Every year I go through a Christmas tradition that has become known as 'The Tour of Alberta'. It involves traveling around 500 kilometers of Alberta highways to visit the members of my clan, and the family of my wife. I leave my laptop at home, and step out of 'the office' for a couple days. Between the turkey dinners, my father's eggnog concoctions, and endless Christmas cookies I get some time to clear the cobwebs and mental bitrot that has built up over the year.

One of the things that has come to light in cleaning out the corners of my mind is the opportunities that the current economic situation around the world poses. For the last century or so the business world has been driven by the idea of ever-increasing profits as the metric for success. An idea that the economy will always expand, and that the number one indication of a healthy company ( and stock portfolio ) is profit. But that idea, for the last decade or so, has become increasingly less important to a growing number of people.

We stand on the cusp of a tipping point, where their is a very real opportunity to change how we in North America and the larger global business world chart metrics for a successful company. Technology, when cleverly applied, can shatter existing business models and cost structures, and that allows us to make some serious choices as business people. We can chose to roll those savings into our profit margins, perpetuating an idea that we can always take more, and make more. Or we can take a portion of those savings and we can help create lasting change, expanding the range and scope of what is a successful business to include how we treat our customers, employees, and the world around us.

For me it is the difference between a company that focuses inward in a self-centered manner, and a company that looks beyond it's corporate board room and connects to the world around it in a deep and meaningful manner. We are at a point in time where technology lets smart business people converge social enterprise and profit driven enterprise in new and exciting ways. There is an opportunity for investors to get the pleasure of knowing their investment is being used to drive positive change in the world, while still gaining a return on their investment. Employees get to feel like they are working to build a better world, not just a better company and benefits package. Customers and vendors get to feel like the money they spend on goods and services goes to something more than just a CEO's pocket book.

One of the reasons I work for Sharing Books is because I know that the effort I put in directly correlates to the number of undiscovered authors we publish. I see my effort directly affecting their lives, a group of highly talented people who have been rejected time and again because they did not fit into the profit driven business model that dictates what will and will not get published. I get to see the gift of education and literacy spread to children in the developed world and the developing world. I get to know that my efforts are going towards making lasting social and economic change for a huge number of people, all over the world. I also get to see the potential revenue, and the growing amount of incoming revenue, for Sharing Books growing.

We are at a point where success in business can be about more than profit, and I am excited to go into the new year as part of the vanguard of social entrepreneurs who are in business to make money, change the world, and improve the lives of as many people as possible. I hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas, and I hope you are all recovering from your holiday excesses, and I look forward to a new year of working with you all to make sure some of those excesses go towards changing the world through children's literacy.

Labels: business philosophy, Christmas