Mapping the assets of one’s community and linking those assets to achieve a vision for community improvement is the topic of the “Mapping of Assets of Your Community” reading boy Lionel J. Beulieu. However, with minor manipulation, this article could have easily been applied to an article written by Robert Jacobson called “The “Austrian” School of Strategy” which focusses on the competitive business market. Why? Well, much like the development IN and OF a community, according to the Austrian School, companies too must link themselves with their assets and their abilities to perform and create turbulence (unmet opportunities) in the market which often result in unusually high amounts of profit. If we replace profit, with community good, we can see our communities in much the same way as we see competitive companies. According the Austrians, it is the disregard of Invisible Assets, which can negatively effect survival, success and innovation. These Invisible Assets include things that might be typically disregarded under “goodwill” at the end of the balance sheet and include reputation, culture, knowledge of surroundings, relationships, accumulated information etc. Does this sound familiar? It should. Most of the assets noted in the “Mapping of Assets of Your Community” might indeed fall into this category and strongly dictate the ability of the community to work together for positive growth. As social entrepreneurs, the ability to identify these assets and then use them to create turbulence in the community resulting in unusually high growth is a duty which aligns itself perfectly with the Austrian School of thought. Thus, according the Austrian School, ” Entrepreneurs are the first to understand that a discrepancy exists between what is currently done and what could be done.” “The entrepreneur disrupts the market (or community) and moves it away from its equilibrium, as “entrepreneurship is an action that successfully directs the flow of resources toward the fulfillment of (needs).” If we see a community in need as one “in equilibrium” it is therefore, the duty of the entrepreneur to “see opportunities (that) go unnoticed” and create disruption that opens a window to improvement.
Who knew that the Austrians knew so much about “disrupting the peace?”
3 years ago
The University of Denver Daniels School of Business and Net Impact will be hosting a talk by Executive Director of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company, Auden Schendler. Schendler is the author of the newly released “Getting Green Done: Hard Truths and Real Solutions from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution,” and has been published in the Harvard Business Review, LA Times, Rock and Ice and Salon.com. In 2006 Time Magazine named him a global warming innovator. This event is open to the public so arrive early. If you would like to accompany the University of Colorado Denver Net Impact Chapter at this event please e-mail ucdnetimpact@gmail.com with the subject Auden Schendler to receive reserved seating. Deadline for reservations with UCD Net Impact is Friday, March 27, 2009.
3 years ago
Men’s Health Magazine recently published their best and worst cities for recycling. Prior to reading the article, I expected Denver to rank much higher than it did, #31 overall with a C+ grade. Shockingly, Colorado Springs, Colorado ranked #98 out of the 100 cities in the study with a firm letter F grade! While this is very disappointing for Colorado, hopefully those innovators in green technology and recycling businesses can find huge opportunity in these findings and clean up our beautiful state!
3 years ago
In general The Greenhaus is aimed at providing inspirational and innovative resources to those who follow the blog. However, in an odd op ed departure, I feel compelled to share a view on the upcoming stimulus package which has been tentatively agreed upon in our US House and Senate. Why this sudden need to express myself? Well, it centers from a phrase from a song I recently heard on Pandora Radio. The song “Stopwatch Hearts,” by Delirium Featuring Emily Haines of Metric features a lyric “the hardest hit make the best of it.” That lyric has been vibrating in my head, and thus this comment: For the past year, we, the American people have been told that the hardest hit sector of our economy has been the financial sector. With billions of bad assets on the books, irresponsible lending practices, and even more irresponsible management practices, large financial companies are now paying the price, and still traveling to Las Vegas for overpriced soirees with policy influencing lobbyists. With this in mind, I must question, who actually was the hardest hit in this economic meltdown? And who will make the most of it? The answer to both these questions is the American people. We have seen our retirement savings dwindle, our optimism demoralized, and our jobs cut. Yet it is us who can best capitalize on our inventiveness, imaginations, and ambitions to create new, disruptive innovations which can generate new industry, markets, and exports, to boost US GDP and produce responsible exports to developing countries who are building their own emerging empires from our flawed blueprint. If the hardest hit, can truly make the most of it, isn’t it optimal for a great percentage of this new stimulus package to be aimed at those who use design, engineering and science to best impact the nation? Shouldn’t we infuse our schools with the capital to develop programs which foster experimentation, entrepreneurship, and foster risk-taking? Wouldn’t these investments show greater sustainable long term benefits than those which we seen arise from an already failed first round of governmental stimuli? Can we think of our economy not in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of knowledge collection, and then utilize that knowledge to rebuild America into the pillar of creativity that can heal our planet in a systemic way? As Alvin and Heidi Toffler wrote in their book “Revolutionary Wealth,” we are about to see an economy of information where knowledge is key and those who can do the most with the least will rise to the top. We’ve seen what those with the most can do with the most. Isn’t it is time we see what those with the least can do with those same resources? Let us see what Main Street can do – we may just surprise ourselves.
3 years ago
