can include a monetary profit for investors and management.

As a result, a continuum now exits in this sector, from the traditional charity based models such as United Way, to social entrepreneurship efforts, like those of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who pioneered the micro-finance movement through Grameen Bank. All along this continuum, organizations are now interacting to achieve common goals, and this collaboration is driven from both directions. “This is the exciting future in the world of giving,” says Whittle.

While GlobalGiving brings a technology driven, market-oriented platform to the world of giving, Whittle himself brings an energetic, visionary and open approach to the management of the company. It is an approach that promotes collaboration while projecting the kind of leadership that creates success, particularly in tough times.

Dennis Whittle will be in Colorado on December 7 as the keynote speaker at two events, a breakfast and luncheon, which are part of the 4th Annual Business/Social Entrepreneurship Day co-sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and other business and academic organizations. He will be elaborating on many of the topics covered in this interview. For more information on Dennis Whittle’s visit to Colorado on December 7, 2010, please contact Capital Investment Management Company at 303.221.1000.

A Burning Desire to Change The Paradigm

By: Emily Haggstrom Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Business

One Organization’s Collaborative Journey to Improve the Lives of Millions

The Paradigm Project strives to reduce environmental degradation, improve the health of women and children, increase economic stability in poor households, produce a stream of verifiable carbon offsets that are monetized to drive competitive investor returns and scale community benefits. But to realize the magnitude of their impact, you must first understand the devastating circumstances driving their mission.
Each morning in tribes and rural communities across eastern Kenya, young girls and mothers wake and ready themselves in their traditional thin cotton robes to make a trek they’ve made before and will likely make hundreds of times again. Armed with an axe and a few feet of rope, they head out, most times together, but just as often alone, on a long desolate route that is often plagued with danger, in search of firewood to use for cooking fuel to feed their families.

These women leave their homes and will spend over 30 hours a week, walking on average six miles a day, through some of the most desolate terrain; crossing through preserves, rock beds and areas that have been clear cut to haul back their weight in wood. This painstaking process exposes them to risks such as rape, beatings, and pillaging along the way. But they are not alone; they are among the 2.5 billion people in the world with limited or no access to fuels for cooking. Once they return home they are subjected, along with their children, to working hours over an open fire pit within their small huts, billowing smoke so thick and dense it burns their eyes and lungs. These open fire pits burn constantly throughout the day until the flickering embers lull the women to sleep at night. This endless chore ceases only when they are eight months pregnant or when they physically can no longer make the trek. Most, if not all deaths are the consequence of acute lower respiratory disease that has gone untreated. The health risks alone are staggering, but consider the environmental waste and devastation from years of stripping the land.

In fact, each year, 2.5 billion people forage for firewood and other biomass sources to use as fuel for cooking fires. People across the world are using their own forests and tree refuges as resources for their daily cooking needs. But, with the amount of people in search of wood each day, the amount of trees being cut down is staggering. As a result, in a few years, these native people will have depleted entire forests that they rely on for their livelihood and sustenance, without the means to replenish the earth with nutrients that stabilize the top soil, which needs to be tilled for farming or to feed their animals. This type of extreme deforestation is what sets off a destructive series of cyclical events that affects these communities’ precious and invaluable ecosystems.

For example, farming is not even possible without insects to pollinate plants or without the trees to regulate rainfall and provide shelter to indigenous animals. Without the trees, natural earth cycles are halted or transformed; slowly erosion and floods begin to decimate the landscape into a barren, arid and fruitless wasteland, plunging the poor even farther into poverty. According to the 2010 Nature Conservancy Report, Saving Forests to Fight Climate Change, deforestation not only plunders the land that sets off a series of events, but it also assists in accelerating CO² emission levels that without the help of the trees, creates incredible amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. These gas emissions that are largely present in developing and underdeveloped nations, exceeding all global transportation related emissions combined.

And while many organizations already exist to mobilize relief efforts and aide in organizing economic and environmental improvements, many often don’t succeed or create a culture of long-term reliance from the people that they aimed to serve. “Over the past 50 years, Africa has received more than $1 trillion in foreign assistance, yet none of us really have much to show for it,” said Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, “Per capita income across the continent remains essentially where it was in the 1960s. Yet organizations across the world continue to mobilize without properly understanding the consequences that occur after they leave the given communities they were trying to help. One company, however, The Paradigm Project (TPP), is trying to stop the bleeding and change the paradigm. Neil Bellefeuille, Paradigm’s CEO, and Greg Spencer, Founder and Chairman, looked at Eastern Kenya’s foreign aid situation and realized much of what they wanted to do had already been instituted by other organizations and were already underway, “We wanted to find a way to use business as a tool to serve development,” said Bellefeuille. With enterprise in mind, Bellefeuille and Spencer decided they would distribute clean-burning cook stoves. The difference in their program versus others was that instead of giving away cook stoves, they would sell theirs, allowing families to have consumer choice. Their challenge was that they had to make the stoves affordable, so they had to look at subsidization programs.

Together, Bellefeuille and Spencer piloted a program model that would prove revolutionary to the world of relief aid. TPP is a low profit limited liability company (L3C) designed to act as both a nonprofit and for-profit entity. It was started by a group of individuals to create partnerships and develop a model that was not only feasible to generate social and environmental prosperity within rural communities, but to ensure that it could be sustainable. By establishing themselves as an L3C, TPP was able to generate successful investment capital from thoughtful donors, socially responsible corporations and private equity firms to form an ongoing revenue stream. Utilizing corporate and private funding proved to be successful in generating capital for TPP. But, to guarantee sustainability and support, the leadership team focused on delving into the complex dealings of the carbon markets to obtain carbon credits that could prove profitable to all involved. “It’s a complex process. Hopefully, as we move forward, the model will become a moniker for the way that you can access different pools of capital and utilize it for development, because that, to me, is the compelling thing about it,” said Bellefeuille.

This unique foundation was instrumental in establishing TPP as a major player, with a smart and sustainable business model for foreign development and aid projects. More importantly, the model showed immediate and significant results. TPP quickly garnered support from major players within the world of international giving. Organizations like World Vision, Compassion International, Food for the Hungry, and Envirofit had signed on to help with logistics, due diligence, and technical support. TPP continues to refine their model, seeking new donors and contributors, while developing new business opportunities that align strategically with the mission. By establishing themselves as an L3C, they have the unique ability to be eligible to receive low interest program related investment (PRI) debt to further their activities. With several revenue streams purposed for each segment of the business, TPP is able to focus on what is important—making the communities they work with sustainable through the pool of cash from offsets in the voluntary carbon market. “With the right philanthropic audience, there is tremendous value in having a donation create future monetary returns,” said Scott Hitt, TPP Chief Marketing Officer.

With the first round of stoves in Kenyan communities, TPP has begun to monitor families who have received stoves to track the health benefits as well as the savings, both financially and productively. “People recognize as do we, that what we are providing is not a long-term solution. They really understand the greater good, but it is because it affects them so directly,” said Bellefeuille. With increasing positive results, donor and capital alignment, in September TPP committed to distributing 400,000 stoves across Kenya.

Also in September, The Paradigm Project was honored by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as “an exemplary approach to addressing challenges in environment and energy.” It was during this annual forum that U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton launched the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves (GACC) and committed $50 million to fund the deployment of 100 million cook stoves by 2020. As a member organization within the CGI, TPP is now eligible, along with other members of the GACC, to develop the effort globally and strategically. Because the commitment is a government resource, it is still unclear how TPP will access the funds or how they will be allocated. Like any good business, TPP will continue to follow its model. And, if and when they gain access to the GACC funding, it will just be "gravy."
To become involved with The Paradigm Project or to find out more information please visit www.theparadigmproject.org.

Emily Haggstrom has a B.A. in Journalism and Media from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a member of the Level One Society in Denver, Colorado and sits in on various charity committees. In an effort to impact her local community she also volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Inc. as well as Denver Health Medical Center.

This is a story of a 40 year old, Ann, a Kenyan Meru farmer who is HIV positive.

Prior to purchasing a stove, I used an expensive cooking method of three stones and a lot of wood causing a smoke filled kitchen and health problems, especially in the children. I purchased a bundle of firewood for $1.90, which lasted only three days. Frequently, our family skipped lunch to pay for dinner’s firewood.

The expense and danger of the wood burning stove made frying a luxury we could not afford. For example, boiling Githeri, a mix of dry maize and beans, consumed half of our firewood. I heard about the stove during a community visit, and after seeing the demonstration, I immediately signed up to purchase one. I’ve completely stopped using the firewood cooking method and have been using the stove for nine months.

It has entirely changed my family’s well-being—I no longer worry about the children’s safety and the smoke. Now I can eat meals before taking the medicine for my HIV. But now, the firewood I purchase lasts over a month and saves me $16.80. With the savings, I use the money for my children’s secondary fees. I love the huge savings, smokeless cooking, safety, design and family elevation the stove has given me. My hope is for a better future, savings and enjoyment by using the stove.

This is the story about a 40 year-old Mercy, a Kenyan Meru farmer.

I’ve used the stove for eight months to cook for a family of four. It saves on firewood, cooks fast, and is smokeless and safe for use around the children. We’ve seen health benefits by reduced hospital visits for colds and the flu. With the money saved, we are able to cook special meals like chapati, rice and even meat twice a week; previously these were luxuries. We only cooked twice a day before but manage three times now. With the heat that remains on the liner after cooking, we boil water for bathing and washing dishes. My family hopes the stove will be durable and bring an economical and brighter future. My teenage children enjoy the stove and borrow mine frequently. They have now asked me to buy one for them.

Leading Is Easier When You Have Supporters

By: Gayle Dendinger Issue: Collaborative Leadership Section: Inspirations

I’ve always felt strongly that the true measure of a leader comes not when they feel coerced or deprived of opportunities, but when they succeed because they wanted to, and not because they had to. People think of success as an achievement, something that comes about through positive action, but success can also be born out of loss, failure and even times of struggle.

With that said, it’s been a tough year. Actually, it’s been a tough two years. And while economists and forecasters alike say that the recession is over, it seems to hauntingly linger over a vast majority of the country. Capitalism, despite being battered and beaten, has once again persevered through the will and determination of entrepreneurs and leaders across the country who continue to thrive, despite the indelible economic conditions.

Author Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, describes companies who overcome the stigma of average by instituting simple concepts and structures that lead to exceptional performance. Therefore, it seemed only appropriate to feature the stories of businesses and leaders who forged new paths of success and did so with the help and collaboration of their teams and organizations.

Recently, I was informed about the collective steadfast of a company called Nucor Corporation, a North Carolina-based steel manufacturer. Over the past year, while the steel industry lost over two million jobs, Nucor retained 93 percent of its 20,400 person staff; not one job was lost to production layoffs because of the company’s “pay-for-performance” model. Because employees are paid out on performance, when times are good, the organization reaps in the rewards together and when times are bad, there are thousands of people who can empathize with the loss. So, while millions of people were out of a job, each person at Nucor was assured they would receive their benefits and a paycheck.

Even under the economic pressure and loss of production, Nucor managed to focus on other aspects of its company that could afford further improvements. Led by Dan DiMicco, Chairman, President and CEO, Nucor shifted its focus to improve the company’s health, safety and environmental footprint across the country. I was impressed that together, in spite of their loss, each and every employee responded by finding a new valuable way to affect the company. Nucor not only serves as an example of the “great companies” Collins describes, but as the epitome of connection and collaboration through market enterprise. As a business owner, I have seen first-hand how the trials and tribulations of the economy can unnerve a person to their core. Giving up may seem easy, but pushing through is much more gratifying. I find comfort in knowing that the spirit and resolve of great American capitalists seek to shine and thrive each day, and thrive regardless of what is thrown their way.

I hope you enjoy reading about some of the businesses and leaders that, despite economic pressure, have shown resilience, character and more importantly collaborated to lead their teams through the storm and find themselves better for it on the other side.

A Global Walk

By: Cristin Tarr Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Community Polly Letofsky headed west across four continents, 22 countries, and more than 14,000 miles – by foot – to become the first woman to walk around the world.

I had a business meeting late one afternoon with a woman who worked as a sales manager at a local hotel. I was anxious to get through the meeting quickly and go home to my three school-aged children. Little did I know that I was about to meet – Polly Letofsky – an extraordinary woman who had accomplished an extraordinary feat. I asked her my usual client questions, "What have you been doing the last few years? Where have you worked? Where have you lived and what is your favorite hobby?" She sat for a moment and said, "Well, I’ve spent the last five years walking around the world." Needless to say my attention focused and I wanted to hear her story.

The first steps of Letofsky’s "walk" sprouted at age 12. While growing up in Minneapolis, she read about a Minnesota man who had become the first to walk around the world. Inspired, she held the same desire, and wanted to be the first women to walk around the world.

The Inspiration to Walk

In the mid-1990s, several of Letofsky’s family members and friends were diagnosed with breast cancer. So, to ease her mind, she made an appointment with her doctor for a mammogram. Letofsky’s doctor said, "Don’t worry about getting a mammogram; you don’t have any risk factors. It doesn’t run in your family." With great relief, she shared this news with a friend, but her friend was outraged by the doctor’s advice—arguing that 80 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer have no known risks.

This was Letofsky’s "aha" moment. She thought, "How many women around the world have been told similar tales about breast cancer? How many women around the world have no idea that breast cancer exists?" That’s when she decided to walk for women—to educate women all over the world about the disease that bonds us all—breast cancer. And from that moment, the GlobalWalk for Breast Cancer Awareness was formed. Armed with passion and determination to inform women in every city, town, and rural village about breast cancer, Letofsky began her Guinness World Records-setting journey with very few sponsors and more than 14,000 miles to walk over four continents.

She was not walking for the record books, but rather, for women all over the world. Her hope was that in every country where she walked, she would be a voice to encourage local breast cancer organizations to spread the message of early detection and prevention. Because many countries have cultural sensitivities surrounding breast care, women are often not informed of the severity or the widespread impact of the illness. After two years of planning for the journey, Letofsky sold all of her belongings to fund the work, and she walked out of Vail, Colorado.

The Global Trek

She trekked across the western United States and flew to New Zealand first. After walking across New Zealand, with several substantial mishaps and money running short, she successfully arrived in Australia. In a small rural Australian town, Letofsky met a woman at a stoplight who asked what she was doing. That woman, Margaret, was the president of the local Lions Club; she invited Letofsky into her home that night. What Margaret did next changed the course of the GlobalWalk.

That night Margaret introduced Letofsky to the crowd at the local pub. When they heard her story, the patrons started passing around a hat for contributions to the cause, and within 15 minutes, that little Australian pub had raised $332 for the Breast Cancer Network-Australia. The next morning Margaret called the next Lions Club up the road, and the members took her out to their local pub for fundraising. Then, they called the next Lions Club, and they called the next Lions Club…and in short order, Letofsky found herself doing a 2,000 mile fundraising pub crawl up Australia’s east coast.

With the help of the Lions Clubs, Letofsky was safe every night with someone from the club hosting her with a warm meal and comfortable bed. What’s more, the Lions Clubs of Australia became the primary fundraising venue for the walk, where local excitement generated substantial exposure throughout the region. Their support inspired an entire country to rally behind Letofsky’s GlobalWalk for breast cancer awareness.

As she traveled on, breast cancer groups would hear her story on the radio and throw a fundraising afternoon tea when she walked through their town. The police would patrol "her" road to make sure she was safe. Cancer survivors would host fundraising dinners and "pass" her to the next breast cancer survivor up the road. Even McDonalds jumped on board—by feeding her and hosting fundraising events at every McDonalds up Australia’s Highway 1.

The Turning Point

Six months into the Australian leg of the walk, one of the Lions Clubs invited her to become a member. She agreed and her walk took a major turn. Now with the help of her Lions Club in Mackay, Queensland, Australia, Letofsky’s walk quickly turned into an unprecedented grassroots breast cancer campaign that stemmed from an army of local everyday people who cleared a path from village to village—through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Turkey and other exotic world locales.

While walking through Singapore and Malaysia, her work reached epic levels. As she entered these Muslim countries, she was repeatedly told by officials that she would not be able to talk about breast cancer. They were wrong. "The Lions Clubs are enormous in Southeast Asia, and are very highly regarded. They are planners, advocates, and community leaders, and when they talk, even the government listens," said Letofsky.

As a result of the persistent grassroots efforts of the Lions Clubs across the region, breast cancer was now being talked about in all five national newspapers—almost daily. The clubs arranged radio interviews, television appearances, and organized educational forums in small towns where they would invite a local doctor to talk to their local women. From these successes, the Lions Clubs in Malaysia recruited the Rotary Clubs to help with the advocacy work, who then invited the Red Cross, whose members decided to join the walk every day. Next, the Hash Harrier Running Clubs joined the walk.

With the number of walkers growing and the press coverage swelling, the government of Malaysia could no longer ignore what was happening. When Letofsky and her entourage of concerned citizens reached the capital of Kuala Lampur, they were met by a member of Parliament, Datuk Napsiah Omar, and 100 of her colleagues. Amid a ceremony filled with pomp and fanfare, Omar not only announced that she was starting a breast cancer awareness campaign in her region, but would urge the Malaysian government to subsidize annual mammograms for women aged 55 to 64. It was the first program of its kind in Malaysia.

Similar success stories continued as Letofsky plodded along at 3 miles per hour. After five years, she brought her GlobalWalk for Breast Cancer full circle spanning 14,124 miles, across 22 countries, wearing 29 pairs of shoes, and raising over $250,000 for 13 breast cancer organizations around the world.

Letofsky continues the legacy of her GlobalWalk for Breast Cancer awareness through her highly regarded motivational speaking engagements and outstanding documentary. In her newly released book 3mph: The Adventures of One Woman’s Walk Around the World, Letofsky highlights the successes of the walk and recounts the story that unfolded. She tells how, "truth was stranger than fiction when I took on the world by myself, but was never alone. Thousands of strangers came to my aid in many small ways and in record numbers. On average, 10 people a day for five years—or nearly 20,000 people—formed a human chain of collaboration around the world to help me, keep me safe, and bring me back to Colorado and ultimately spread the word of breast cancer awareness."

As I think about Polly Leftosky and her GlobalWalk, it confirms for me that people all over the world are better when we are working together. Letofsky proved it—a childhood dream undertaken with determination can prove transformative and can create of culture of collaborative action.

Where would the world be if we could all make a little step toward a big feat?

Cristin Tarr is the founder of Business Service Corps (BSC), an organization that helps companies develop, organize, implement, and measure community outreach programs. BSC maximizes corporate charitable and philanthropic outreach goals while minimizing the use of valuable resources, time and money to create a collective shared value. To learn more about BSC visit www.BusinessServiceCorps.com.

Edward D. "Ted" White

By: Catherine Porter Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Advisory Board Chair, Transaction Section Moye White LLP 1400 16th Street, 6th Floor Denver, CO 80202 Phone: 303.292.2900 Fax: 303.292.4510 [email protected] www.MoyeWhite.com

Rising to the top of one’s profession is difficult. Excelling simultaneously as an active member of one’s society is even more difficult, yet strong community leaders are distinguished by their ability to do exactly that. In this way, Edward "Ted" White has risen as a strong leader in Colorado.

A business lawyer by profession, White has been recognized as a leader in his field by many organizations and publications, including Best Lawyers in America, Colorado Super Lawyers, Denver Business Journal PowerBook, and as a Top Lawyer in Law Week Colorado. He was also awarded Best of Bar in International Trade and Finance by the Denver Business Journal in 2008.

However, White’s achievements outside of his work set him apart as a leader, not only in law, but also in Colorado. Currently chairman of the board of trustees for the Boettcher Foundation, White focuses his efforts with the other trustees and the staff on determining how the Boettcher Foundation can have the greatest positive impact given limited resources (Boettcher has a corpus of approximately $300 million). White is also a trustee or former trustee of many community organizations including: AWM Charitable Fund, Colorado Historical Foundation, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Botanic Gardens Endowment, Graland Country Day School, Kent Denver School, Porter Adventist Hospital, Schlegel White Foundation, Tenth Mountain Trail Association, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, the Webb-Waring Institute for Biomedical Research, and the Webb-Waring Foundation.

Additionally, White has met success both as the author of the book, Drafting Business Contracts, published in 2010, and as the founder and managing director of the Estabrook Funds, a multi-asset absolute return hedge fund, which is one of the first of its kind in the United States.

White’s interests in the community extend far beyond his job as a lawyer, where his most recent undertaking combined his profession with his interest in promoting international collaboration among the countries of the Americas. For the past two years, White has served as chair of the board of directors of the Denver Biennial of the Americas while his firm, Moye White LLP, donated over $150,000 in pro bono legal services to the event.

One of the largest international events in the country in 2010, The Biennial of the Americas consisted of dozens of events celebrating the innovation, sustainability, and arts of the thirty-five nations of the Americas. White and his board oversaw the event, which included a series of high-profile roundtable discussions and art exhibitions at forty venues throughout Colorado, from public art exhibits at Civic Center Park to performances by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. The Biennial of the Americas was the largest themed ideas festival in Colorado’s history.

White’s ability to step back and recognize the importance of the international community is apparent outside of his work with the Biennial. White's legal practice focuses on international law. He has worked on projects in each continent, with a focus on the Americas, and is currently the vice president of the International Alliance of Law Firms for which he serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Marketing Committee.

White’s primary full-time job is being a business lawyer with a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions, financings, and international projects. A "name partner" in the Moye White law firm, he is chairman of the firm’s Transaction Section and serves on the Management Committee.

White combines his extensive knowledge of commercial and investment markets to help clients purchase and sell companies, make strategic investments, arrange financing, and operate profitably. As a strategic partner, White helps clients discern opportunities and make strategic connections that add value to their business. He leads his clients to match their legal structure with business goals and navigate the complexities of growing their business.

White is also an arbitrator for complex commercial disputes through the American Arbitration Association. He has resolved dozens of commercial claims relative to matters such as international transactions, securities fraud, mergers and acquisitions, professional sports contracts, and other complex business issues.

The world is full of smart, talented people who are successful at their business or profession. What we need are more of them, who like White, keep a broader perspective and are willing to help for the sake of the community. These are the people who truly have a positive impact.

Stephen M. Werner

By: ICOSA Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Advisory Board Steve Werner Consulting 7970 South Vincennes Way Centennial, Colorado 80112 USA Office: 303.793.0932 Mobile: 303.809.8986 Fax: 720.306.3077 [email protected] www.SteveWernerConsulting.com

Steve Werner is a consultant working primarily with international nonprofit organizations by helping them to build stronger programs, fundraising plans, boards of directors, and long-term strategies. He served as executive director for Water For People, an international nonprofit organization based in Denver, Colorado, whose mission is to assist people in developing nations gain access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Werner also has worked for three of the largest and most successful nonprofit organizations in the United States. He rose rapidly to senior management positions with the American Cancer Society, CARE, and Habitat for Humanity International. He is knowledgeable in all aspects of nonprofit management, administration and fundraising.

Werner previously consulted for national and international organizations in the areas of fundraising and marketing. He also has expertise in the areas of board development and training, planning, advocacy, staff leadership training, and management systems. He developed a team of consultants with strategic planning, major gift fundraising, marketing, and board development expertise. He has served local, national, and international clients.

As senior vice president of programs for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) in Americus, Georgia, Werner was responsible for all house building, volunteer support, and ancillary programs that were carried out by 1,400 affiliate organizations in the U.S. and in 56 countries around the world.

Before HFHI, Werner was regional director for CARE, the international relief and development organization. He was based in Denver, Colorado, where he supervised the major gifts and public relations program for 10 states in the Midwest, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain regions.

Prior to CARE, Werner served as area director of the American Cancer Society (ACS) in San Antonio, Texas. He managed over 30 staff, who in turn managed a volunteer-based program which annually served over 2,000 cancer patients, educated over 500,000 people about cancer risks and prevention, and raised $2 million for cancer research and cancer control programs.

Werner is a fellow of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, and of the Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria. He is a past chairman of National Peace Corps Association, the Peace Corps alumni organization. He has also served in leadership positions with Rotary clubs, international festival organizations, and other community associations.

He and his wife, Patti, served together as Peace Corps volunteers in South Korea. They have three grown children. They have also served as foster parents for over 14 years.

David G. Thomson

By: ICOSA Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Advisory Board Founder and Chairman The Blueprint Growth Institute 14223 Eby Street Overland Park, KS 66221 Office: 408.593.5759 Mobile: 913.484.9178 [email protected] www.BlueprintGrowth.com

David G. Thomson is a bestselling author, advisor and speaker. He is the Founder and Chairman of The Blueprint Growth Institute, a specialized management-consulting firm focused on helping companies develop growth strategies and execute the 7 Essentials. His insights that identified the quantitative success pattern of America's highest growth companies—which he wrote about in his best seller Blueprint to a Billion—have been embraced globally. Thomson's Blueprint and 7 Essentials have been featured in media such as The New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, USATODAY, ABCNews.com, BusinessWeek.com, Korean Economic Daily and Sky TV (Australia). As a keynote speaker, he has presented to over 25,000 people and has been globally translated into multiple languages.

Thomson's newest research is identifying how America's growth companies are applying the 7 Essentials during recessionary times to become the leaders for the next growth cycles. He has synthesized these lessons in his recent book, released in 2010 from John Wiley & Sons, Mastering The 7 Essentials of High-Growth Companies. Jim Estill is both a seed investor and board member of Research in Motion (RIM). He commented that, Mastering The 7 Essentials of High-Growth Companies certainly applied to RIM in the early years. The principle of having a breakthrough proposition was the whole basis for the leading BlackBerry® business and because the smartphone market was in its infancy, it was clearly a high-growth market. In the early days to help RIM stay focused on research and development, they setup with co-CEOs. One focused on inside, and the other on outside research and development, while at the same time selling products/services and creating alliances with brand name service providers. David has nailed the essentials required to become a high-growth company."

Thomson's recent research report is GROWTHonomics: The Next 800 Companies to Lead America's Growth. He uniquely applies the quantitative "Blueprint" success pattern to identify the next companies, industries and states that will lead the next growth cycle through 2016. This research identifies that these companies will generate 3.4 million new jobs through 2016.

With the launch of Blueprint Growth Investors LLC, Thomson is uniquely linking management actions to the specific factors that drive shareholder value for high-growth companies. Based on three years of research with Standard & Poor's, Thomson can identify the financial and industry factors that maximize shareholder value and uniquely benchmark company performance based on fundamentals. The impact for management teams is a quantitative measurement of the impact of the 7 Essentials on shareholder value. For investors, Thomson has formed the Blueprint Growth Investors, LLC for private investors to invest in Blueprint Companies based on this quantitative approach.

Thomson has been studying and leading business growth for twenty years in general management and executive sales/marketing at Nortel Networks and Hewlett-Packard and as an associate principal during his five years at McKinsey & Company. Thomson graduated with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. Visit www.blueprintgrowth.com for more information and tools to help grow your business; The 7 Essentials Scorecard can help companies measure performance against each essential and The 7 Essentials Workshop will help teams define an actionable roadmap.

Young Leaders Connecting and Collaborating Globally

By: Luke Wyckoff Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Community

ICOSA:What is Junior Chamber International (known worldwide as JCI and in parts of the USA as the Jaycees)?

GREENLEE: The organization was started in 1915 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA to give young people an opportunity for leadership development and networking. Today, the organization has almost 200,000 young men and women between the ages of 18-40 in 120 countries, but there are millions of alumni members who have turned 40, like me. Many have gone on to be heads of state, hold other political positions, are leaders in non-government organizations (NGO), are business and corporate leaders, and are making a difference in many other ways around the world. The mission of JCI is: "To provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change," and the vision of JCI is: "To be the leading global network of young active citizens."

ICOSA: How did you get involved?

GREENLEE: Like most members, I had heard of JCI but was then asked to join and get involved by a current member. I was 23 at the time and looking for chances to meet people and help out my community, and JCI was the perfect vehicle to do both.

ICOSA: What is your most memorable moment as a member of JCI?

GREENLEE: Being elected the JCI world president for 2007 was a real highlight of my time in JCI and my life. Having the confidence of members from around the world and the opportunity to take a year and gain that experience, meet members and people from all over the world, and advance the interests of young people, was great.

ICOSA: As the JCI world president, what were you trying to "do" around the world? How many countries did you visit?

GREENLEE: The JCI president acts as the CEO of the organization for one year. During my tenure I oversaw the board of directors and the almost 100 global member appointments. I also oversaw a 25 member internationally-based staff; served as the chief spokesperson for JCI; and worked closely with our partners like the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations, and the Global Compact among others. I also helped to manage the finances while working to make JCI more attractive from a marketing and branding prospective. Our end goal was to increase the number of members, the number of countries JCI was in, and the number of people who were familiar with JCI. I visited 52 different countries that year, many of them multiple times, but have visited 76 total countries through my JCI activities.

ICOSA: Were some countries more receptive to your causes than others?

GREENLEE: Interestingly no. I found that young people around the world, as well as companies and governments share in the same goals of making a better world through active involvement. Different countries have different ideas of specific goals based on their economics, geography, population, etc., however, at the end of the day, each wants to always improve and be better and be involved. JCI is the way for young people to do that.

ICOSA: What were some of the biggest learning points you had from all of your travel?

GREENLEE: As I mentioned above, one of the most important things I learned was that most people share very basic, common goals. I also learned the value of staying in touch as a leader and a networker. One thing that I tried to do after every visit I made was to send a quick email of thanks to each person I met. I think that far too often we attend conventions, functions, or the like and come home with stacks of business cards that sit in a drawer. I made a conscious effort to reach out to each person I met so that I could build rapport, and in many circumstances it led to a higher level of activity in JCI and other business possibilities and deals over the years.

ICOSA: Tell me some stories about the great things that other international JCI chapters and national organizations are doing to better the world?

GREENLEE: Wow—there are so many! In Taiwan, the JCI group partners with the government and does an annual medical and dental relief trip to the Dominican Republic. JCI members in the Dominican work to set up the logistics on their end and Taiwan brings doctors and medicines over for a week to see as many people as they possibly can.

In Hong Kong, the JCI organization annually works with the All China Youth Federation to bring children from Hong Kong to China to provide educational experiences. In Europe, JCI annually visits Brussels for a knowledge transfer, where they meet with members of the EU to discuss issues they are facing as young people while sharing best practices. In Zimbabwe, JCI recognizes the most active citizens of the country for their good works. JCI Monaco runs business networking happy hours for people to meet various corporate leaders. Domestically, like in Victoria, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Indianapolis, Indiana; and at many other chapters throughout the U.S., JCI members and chapters take underprivileged children shopping at Christmas in an effort to make sure no child misses a holiday.

With over 5,000 chapters worldwide I could give you 5,000 different stories. And of course, these local organizations all run multiple projects every year where their members run the events, gain the experience from doing so and leave the community much better than they found it.

ICOSA: Going forward, where will JCI focus its attention?

GREENLEE: As a major NGO, JCI will stick with its mission and vision, and continue to look for more young people to get involved and gain leadership experience. JCI is also always looking to partnering with organizations and corporations around the world that share the vision of a better world through better future generations. JCI will continue to be a force for good and will become better known and recognized for its works and successes.

ICOSA: Why should someone be a JCI (Jaycee) Member?

GREENLEE: I have always said there are five good reasons for every person ages 18-40 to join JCI. The first and most obvious is leadership development. You can gain skills that will make you a more valuable employee and more marketable, while preparing you to run your own organization. Members gain experience in speaking, organizing, managing people and projects, and proper budgeting. Second, you have the chance to give back through JCI projects. I was raised in a home where I was taught no matter how tough things were, there were always people and things worse off than me and it was my responsibility to try to help out wherever I could. With JCI, you get to join with like-minded people from all over the world in making a real difference through real community service. Third, you will meet potential customers, partners, employers, and others that you would not come in contact with if you did not join and get active. I have met so many people just in my town from joining, not to mention interesting and influential people from my state, country, and the world. Fourth, you make lifelong friends. It is always great to get together with other active young people who share your ideas and want to accomplish things. These are people who are about your age and have similar values—what better people to have as friends? Finally, JCI is just plain fun.

ICOSA: How can corporate America and businesses around the world take advantage of their local JCI (Jaycee) Chapters?

GREENLEE: Great question for this group. Businesses and JCI groups working together are almost always a win-win proposition. Any business that wants a more prepared group of employees would love the training that JCI offers. In addition to the "learn by doing" mindset, there are seminars at local, state, national, and international levels that members can take. Additionally, there is a worldwide training program where members can become certified trainers or certified in various programs. Furthermore, many companies would like the networking that happens and the amount of people whom our members gain exposure to. Additionally, most companies have a CSR program and working with JCI can do a lot in the areas of charitable volunteer work. JCI is always looking for new partners at every level of the organization, so reach out to your local chapter in your town, or search the JCI website at www.jci.cc, or contact me directly at my personal email at [email protected]. I am always glad to help put people together in situations like this.

Luke Wyckoff is the Chief Visionary Officer for Social Media Energy. He can be reached at [email protected].

Lots of People Have Big Ideas, But Are They Really Changing the World?

By: Jan Mazotti Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Letter From The Editor The theme of this issue Big Ideas, Smart People...Changing the World was immediately interesting to me. I thought—lots of people have big ideas, but are they really changing the world?

What I found was the answer was, yes! Each big idea, led by a smart person in this issue is indeed changing the world—some in small ways, and some in enormous ways. And what I also found as I edited the stories was that there were common themes—traits if you will—of the "doers" in this issue.

Every person or organization began with a dream, whether it was to create the Internet, to create global peace, to change the way government is handled, to stomp out breast cancer, to bring light, or just to support a person with a warm meal and a compassionate ear.

The common thread throughout all of the stories in this issue is they begin with hope—a hope to create something, a hope to change something, a hope to make a difference. But more than that, each story has interwoven in its text, a message of perseverance, wherewithal, vision, optimism, and sheer will to accomplish the given goal. What’s more, the subjects of these stories embodied wisdom and grace during these life-changing endeavors.

Each story is inspirational in its own way, and reminds us that it only takes one person to make change happen. Whether famous or ordinary, each person/group represents a "doer", doing their part to change something in the world that is important to them.

Big or small, helping to change the world will happen only when you begin to do something! I hope you are as inspired as I am as you read this issue.

All the best,

- Jan Mazotti

I Am Inspired by Big Ideas and Smart People

By: Gayle Dendinger Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Letter From The Publisher

I am beyond ecstatic to be writing this letter to you. If it weren’t for some of the people featured in our magazine, I would not be typing this on the computer or submitting it via email to our editor. In this issue, we are featuring stories on people who are or have literally CHANGED THE WORLD!

JCI World President Scott Greenlee works with young individuals to start them down the path toward leadership. The organization, started in the early 1900’s, has successfully produced numerous corporate leaders.

Dr. Rick Hodes spends his days helping the poorest of the poor, treating spinal tuberculosis, scoliosis, heart disease, and cancer on the streets of Ethiopia.

Steve Werner works with international nonprofits to build stronger programs and strategies. He has been instrumental in deploying clean water and sanitation strategies in developing nations across Latin American, Africa, and Asia.

Colorado’s newest city, Centennial, focuses on high citizen engagement and involvement, purposefully lean and efficient government, and collaborative partnerships, in order to get the job done.

Ted White’s leadership and passion for the community extends far beyond his job as a lawyer.

Then there is Chuck Adelman who is working to revolutionize the entertainment industry by providing media programming dedicated to health, wellness, positivity, and global philanthropy.

Polly Letofsky is another "big ideas" person. She walked 14,000 miles over four continents to promote breast cancer awareness. Collaborating with various Lions’ clubs, Rotary Clubs, and the Red Cross, Letofsky successfully spread her message around the world.

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, revolutionized technology as we know it, all the while working using his skills in the community to relate and make change at a personal level.

Larry Roberts, the builder of the ARPANET, laid the foundation for the modern day Internet. He founded Telenet, now Sprint, which became the first commercial packet switching carrier in the world.

Vint Cerf, is one of the designers of the Internet as we know it today.

Or maybe it is one of the many Nobel Peace Laureates included in this issue.

Looking back over the last two years that ICOSA has been in existence, I am inspired by the connections and collaborations that occur with and between those within these pages. Whomever it is that influences, excites, or serves as a focal point for service—connect with them, share your ideas, and make the change in the world that you want to see.

-Gayle Dendinger

Business as Unusual

By: Adam Cohen Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Government

If there was a recipe to start a new municipality from scratch, someone should have let the founders of the City of Centennial know. "Iron Chefs" on the Food Network have more to work with than citizens in unincorporated Arapahoe County did in 1999 and 2000 when they set out to establish the City of Centennial.

But, on September 12, 2010, city founders and current city staff and officials celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Centennial’s incorporation – and whipped up some terrific pancakes in true "Iron Chef" fashion. Today, city founders and leaders emphasize hard work while good luck played a part in the smart decisions and actions that formed Centennial.

How they established the city in 2001 is a good, solid success story. However, it becomes a great story of exceptional accomplishment when you understand the principles the city was founded on: high citizen engagement and involvement, purposefully lean and efficient government, and collaborative partnerships.

Grassroots Support and a Few Miracles

Before a proposed annexation of commercial land by the City of Greenwood Village inspired the journey to incorporate Centennial, residents of unincorporated Arapahoe County didn’t want or expect much from government.

The city’s "founders," including Randy Pye, Brian Vogt, John Brackney, Ed Bosier, and Pete Ross mobilized support for the incorporation out on the front lines. They attended Homeowners Association (HOA) meetings, spoke at community groups and events, held over 100 "regional meetings," and even took their message to the streets, meeting and greeting local residents at area grocery stores and knocking on homeowners’ front doors.

Their message, stressing the opportunity for incorporation and self-determination, along with lean government and low taxes, instilled a sense of civic passion. Two years of public engagement, and navigating state legislature and Supreme Court hurdles resulted in a historic landslide vote: 77 percent of voters approved formation of the largest incorporated city in U.S. history, approximately 100,000 residents strong.

Cathy Noon is emblematic of the type of citizen engagement the city needed to succeed. She moved to unincorporated Arapahoe County from Aurora in 1999 and became involved in her HOA, leading to involvement in the Arapahoe County Citizens for Organized, Responsible Development (ACCORD) group, then the Centennial Council of Neighborhoods (CenCoN). Through ACCORD, Noon met Randy Pye, eventually succeeding him as chairperson. Next thing she knew, and completely outside of her comfort zone at the time, Noon found herself in front of a local King Soopers grocery story advocating for formation of the new city. She then volunteered to work on the Comprehensive Plan, Identity and Signage, Land Development Code, and Home Rule Charter committees. In 2009, Noon was elected Centennial’s second-ever mayor.

Pye was Centennial’s first mayor, serving two terms, from the city’s formation through 2009. Forming a new entity and positioning it for service requires determination and a little luck. One would expect former Mayor Pye to speak passionately about the hard work that characterized the city’s formation, but it’s his image of the "Centennial Miracle" that leaves a lasting impression.

The "Centennial Miracle" combines both determination and luck, seasoned with a heavy dose of inspirational vision. Pye reflects on the "miracles" that occurred to help the fledgling city get off the ground. "Whenever we needed something, the right people and the right resources would appear at the right time," according to Pye. Miracles come in all shapes and sizes, and Centennial’s miracles were many and varied.

Pro bono legal services helped navigate state legislative and Supreme Court hurdles. Then, a local bank donated rent-free office space to the city. Professional public relations experts stepped up to help Pye and his team communicate with the public. Contacts through the Colorado Municipal League resulted in the hiring of a part-time city manager, Mark Achen, whose vision was perfect for the job. The part-time manager brought in the first full-time city manager, John Pazour, a finance expert whose acumen helped the City stabilize funding, cut expenses, and transition smoothly from Arapahoe County services. Today’s city manager, Jacque Wedding-Scott, was hired by Pazour and was an immediate cultural fit with the organization.

Founder Brian Vogt called early citizen engagement "awe-inspiring," saying that Centennial’s citizens "represent everything America is supposed to be." Pye and his initial 2-person city staff relied on citizens as volunteers, with literally hundreds of unpaid citizens helping the city get on its feet. Along with the other founders, Mayor Pye spent hundreds of hours asking citizens, "What do you want Centennial to be?" He listened, learned, and implemented their vision of limited basic services, low taxes, and high customer service.

In 2007, Pye led a Centennial 2030: Our Voice, Our Vision visioning process to capture and consolidate citizen, business, and community expectations, needs, and dreams for the city. And, this guiding vision continues to set the path forward. As part of an annual city council strategic planning workshop, Mayor Noon reports that participants "tie their priorities back to Our Voice, Our Vision, to ensure our priorities meet what we said we are about." City Manager Wedding-Scott and her team also link their operational activities, budgetary requests, and performance measures to Our Voice, Our Vision.

Today, city leaders rely on citizen input and engagement as much as ever to understand how changing citizen demographics and service expectations affect operations. For example, a majority of citizens participating in a "Snow and Ice Plan" outreach effort decided that they preferred to travel an extra eighth of a mile to access a major plowed street rather than pay extra for additional side street clearing.

And, citizen survey results just came back in late 2010, giving the city an opportunity to do what Mayor Noon calls "assess and address" or analyze the data and take action. S.M.A.R.T. Government and Its Partners

Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Timely. The acronym S.M.A.R.T. describes a popular template to establish business goals. However, city leaders use the template to guide performance measures and targets for their operational activities. At the same time, beyond a goal-setting device, S.M.A.R.T. is what Centennial’s Business As Unusual approach to government is all about.

Dubbed an "intentional city" by Pye, Centennial strives to keep taxes low and provide superior services. Researching municipal service models from California to Florida, talking with Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, and exploring Indianapolis’ experiences in consolidating government, Pye’s team settled on a contract services model designed to keep city staff lean, minimize bureaucracy, and optimize resources with little or no redundancies.

Operation of the contract services model is based on a simple principle: establish service level expectations and find the best, most affordable way to fulfill them. "It’s other people’s money," Noon says. "Our number one goal has to be efficiency."

In its staffing, the city intentionally eliminated elected city clerk and city attorney positions, staples of most municipalities, finding that city staff could handle regulatory compliance activities of the clerk, and a service-for-fee arrangement with an outside legal practice made more sense than in-house legal services.

City Manager Jacque Wedding-Scott describes a process by which city staff prepares in-house cost-comparative models for all services. Wedding-Scott’s team constructs apples-to-apples cost models before soliciting bids for contracted services. This discipline ensures fairness to the contractors and also enables city staff to hone in on operational needs and cost categories that make or break successful service delivery. Staff analyzes in-house and solicited estimates relative to service levels, and then makes recommendations to city council.

The city’s service contracts range from police and public safety (to public-sector Arapahoe County Sheriff), to public works (to private-sector CH2M HILL), but contracting outside the city is not a fait accompli. Balancing service level needs, cost, and contract administration challenges led the city to reject outside bids for land use and community development in favor of in-house performance. Wedding-Scott credits the "the right leader," Director Wayne Reed, for bringing experience and a collaborative style to the job.

Wedding-Scott, whose first official duty as city manager in 2006 was to field blizzard-emergency calls from citizens, knows that service contracting comes with successes as well as headaches. Contracting police services to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office resulted in accolades as Colorado’s safest city for the sixth straight year, and Sheriff Grayson Robinson "gets our culture of excellence," according to Wedding-Scott. Englewood-based CH2M HILL brings a unique high-performance culture and partnering expertise from more than 30 years of municipal contracting around the world.

Still, the city experiences challenges such as building service expectations and cultural values into contracts, ensuring contractors actively portray the city’s unique brand and culture in public, clarifying contract roles and responsibilities, and integrating contractor staff into city management activities without violating employer-employee legal boundaries.

Don’t bet against Centennial’s contracting model, which Wedding-Scott calls "intriguing from a government and governance perspective," as its creative staff and contract-partners tackle these issues.

Sustaining a Legacy

Starting a city from scratch and building a non-traditional culture of excellence is challenging enough, so how will the city leverage what it has learned and grow "smartly" into its adolescence and beyond?

Creating a sense of place and an identity remain challenges. Citizens prefer lean government, and the city has delivered with only 50 full-time employees, limited services, and contract partnerships. However, successes abound, such as the recent redevelopment of The Streets at Southglenn, the soon-to-open IKEA store, cost-share funding for County Line/Chester turn lane, Arapahoe/Parker Road improvements, and recognition awards from Colorado Performance Excellence and the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

With success comes tough choices that face the city now and into the future, like balancing commercial and residential needs, responding to a changing demographic with an average citizen age of over 40, managing precious financial and human resources, and staying focused on its unique brand of government. And, the city’s success and commitment to non-traditional government means it is under the microscope.

Former Mayor Pye believes the city must continue to challenge itself to do what makes sense for the citizens whose aspirations and expectations created Our Voice, Our Vision. He emphasizes listening to citizens and keeping them involved in problem-solving so they retain ownership in the outcomes. "Always create a coalition," Pye says, "and remember that people are drawn to a vision."

Centennial continues its legacy of strong, active neighborhoods. No Colorado city of its size had a greater response to mail-in 2010 Census returns—83 percent—placing it third nationally for like-sized cities. According to founder John Brackney, "An active and engaged citizenry is the essential element of all vibrant cities. The city was founded on the principal of self-determination and that culture remains strong. We all have a role in effective government. Involvement is not something that can be delegated or ‘hired out.’ "

Mayor Noon puts the 10-year journey into perspective. "Take time to celebrate where we have come from and who we are," she says. "Then, take a deep breath and work hard to do what we do to the best of our ability." She regards the "incredible" staff, their responsiveness and accessibility, and their tremendous commitment as the keys to sustaining a high level of service and culture of efficient, small government. Noon encourages the city to challenge itself to find better ways to operate by thinking outside the box, comparing performance to other cities, and finding public-private partners who bring fresh and innovative thinking to the table.

Leadership is a contact sport and, just like in business, an organization’s level of success rises and falls with the ebbs and tides of its leadership. Wedding-Scott believes the city’s success relies on its elected officials, management team, staff, and citizens alike to demonstrate leadership.

"It’s not the model, it’s the governance," says Wedding-Scott. "Can the vision be sustained as community leadership evolves? It depends on how they embrace the vision."

Adam Cohen, principal of Accelerant Performance Solutions, lives nearby Centennial in unincorporated Arapahoe County. He helps organizations achieve and sustain high strategic, operational, and human performance. Contact him at [email protected].

We Have it in Our Reach to Make the World Better

By: Jan Mazotti Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Nobel

Many people could not tell you where East Timor is or who Jose Ramos-Horta is. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, is a small country in South East Asia located just northwest of Darwin, Australia, and Ramos-Horta is its president. It is a country with a complex and challenging history.

As an integral figure in the politics of East Timor, Ramos-Horta has helped to lead the country to its independence from Indonesia. His efforts began in the early 1970s when his political activism against the "Portuguese empire" caused him to flee the country for more than two decades. Three days after leaving, Indonesian forces invaded his tiny country and approximately 200,000 people, almost one-third of the country’s population, were killed, including his brothers and sisters. Ramos-Horta said, "The most frustrating thing was the hypocrisy and duplicity, of countries like the United States, that preached human rights and democracy, yet were supplying weapons and aircraft to Indonesia, which was bombing East Timor. One of my own sisters was killed by a U.S.-supplied aircraft."

Jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo, the men hoped the award would bring international attention to the widespread abuses in the country by acting President Suharto. And it did. It brought visibility to the problems in East Timor and caught the attention of President Clinton. In May 1998, the people of East Timor held an independence vote where more than 78 percent of people voted to break the ties with Indonesia. Then, in 1999 President Clinton played a pivotal role in helping put international pressures on Indonesia to formally free the country. Ramos-Horta returned after the vote, and the country was declared independent in 2002.

Having served as East Timor’s foreign minister and prime minister, in May 2007, Ramos-Horta assumed the role of president. In what has been described as an attempted coup, in February 2008, Ramos-Horta was shot by a renegade soldier. Living through the assassination attempt, Ramos-Horta began his journey to build up East Timor’s rich and untapped oil, gas, and mineral resources in a smart and beneficial way. He wanted for his people to make more than the average $2.00 day and wanted the malnutrition in his country to end. A positive force, Ramos-Horta has publicly acknowledged his strategy toward Indonesia by saying, "I don’t like to rub salt in the wounds of people who I know have lost. For me, the great principle is in victory—be magnanimous. Be magnanimous toward adversaries who feel that they have lost. Try to make them feel like they didn’t lose and that we all won." Because of his ability to be magnanimous, his country has made enormous progress over the last two years.

President Ramos-Horta graciously agreed to talk to us for this issue of ICOSA, reflecting on his own life and political ordeals. When asked about his greatest accomplishments and motivations, he directed the answer back to the people of his country and said, "The true heroes in my own situation, in my country, are the unknown people, the common people." He said that when he arrived back in East Timor in 1999, he was received like a national hero, which embarrassed him because the people of his country were really the ones who had endured 24 years of occupation without losing hope. "Thousands and thousands of people came to the streets to welcome me, and wherever I went in the following days and weeks, there were thousands more. The real heroes, the Timorese people, taught me a tremendous lesson in humility. In the face of their greatness—the greatness of giving me the status of being a national hero—they were the real heroes. It really humbled me – it was overwhelming," he said.

Reflecting on the global situation, relative to when Ramos-Horta began his work, he discussed globalization and the indifference that is often commonplace with development. He said that 50 years ago (or maybe less) the West—specifically the rich in the West—seemed to be immune and indifferent to the problems in the developing world But as a result of globalization, of global interconnectedness, and the fast movement of people and of goods, the rich no longer feel so immune from events that happen elsewhere in the globe. He said, "I’m not talking only about terrorism. I’m talking about diseases. We have had in recent times the threat of Avian Flu, of SARS, and HIV. Globalization has brought diseases that have been eliminated in the West, but are still prevalent in many developing countries. And, these diseases might come to the shores of the western countries, if the developed countries don’t do enough to eliminate them." According to Ramos-Horta it is the inevitability of globalization—both negative and positive that, "forces humanity to realize that our destinies are intertwined. We have to work together for the common good of humanity."

When discussing current events and his concerns, Ramos-Horta said much of the world’s issues are rooted in ignorance, lack of vision and lack of compassion. He commented, "If you have people who are uneducated, then they are more vulnerable to manipulation, brainwashing and instigation by demagogues, whether political or religious, irresponsible demagogues." To combat the problem, he says we must provide better education, more access to the Internet, more access to news, and more access to books that teach respect and tolerance for each other. "It is the only way you can defeat the evils of the demagogues, whoever they are."

He went on, "My greatest fear is that because of lack of vision, lack of compassion, and because of absence of leadership in the United States, in Europe and in other countries, we are moving further and further towards alienation, towards a real clash of cultures and people. I believe that we will see a clash of civilization where there will be rampant violence all over the world—in the streets of Europe, in the streets of the United States. That would be an enormous tragedy and unforgivable because we have it in our hands, in our reach, to change—to make the planet and the world a far better one that we are living in today."

Believing in the rights of people to self-determination, Ramos-Horta supports the Timorese in their quest for territorial independence, not just through language and culture, but for the protection of their lands from, "rapacious multinationals." Committed to a three-pronged plan to settle historical conflicts, Ramos-Horta is well on his way on behalf of his country to bring humanitarian awareness to East Timor through the release of prisoners and with the end of torture. He is further committed to genuine political autonomy and has publicly stated that East Timor will have no standing army and will create a Zone of Peace and Development.

When asked about his plans for the next decade, Ramos-Horta prefers to set modest goals, with a focus on one or two issues that are indeed achievable. "I know we can eliminate extreme poverty from the face of the Earth. We can and must bring clean water to villages, enhance education, and bring modern information with the international community led by countries like the United States and Europe, but working with other countries like India, Brazil, China, Japan—the powers that be—because they have the resources and the know-how."

Another of Ramos-Horta’s goals is to work with everyone concerned—with schoolteachers, with parents, with community leaders, with church spiritual leaders to eliminate prejudice and ignorance that is easily appropriated and manipulated by agitators who spread hatred. He says that we must address the issue that, "...causes phenomena like we have today with international terrorists where they make each and every one of us uncomfortable and feel insecure in our homes or when we travel."

He went on, "If people are extremely poor, if they feel they have been excluded, well, they are easily manipulated. If they are uneducated—if they have no access to education—we leave the demagogues— the religious demagogues, the political demagogues—to feed them with propaganda and false information about others. The two are inextricably linked. If we would set those two goals, I believe we could defeat the forces of hatred and prejudice."

The Peace Corps - Rotary Connection

By: Arianne Burger Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Community For those who have served in the Peace Corps, the journey is never over. We return home from our countries of service seeing the world with a new perspective and possessing a determination to live our lives in a meaningful way. That new-found determination leads us to seek experiences at home that are as important as our service and that oftentimes leads Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) to Rotary International.

Sue Fox had an idea. As a returned volunteer from Liberia (1968-‘70) and a past-president of the Denver Rotary Club, she knew that there was a natural connection between Rotary and Peace Corps. She felt that, "RPCVs and Rotarians are kindred spirits, seeking the same goals embodied in Rotary’s motto, ‘Service Above Self.’" She followed up on her idea by bringing together a group of Rotarians and RPCVs in November, 2009.

Since that November morning, the "Tiger Team," named after Fox’s aging Golden Labrador Tiger, has met on numerous occasions and made incredible progress on formalizing how an official partnership between Peace Corps and Rotary International could work. The committee has grown to include other non-RPCV Rotarians, representatives from the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Colorado, as well as the Peace Corps Community at the University of Denver. Together, the team has drafted a resolution to Rotary International, proposing that a formal alliance be formed between the two organizations that will serve as a prototype for similar alliances between Rotary and the international volunteer service organizations in many countries around the world. Conversations have also been held with top members of the Peace Corps administration, who are also keen on moving forward with the idea.

The Goal

Connect Rotarians with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

There are teams of Rotarians working on projects around the world. Many times, representatives from clubs in the U.S. will travel to other countries to provide technical assistance with those projects. While technically prepared for the work ahead, many Rotarians are not as culturally prepared for what they will encounter while abroad. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, however, have a fundamental understanding of cultural mores in their countries of service. By connecting outbound Rotarians with RPCVs, they can provide valuable information that can lessen the culture shock and provide an easier working environment for the new volunteers. It has in fact worked. A team from the Meade, Colorado club visited Nicaragua in the fall of 2010, armed with valuable cultural information and connections to the "in-country" Peace Corps office, provided by three RPCVs who had recently returned from their service. The connection was facilitated by Rotarian and Tiger Team member, Ted Bendelow, who just happens to be a member of the RPCV of Colorado (Liberia 1964-‘66).

Connect Outgoing Peace Corps Volunteers to Rotary Clubs Both Here and Abroad

Once abroad, many Peace Corps Volunteers create projects that require funding as well as technical expertise. By formalizing a relationship between the Peace Corps and Rotary clubs, groups both here and abroad could be connected to these projects and provide either financial or technical support. Judy Beggs, an RPCV from Senegal and member of Englewood Rotary started a nonprofit called Friends of Gueoul, whose mission is to educate girls in the village of Gueoul. She received a large matching grant from the Rotary Foundation to build a computer classroom in Gueoul, and Peace Corps Senegal has assigned a new Small Enterprise Development Volunteer to the project, with a PCV assigned to it for a total of six years (three tours) to maximize the possibility of the facility becoming self-sustaining. This is just one example of the ad hoc partnerships that are already underway around the world between Rotarians and Peace Corps Volunteers.

Create a Stronger Community of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers by Introducing Them to Rotary International

Many of the RPCV-Rotarian members of the District 5450 Rotary-Peace Corps Alliance Committee have found kindred spirits in their fellow RPCV-Rotarians. Sue Fox has found that, "Rotary gives Returned Volunteers the opportunity to continue their service to the world while they are occupied with careers and family responsibilities. And it even offers a way to teach these values to their children."

Steve Werner, RPCV (South Korea 1976-‘78) and 23-year member of Rotary Club of Denver Southeast, assisted Fox in the creation of the committee because he felt that the partnership would, "Generate more members for each other's programs and create more fellowship among the constituents of each organization who believe in service above self and world peace." Steve has a long history with both organizations, having served as Chair of the Board of the National Peace Corps Association.

Charlie Hunt, RPCV (Vanuatu 2006-‘08) joined Rotary later in his career. After returning to the U.S in 2008 and settling in Denver with his wife, Nancy Cole, Hunt started his own project back in Vanuatu with the support of his LoDo Rotary Club in Denver. The LoDo club is working to demonstrate how to use smokeless cook stoves to the rural women of Vanuatu. Hunt has connected his home club with the Vanuatu Port Vila Rotary Club through Assistant District Governor Robert Bohn. His club and the New Zealand District are supportive of the project.

Hunt contacted the program and training officer at the Vanuatu Peace Corps office to ask if the cook stove demonstration could be provided through their 15 Community Health Volunteers who work in the Shefa Province. Peace Corps Vanuatu approved the project, so now Hunt is working with the Peace Corps and his Rotary club to determine the next steps. Currently, the LoDo Club will facilitate a demonstration in the rural villages with Peace Corps Volunteers monitoring usage to see if the village women will consistently use the clean stoves.

Peace Corps Volunteers and Rotarians have been working together for years on projects such as the ones described. And, as Peace Corps celebrates its 50th anniversary in March 2011, we believe it is time to formalize this partnership so that future generations of Rotarians and Peace Corps Volunteers can continue the legacy of promoting peace and fellowship throughout the world.

Arianne Burger is RPCV (Kazakhstan 1999-2001) and serves as President, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Colorado. To learn more about how your club can work together with RPCVs in your community, or to share your own success stories of Peace Corps/Rotary collaborations, please contact Sue Fox at [email protected].

President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oscar Arias

By: Maria Luna Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Nobel Leaders have stories; it’s what makes history.

"In any Costa Rican town, you will find a school built, equipped or staffed with money we spent on students rather than soldiers. In any Costa Rican city, you will find clinics and hospitals of the universal health care system created on money we spent on doctors and medicines instead of guns and bombs. Walking along any Costa Rican street you will find happy school children who have never seen a tank or machine gun. And in our forests, and skies, and seas you will see not troops, or armed helicopters, or submarines but rather centennial trees, colorful toucans, and unique underwater ecosystems that are the legacy of Costa Rica; that is the story we’ve chosen," said Óscar Arias at a recent speech.

President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias’ continued progress for the promotion of peace and environmental conservation spans from the beginning of his first presidency in 1986 to the present. Originating from a country that abolished its standing army in 1948, Arias has extensive knowledge of creating security without a military. Former President Arias describes his country’s path to de-militarization as a, "story of a people who choose to make their destiny a different one."

He went on, "It is a story that is not yet finished and needs all of your help to give it a fitting end. This story began in 1948—the year Costa Rica was gripped by civil war. That year the clash between armies yielded a winner, and the war came to an end. Most importantly of all however, it was the year when our soldiers finally laid down their weapons. It was the year that my country decided that they would never pick up those weapons again. My country decided that its fathers and cousins, brothers and friends, would never again transform themselves into agents of violence. My country became the first in history to abolish its army and declare peace to the world."

In 1948, Arias was only eight years old and knew little of the impacts of his country’s decision, except that as he grew up, so too did Costa Rica’s commitment to peace. Today, Costa Rica is a bio-diverse rainforest of blooming almond trees and Coprinus mushrooms. There are over 10,000 types of vascular plants, bromelaids, epiphytes and vines, 1,500 species of orchids, great green macaws, red-eyed leaf frogs, green basilisks, orange-chinned parakeets, two-toed sloths, crimson-collared tanagers, and the northern tamandua. What’s more, Costa Rica’s rainforests are the foundation for security in three ways—education, jobs, and health. Costa Rica’s focus on the preservation of its world renowned rainforests is only part of the solution to being ecologically responsible. The rainforest creates jobs and promotes a healthy society.

When asked how companies or individuals could positively engage in environmental conservation and humanitarian efforts, Arias gave several examples like The Peace with Nature Initiative. He commented that Costa Rica has a tradition of being very ecologically minded—with more than 25 percent of its territory environmentally protected and more than half of its territory covered with trees. The Initiative proposes to make Costa Rica carbon neutral by the year 2021, the 100 year celebration of independence. "It will be quite a challenge. I don’t know if we can accomplish that. Certainly, individuals as well as companies can help us to achieve these goals," he said.

Instituting carbon neutrality is difficult in industrialized countries like China and the U.S. because of growth and industry. Arias said, "They are not really committed to cut CO2 emissions as the world deserves. It seems to me that, what we need is to change the prevailing value system, because the values that have prevailed in the past century and in this one are greed and selfishness. People have put profits before principles. With those values it is going to be very difficult to really live in a more peaceful world."

Arias argued that the arms trade is the best example of putting profit before principle—and he used the example of selling the arms to poor countries that do not need them simply because countries want to make a profit. "The U.S. is about to sell $60 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East. Eventually Israel is going to purchase more weapons or produce more weapons because the U.S. is selling arms to other countries, modern and friendly countries, but still fueling more conflict in the Middle East. This is a very good example of putting profits before principles," he said.

Currently, Arias’ organization is working on an arms trade treaty that was introduced to the U.N. during his presidency, which would inhibit the sale of weapons around the world. "The world is spending $1.5 trillion on arms and soldiers. Latin America is spending $60 billion on arms and soldiers. I come from a country without an army for 60 years. I think that it’s the worst perversion to spend on arms—to keep purchasing weapons that are not needed—instead of educating our kids. Latin America has never been more democratic than now, yet we still continue purchasing sophisticated weapons that we do not need." He went on, "There is a different mindset in children who have never seen a tank, an armed helicopter, or a missile. Their values are different. In Costa Rica, we spend 70 percent of gross domestic product on education and 8.5 percent of GDP on healthcare. It’s a very peaceful country and a very democratic country," articulated Arias.

As I talked to President Arias, his passion for this subject grew. He went on to discuss the eight nuclear weapons states—the U.S., Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel—who combined, possess more than 7,500 nuclear weapons ready to be deployed at any time. He reiterated that military expenditures reached $1.5 trillion last year, representing 2.7 percent of the world’s GDP. "This is nothing less than an outrage, an immoral failure. Just think of what we could have achieved with a fraction of those funds. If the world reduced its military spending by just 25 percent, we could buy 1.9 billion computers, or one laptop per child. That means not just every child in Costa Rica or every child in Latin America, but every child in the developing world would walk into her classroom tomorrow and find her own laptop waiting for her," he proclaimed.

Arias went on, "Let us say that reduction seems too extreme—if the world reduces its military spending by just 10 percent we could provide scholarships like those I instituted in Costa Rica to keep kids in school, 153 million high risk young people for an entire year. If 10 percent is still too much, with a reduction of just five percent, we could buy enough mosquito nets to protect the entire population of the developing world from malaria three times over. With a reduction of just one armed helicopter, we could provide school lunches for thousands of children throughout our schools. With a reduction of just one combat plane, we could protect dozens of square miles of primary forest. With a reduction of just one soldier’s salary, we could pay for at least one English teacher. Or with a small change, we could equip all homes with electricity, or achieve universal literacy, or eradicate preventable diseases. That is what we would gain if we put an end to our Russian Roulette of military spending. Our countries would never then be the same!"

The recent disaster in Haiti provides additional fodder for Arias’ position. While there was no way to prevent the earthquake and hurricanes in Haiti in 2010, Arias argues that the world could have prevented what followed. "With just one-fifth of one percent of world military spending—that’s 0.2 percent—we could have built a safe home for every single family in Haiti left homeless by the earthquake and provided clean drinking water for every single Haitian, thus preventing the cholera epidemic. We could have built a brand new hospital, provided a hot meal for all of Haiti’s children every single day, and put all of those children through a year of school. Their suffering only continues because of the world’s priorities."

Of course, there are those who would argue that cutting military spending would be risky and dangerous. But President Arias purports that the global village indeed risks more by staying the same; that the world is more dangerous when it values profits over peace. He says choices are not out of a matter of necessity but that they are a matter of will. "The greatest reason for the failure of the international community to become part of this story of peace is the fact that around the world too many people do not believe that the story is possible—they just don’t buy it," Arias said.

To help world leaders gain buy-in to the "story of peace," Costa Rica is pursuing three projects that are aimed at changing perceptions and attitudes. The Costa Rican consensus, an initiative of Arias’ recent administration, creates mechanisms to forgive debts and use international financial resources to support developing nations that spend more on environmental protection, education, healthcare, and housing for the people and less on arms and soldiers. Arias is convinced that this approach will bring greater development, greater security, and greater peace than all the money that is now set aside for militaries.

Another pursuit is an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which prohibits the transfer of arms to states, troops or individuals if sufficient reason exists to believe that the arms will be used to violate human rights or international law. During his last administration and after more than a decade of hard work, the Treaty was taken under consideration by presidents and prime ministers, before congresses and parliaments, as well as the United Nations.

In his closing statements, Arias said, "I make this call to you today with every bit as much passion and conviction because every voice raised in favor of these efforts will help make them a reality. My hope for the future is that if we want to be a more peaceful world, we need to change our value system."

As a Noble Peace Prize laureate, President Arias motivates individuals to take part in creating a future of peace and sustainability, of course leading by example and making history. He wants people to contemplate creating their own "story."

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Óscar Arias was elected President of Costa Rica: 1986-1990, 2006-2010.

President Arias was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for his promotion of peace in Central America.

On August 7, 1987, President Óscar Arias’ Peace Plan was signed by five countries—Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica—which called for a cease-fire, the granting of amnesty to political prisoners, and the holding of free and democratic elections.

According to the latest Gallop World Poll, Costa Rica is the happiest nation on the planet (2010).

The Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress is a Costa Rican nonprofit, civil society organization. It was created in 1988 with the endowment from the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to its founder and then-President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Dr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, in recognition of the efforts that led to the achievement of a "firm and everlasting peace" in Central America. The Foundation is dedicated to the consolidation of peace and the building of safer, fairer, and more democratic societies.

To participate or donate in President Arias’ efforts, visit http://www.peacewithnature.org or visit the Arias Foundation at http://www.arias.or.cr.

Leadership to Protect Human Dignity is a Duty

By: Ben Bryan Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Nobel

Aung San Suu Kyi, as the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), a major political party in Burma, undertook a speaking tour of her country in the spring of 2003. While travelling in a convoy with many of her supporters on May 30th of that year, an armed attack took place, widely believed to be an assassination attempt by Burma’s ruling military junta.

Because of the courage of her driver, Suu Kyi narrowly escaped injury, but 70 of her followers were beaten to death. This was but one of the many instances of violence perpetrated on the people of Burma, now known as Myanmar, by its totalitarian dictators. Although such violence has been widespread in Myanmar since the country’s representative democracy was crushed in 1962, it was the closest and certainly most personal brush with violence suffered by the Lady, as Suu Kyi is widely and adoringly known, since she became the leader of the pro-democracy opposition in Myanmar in 1988.

Following the assassination attempt, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest "for her own protection." This marked her third protracted stay under house arrest, totaling 15 years between 1990 and 2010. While under house arrest, the Lady was prevented from being by her dying husband’s side, who passed away in 1999, and she now has grandchildren that she has never met.

The Nobel Prize

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while she was under house arrest for the first time. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited her "nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights," and noted her "interest in Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent protest".

In November 2010, Myanmar’s governing junta released Suu Kyi after nearly seven years of house arrest. Her release was a major international news story, demonstrating her global standing as a pro-democracy leader and icon. More importantly, her followers in Myanmar appeared as devoted and jubilant as ever, and to the presumed dismay of the country’s military leadership that must have hoped for an "out of sight, out of mind" outcome, her popularity among the people of Myanmar had not diminished. She drew a crowd of thousands to a rally the day after her release.

Despite her personal suffering at the hands of the junta and the continuing violence perpetrated by the junta on the people of Myanmar, and at one time directed to her personally, Aung San Suu Kyi has remained steadfast in her nonviolent principles. She professes no grudge or resentment against the ruling generals. She continues to adhere to the moral high ground. The New York Times, reporting from the rally featuring Suu Kyi the day after her release, commented "... she had emerged with her popularity and moral authority intact."

Preaching nonviolence and promoting reconciliation does not mean Aung San Suu Kyi shrinks from confrontation. In fact, her November 2010 rally, just after release, and subsequent public appearances were direct challenges to the military and simply a renewal of the confrontational style that has been a hallmark of her pro-democracy leadership since 1988.

The Daughter of a Hero

Born into a prominent Burmese family in 1945, Aung San Suu Kyi shied away from direct involvement in her country’s politics until events compelled her to step forward in 1988. That year in Burma is sometimes compared to the 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia—a time of popular uprising against a repressive regime. In Burma’s case, the regime agreed to democratic elections, and Suu Kyi helped to form the NLD, becoming its general secretary.

Suu Kyi’s father, Aung San was the commander of the Burma Independence Army in the 1940’s and was a key figure in Burma’s struggle to break free of British colonial rule. Still regarded as a national hero, Aung San was assassinated in 1947 when his only daughter was two years old, and just six months before Burma gained independence.

As the child of a privileged family, Aung San Suu Kyi spent many of the first 30 years of her life abroad. She was educated at Oxford University in the mid-1960’s and worked at the United Nations in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when fellow countryman U Thant was Secretary-General. She married an Englishman, Michael Aris, in the early 1970’s and they had two sons.

Returning to Burma in March 1988 to care for her ailing mother, Suu Kyi was galvanized by the rapid political changes and ensuing popular protests that took place that spring, as well as the repressive response by the ruling dictators. Soon she was speaking before crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands, espousing Buddhist values and Gandhian principals of nonviolence. The NLD rapidly became the leading political party in the run up to the elections. In a speech on August 26, 1988 she said, "I could not, as my father’s daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on."

However, by 1989, Suu Kyi’s popularity and uncompromising criticisms of the military and its tactics resulted in her being prohibited from personally standing for election and her first house arrest. She undertook a hunger strike that succeeded in guaranteeing better treatment of anti-government student protesters.

The NLD won 82 percent of the seats in the new parliament despite her detention, a result so anathema to the military that it refused to sanction the result, and the nascent democracy movement in Burma was crushed.

Myanmar has today emerged from a long period of isolation to recognize its strategic geopolitical importance as a country bordering both China and India. Those countries are now competing for Myanmar’s abundant natural resources, promising economic revitalization in the face of a long-standing U.S.-led economic boycott. Emboldened, the military regime in Myanmar held elections in November 2010, the first in 20 years.

Still under house arrest, Suu Kyi called for a boycott of the elections, which were widely perceived in the West to be a sham. As a result of the boycott, the NLD was stripped of its political rights, and a new constitution containing clauses specifically designed to keep Aung San Suu Kyi from ever serving as Myanmar’s leader were enacted.

Symbolically released from house arrest just a week after the sham elections, an undeterred Suu Kyi told The New York Times that she intends to lead a nonviolent revolution.

Now 65 years old, the Lady is still described in news reports as "lissome" and "regal." Her hair remains black, is usually adorned with a flower, and tops a long face dominated by a brilliant smile and piercing dark eyes. Reporters who meet her comment on her discipline and calm, but it belies an energy that continues to excite her supporters.

Often compared to Nelson Mandela as, "a symbol of hope and change," Suu Kyi may be ultimately judged by whether, like Mandela, she can lead her people to an overthrow of the repressive Myanmar regime and personally take the reins of a new democratic government. But, this comparison to Mandela would be unfair on a number of levels.

The situation today in Myanmar is very different from that in South Africa in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The regime in Myanmar is not in danger of collapse and there is not a reform process underway; in fact the military junta may be stronger than ever given their new found economic opportunities. It is thought that members of the junta would have to turn on their colleagues for democratic reform to ultimately succeed, but this would not be unprecedented given recent history in the neighboring Asian countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it is not Suu Kyi’s mission to be a hero, as her father was before her. Although an NLD colleague, Win Htein asserts, "She is like her father in that she has no qualms about losing her life." In fact, she has said in recent news reports, "I’m not very much concerned whether I personally come to power, but I am concerned about the power of the people. One person alone can’t do anything as important as bringing genuine democracy to a country."

Aung San Suu Kyi has transcended the day-to-day squabbles of her political party, the ethnic strife that has plagued Burma, and the pressures laid on her—fairly or unfairly—by the international community. Her concerns are larger— "lack of spiritual development, ignorance, and selfishness." And she works tirelessly to promote "compassion and understanding." As a practicing Buddhist, she insists that, "regret is unacceptable."

A recent Time profile concluded with Suu Kyi asserting that she "considers herself lucky—not because of the people’s adoration of her but because of their respect—a value she believes stems from a generosity of spirit." She unites a commitment and tenacity around democracy, respect for human rights, reconciliation between groups, non-violence, and personal and collective discipline. Whether or not events unfold in Myanmar that might ultimately allow Aung San Suu Kyi to emerge as its governmental leader is yet to be seen. But, she is unquestionably Myanmar’s spiritual exemplar as well as a symbol of hope to anyone in the world who is fighting for democratic and human rights.

Ben Bryan is president of Owl Properties LLC, a project management firm working in the commercial real estate and financial services industries.

If We Don't Disarm Our Consciousness - We Are Divided

By: Jan Mazotti Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Nobel

In his 1980 Nobel lecture, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel said, "I do not assume a personal honor, but receive it in the name of the people of Latin America, and most especially in the name of the poor, the most small and needy, the indigenous, the peasants, the workers, the young, and the many thousand members of the religious orders who work in the most inhospitable places, and of all of those persons of goodwill who work and struggle to build a society free from domination."

Pérez Esquivel is the son of a Spanish Catholic father who was raised primarily by his grandmother, an Argentinian Guarani Indian. He is a world-renowned artist. In fact, his large-scale murals and art works can be viewed in parks across Latin America and Europe. His faith in humankind and his belief in God are reflected in his paintings, drawings and sculptures. But in the mid-1970s, Pérez Esquivel became concerned about human rights abuses in his country, especially the treatment of local leaders who had been working for peace and democracy. So, in 1974, Pérez Esquivel gave up teaching and devoted his time to building non-violent movements for change in Latin America. That same year, he was named secretary-general of the newly formed Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service or SERPAJ), a group that coordinates non-violent movements in the region.

As a result of his malcontent for the leadership, Pérez Esquivel became a target of the military dictatorship and in 1977, he "disappeared" and was imprisoned and tortured by the Argentinean military for 14 months. He was released only after being named Amnesty International’s Political Prisoner of the Year in 1978, which led to thousands of letters being written to the Argentinean government demanding his release.

Today, he continues his work with SERPAJ, where their focus has been to call for a cancellation of the debt of third world countries. He has also started two "Peace Villages" which provide training and housing for homeless and orphaned children in Argentina. As he said in his Nobel acceptance speech, he continues to believe in, "A change based on justice and built with love will bring us the most anxiously desired fruit of peace."

In an interview with ICOSA, Pérez Esquivel offered a proverb of the safari that says that the darkest hour is right before the rising of the sun—that there is hope even in the worst of circumstances—words which set the stage for the remainder of the interview. He urged that, "The youth of today never lose hope. There always exists a possibility and a new dawn."

ICOSA: When you look at the situation in Latin America now, relative to when you began your work there as a younger man; where do you see the most fundamental/real change like Bolivia, Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, etc.? What impact do those changes or lack thereof have on the region and the world?

Pérez Esquivel: There are changes taking place in Latin America every day. After the military dictatorships, we needed to review several things: the democratic processes, whether human rights issues were truly enforced, and the rights of peoples—not just those of individuals. The resistance of people against dictatorships, deaths, disappearances of people, torture, jails...it is here that we need to find the rights of peoples. The rights of peoples include the ability to be able to live in democracy and be able to build other spaces within that democracy. That is why we always relate democracy to human rights. If human rights are violated, democracy is weakened and a nation ceases being a democracy.

ICOSA: What current problems concern you the most?

Pérez Esquivel: In this moment there are so many problems in the world—wars, conflicts, hunger, social exclusion—I think it is necessary to analyze the world’s situation. An imposed neo-liberal model has been exhausted. We need to provoke change in the world away from today’s situation where humanity is unjust and asymmetric. We must ask how we can restore equilibrium in human relations. But also, we must ask how we can restore equilibrium when our planetary equilibrium is affected by the destruction of the ecosystem, biological diversity and water problems.

Discourse is not enough. It’s not enough to send letters to governments that don’t listen—they don’t even read the letters. Instead, we need a strong call to humanity’s conscience and the central axis. Words must be accompanied by actions or else they are without effect. We can compose tons of declarations, but if they aren’t accompanied with concrete actions, we are simply blowing air. In order to achieve concrete action, concrete decisions need to be made in international situations so that certain distinct organizations, churches, communities, social movements arise—and from there we can begin to make change.

There have been requests for this. In 2003, the Global Social Forum launched an international call to say "no" to war. And in all parts of the world people heeded that call. And, I supported the social cultural resistance. People have a great potential of which they are not aware. If this unity could be put into animated action, they could demand change. For example, the United Nations needs profound reform in order to democratize it. It is important to say no to foreign debt, which is a mechanism of domination and imposition on our people. And, we need to scale back the growing militarization of wealthy countries against poorer ones.

ICOSA: If you were sitting in front of world leaders, what issues would you ask them to focus on? What changes would you ask them to strive for? And, what advice would you offer them?

Pérez Esquivel: The crux of humanity exists in the present—so we must prepare a lesson of the present for those in the future. The lack of an international equilibrium—the imposition of one power like the United States, which wants to dominate the world—needs to have limits. And, international bodies need to be strengthened. My hope is that there are resistance movements in all parts of the world.

I always speak of small rivers that can’t be seen, but unite at some great point, and that how in some determined moment those rivers are like small historical movements of resistance which will contribute to one great cause. Those social movements have the ability to change the world. There are many such movements, like the French Revolution. There have been other movements such as the student movement known as "May ‘68" in Paris, and there have been many, many more. The social forums in Puerto Alegre, India are another case of an historical resistance movement. I think that these social forums are going to provoke changes while consolidating social, cultural, and political resistance in order to see other horizons in life. The global case of the women’s movement is one vital form of resistance today.

My other hope is a return to thinking about humankind’s relationship with Mother Nature, because we are losing Her—this little planet called Earth is being destroyed. I believe the greatest challenge for social and cultural movements is creativity and thought. We are at a stage of disarming "armed consciousness." If we don’t manage to disarm our consciousness—we are divided.

Our future depends on the lessons and the courage we have to have in the present. There is no other way! Concrete decisions need to be made. If not, we will not see change and we will be facing enormous challenges for the survival of humanity.

A New World and A New Reality

By: Heidi A Heltzel Issue: Big Ideas, Smart People Section: Nobel

Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th Dalai Lama in a line that began in 1391. The Lama was born as Lhamo Dhondon on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in northeastern Tibet, and, at the age of two, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. A man of peace, the three major commitments of the Dalai Lama are the promotion of human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment and self-discipline; the promotion of religious harmony and understanding among the world’s major religious traditions; and to act as the free spokesperson of the Tibetan people in their struggle for justice.

His Holiness has met with presidents, prime ministers, and crowned rulers of major nations. He has held dialogues with the heads of different religions and many of the world’s leading scientists. Having brought his message to more than 62 countries, spanning six continents, he communicates his message not just to the world’s political, scientific, and spiritual leaders, but to the general public as well, and has become an inspirational leader to millions of people all over the world. In fact, as a modern day means of spreading his message, His Holiness has gone "viral" with nearly 1,250,000 Facebook supporters and even more Twitter followers. Truly a leader, even on Twitter he "follows" no one. The combined participation on these two social media sites approaches the entire Tibetan population.

Since 1959, the Dalai Lama has received more than 84 awards, honorary doctorates, and prizes in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility, and compassion. His efforts have been consistent even in the face of extreme aggression. In 1989, His Holiness was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet, and was the first Nobel laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems.

In his leadership role to free Tibet from oppression, in 1963, His Holiness presented a draft democratic constitution, followed by a number of reforms to democratize their administrative set up. The new democratic constitution promulgated as a result of this reform was named "The Charter of Tibetans in Exile," which enshrines freedom of speech, belief, assembly, and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines for the functioning of the Tibetan government with respect to those living in exile.

In May 1990, the reforms called for by His Holiness saw the realization of a truly democratic administration in exile for the Tibetan community, whereby the cabinet members were then elected on a one-man, one-vote basis, rather than being appointed by His Holiness. Two years later, His Holiness issued guidelines for the constitution of the future—a free Tibet.

A further step in democratization was taken in 2001 when the Tibetan electorate directly elected the Kalon Tripa, the senior-most minister of the cabinet. The Kalon Tripa, in turn, appointed his own cabinet who had to be approved by the Tibetan Assembly. In its long history, this was the first time that the people elected the political leadership of Tibet.

The day Tibet becomes free is the day that His Holiness has proclaimed he would transfer all of his historical and political authority to the interim president and live as an ordinary citizen. In any case, however, His Holiness describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk.

I had the distinct pleasure of learning from the Dalai Lama. Here is what he said.

ICOSA: In the time that you have been the Dalai Lama, how have political and religious changes throughout the world changed the way you work toward promoting values and religious harmony?

DALAI LAMA: We are in a new reality now. We are in a new world, because of the economy, because of the crisis of ecology—all of these things. I think in this new world, everything is heavily interdependent. So our approach also should be changed according to this new reality.

I think the sense of community and the sense of global interdependence, in itself, can be a moral principle, meaning that we can no longer have a narrow-minded, self-centered sort of attitude. Respecting others and taking serious consideration of others’ welfare is a fundamental moral principle. It is the concept of love—the sense of brotherhood and sisterhood—this is the meaning.

We need ethics in order to have a happier humanity. We need to be more compassionate, more peaceful and equal, have less gap between rich and poor, and give everybody sufficient basic necessities. Then, I think there would be less quarreling, less jealously, less extreme competitiveness, and I think we would be more peaceful. Thinking peacefully with a feeling of concern for each individual part of society – our own daily life should be something according to these principles and that’s marvelous. This benefits the whole world, and that means it will definitely benefit each one of us. A better world is the best guarantee for our own individual future.

ICOSA: Many of your efforts promote interconnectedness, combined with personal empowerment and leadership. However, as the world becomes smaller through technology, it also seems to become more divided. How do you hope to fulfill these objectives?

DALAI LAMA: The new realities of the world are compelling us to think with a wider perspective. I think in ancient times, people viewed their situation more individually and saw things in terms of the distance between "we" and "they." They said, "Our population can remain isolated and self-sufficient, not dependent on others." Under that set of circumstances, the concept of "we" and "the enemy" made some sense, and the destruction of the enemy through war was your victory. The current reality is no longer the same. Today, the destruction of your neighbor is the destruction of yourself. So the basic view of "we" and "they"—that we are not dependent on others, that we can be independent—is no longer true. We are compelled to take care of them because they are also a part of us. There is a new ethic because we recognize a new reality. And irrespective of whether we are on our own or not, we have to act according to that reality.

ICOSA: What is the role, beyond profit, that businesses throughout the world should focus on achieving in order to support and encourage better societies?

DALAI LAMA: In our society today, the media especially has great responsibility. I have always believed that on this planet, we are one human family, and now because of many new factors today, we have to think of the entire human race as "we." There is no more "my interest" or "your interest." All of our interests are related to the whole world, to all people. We are now one global family, so when there is a problem or a threat to one of us, all of us will suffer. There is no escape.

Now that the world has become a much smaller place, much depends on each one of us. In order to go forward positively, the main factor is the human mind, the human consciousness. The sense of commitment toward a better future is our real hope. All professions should play a role—educators, the media, scientists, religious leaders, economists, and of course, politicians. They all have different activities, but they all must be for humanity, because now when we talk about humanity we cannot make a distinction between "us" or "them."

ICOSA: Tibet’s democratization efforts seem to be increasing in tempo and effectiveness, while China’s oppression is increasing. How will this increased push-pull affect efforts to resolve the situation and the outcomes?

DALAI LAMA: In spite of the very serious, harsh, and repressive nature of what is happening in Tibet today, basically, I am very hopeful, because the overall situation in the world is showing us that the totalitarian communist way of ruling doesn’t work. In China, the democratic movement not only survived, but is now very active. And I also think that economic development has brought political liberalization. At the same time, the Tibetan spirit is very high, very strong, especially among the younger generation. Awareness about Tibet is increasing around the world, year by year, and as a result, the feeling of sympathy and the feeling of solidarity is increasing. So due to these factors, for the long run, I am very optimistic.