Earlier this morning, my post on “The Time Has Come for Holistic Business Strategy” has finally seen the light of day, published over on my good friend and colleague Brian Solis‘ site. Each January the last few years I have promised to start writing more and getting beyond my own internal writing challenges, and each year I have failed to live up to my own personal goal. I think this year we are finally ready to change that abysmal track record.
My internal critic is often just too powerful for me to overcome. It’s silly, but I really don’t believe I can write all that well, and the process of writing/editing is very difficult for me – often times it feels too difficult and I have just given up on it. While its true that I am much more comfortable talking with people about these concepts and visions for game-changing notions, I need to get to the point where I believe deep down in my soul that I am not only a decent writer, but a damn good one.
Over on Formspring the other day, my friend Todd Jordan asked what is my biggest plan for 2011? My answer was actually magically annointed with brevity, to “change the way business leaders think about managing their organizations and enhance their ability to create value”.
Michael Porter’s publishing of this great article on “Creating Shared Value” has really inspired me to put my nose to the grindstone and invest in advancing this big idea – that we must think about not only the whole of the business, but also the whole of society and the impacts every member of the broader ecosystem has on the other players and the ecosystem itself.
Yes, there should still be competition, as there is in the natural world it helps maintain balance. But what we have found with species like the silver carp in the fresh water rivers of North America, is that the introduction of a predatory competitor that is not naturally a part of the ecosystem, has disastorous effects on the survival of everyone and the ecosystem itself. This analogy holds true when looking at the ecosystem in terms of the market. In fact, we have seen the same sorts of results in the world of Social Media, with the prevalence of douchebags having harmed the market for social media services/consulting in a very similar manner.
Metaphors aside, I am excited to think about writing more this year on Holistic Business Strategy and working on my book project where many of these ideas will reside. “Serve the Market” is the embodiment of many of these ideas and will hopefully inspire a change in the way managers not only think about marketing, but in how they approach the very nature of business itself.
To understand more of what I am talking about here, please watch this 12 minute video of a speed keynote I gave at Webcom Montreal last year that outlines some of the higher principles at play.
Chris Heuer – Serve the Market from webcom Montreal on Vimeo.
#1 by Rosie Zaldatte - January 22nd, 2011 at 01:42
Dear Chris,
You have the same symptoms I do for writing! I learned how to read and write in English first, but my first spoken language was Spanish. I learned how to read and write in Spanish after I learned to speak, read and write. Did you get all that? Anyways, it’s a miracle I can write in any language.
This is the first time I have read your blog, I subscribe to Brian Solis’. Your blogs are great. No need to be self-conscious. In addition to remembering you are great writer your goal/vision regarding Holistic Business Strategy is critical to keeping what values we do have and to build on them. I read Michael Porter’s blog as you recommended and I’m thrilled to see that maybe that day is finally coming; where businesses are not separate from or different from the rest of society, but that they are a relevant and crucial part of our larger society. It is okay to create wealth.
As a business consultant this is a dream come true to see all types of industry wanting the same vision.
Thanks for your courage.
Rosie Zaldatte
Growth Curve Institutue
#2 by Jason Aplin - January 22nd, 2011 at 10:32
Mensch….
#3 by Chris Heuer - January 22nd, 2011 at 13:55
Thanks Rosie. My biggest problem is being visual and often understanding things in a non-linear fashion, so it takes a very concerted effort to explain things so they can be easily understood by others. Trouble is, I can’t draw a circle either 🙂
Anyway, your words of encouragement mean a great deal and are so very helpful. Thank you so very much.