Here's a reprint from TeachAManToFish.org about Eden Campus. I depart in less than 24 hours to help out and learn from these amazing people.
Karatara, South Africa
Situated in the small rural village of Karatara 12 kilometres inland from Sedgefield on the beautiful Garden Route of the Southern Cape lies Eden Campus. We are busily involved in a unique project to create the first green business school in South Africa. The project started in 2005, has spent the intervening time gaining a foothold in the communities that it serves and is now ready to become a force on the South African education scene.
We are desperately in need of volunteers who would like to spend some time in this idyllic surrounding and who would like to have a never to be forgotten experience. You will also have the great satisfaction of helping the impoverished youth of the southern Cape to become employable. Students of Eden Campus spend two years learning entrepreneurial business skills first through the excellent programme offered by the international Junior Achievement organization and then by applying the skills learned in practical businesses.
Typical businesses include:
Karatara Nature Cycles – This already successful business will be expanded in 2008. KNC hires bicycles to tourists and takes them on guided tours into the indigenous forests of the Karatara area
Gardens – In 2008 we are developing our gardens to provide herbs, vegetable and indigenous growth. The herb garden will produce herbs for resale, the vegetable garden for feeding the Campus and the indigenous garden as a tourist attraction and nursery.
Worm Farm – In 2008 we intend growing the size of our worm farm and from this we will produce compost for the gardens and become a reseller of worm farms on the Garden Route
The Karatara Shop – last year we were successful with our second hand clothing shop. In 2008 ar we intend to expand this to include general goods and even produce from our gardens and later the nursery.
Project Areas
* Education * Agriculture * Environment * Running business ventures
Activities
* Teaching - English, Maths, IT, the environment and facilitating the Junior Achievement Programme * Environmental conservation – indigenous gardening, water storage and electricity generating * Livelihoods – Mentoring students so that they are able to run their own businesses
Getting There & Costs Getting to Karatara from outside of South Africa involves flying into either Johannesburg or Cape Town and then taking a flight to George. The airport at George is 45 minutes from Eden Campus by car. You can either hire a car at George Airport or we will pick you up but remember this could leave you in a rural community with no way of seeing other gems of the famous Garden Route. Airfares can be found on the Internet. No financial contribution towards project costs is expected however you will be required to cover your own living costs. The average daily cost of a B&B or Self-Catering unit that sleeps two (and we really welcome couples) is R300 and car hire for a small car is about R160 per day.
For fuller information on any aspect of Eden Campus please contact Graham Lashbrooke in Karatara on graham@edencampus.co.za or directly on +27-44-356-2789.
I post a comment to Guy Kawasaki’s How to Change the World Blog and received a comment to my comment from Mark Grimes. The next thing you know, I’m talking with Mark on the phone, discussing entrepreneurial efforts in Africa. He’s a founder and activist of http://www.ned.com/ - a social network doing good things.
Mark is an amazing fellow – and Ned is a great community. Please, please check it out. Get involved.
I’m heading down to Eden Campus in Karatara South Africa to help the students set up blogs. The goal is to link their educational experiences and entrepreneurial visions with the rest of the world. Google Adsense revenue would support their school and tuition. Other students from around the world could participate.
Guy Kawasaki tells the tale in "The Art of the Start" that great businesses don't start out trying to make money - they start out making meening.
I go through this list of ideas with clients and students when coming up with new products or promotions. Feel free to use them to jump start the "opportunity" process.
Here’s a great, great speech. Thomas Barnett: The Pentagon's new map for war and peace
"We field a first half team in a league that insists on keeping score for the entire game. We can run the score up against anybody, and get our ass kicked in the second half. "
I won’t get into the political aspect of his speech, but it is a genius look at the state of military force in the world. Basically, he argues that we have an incredible ability to wage war. We just can’t do everything else. The second half of the game is killing us.
Does this sound like your business? I’ve worked with hundreds of small business people and Entrepreneurs, and taught Entrepreneurship to students in the U.S. and Europe. I’ve seen the same behavior in them as we see in the U.S. military.
You create a business that kicks butt. Nobody can touch you. Phenomenal growth. Then, in the second half, you lose. Other guys wait patiently for you to define the business, and with a deeper bench, hand you your lunch.
Why?
Most people plan on how to start a business. Most fail at planning on how to keep their business.
Contact me if you are interested in finding out what I’ve learned about staying in the game, and executing winning exit strategies.
10,000 feet, in a small single engine plane. The unthinkable happens. The engine sputters, and stops. The good thing is, this is something you’ve practiced over and over again.
The procedure is to immediately trim the plane for Best Glide Speed. This is the speed at which you stay in the air the longest. Any faster speed, you hit the ground sooner. Any slower speed, you hit the ground faster.
Then you try to restart the engine, call for help, find a place to land, etc.
It occurs to me that this is a useful analogy for business. There comes a point in time that the business model you have isn’t going to keep you up in the air forever.
Take commercial radio, or newspapers, or commercial TV. Listenership, readership and viewership is going down. We live in an on-demand world, and broadcasting is still using the same “we’ll give you what we think you want when we think you want it if you hear/read/watch our commercials” business model.
Set for Best glide speed.
Worse, technology is already circumventing this model. Ipods are killing radio. How many 17 year olds listen to radio more than to their Ipods? Guess what? These kids grow into the 18-34 demographic next year. Best glide speed.
My 74 year old father no longer subscribes to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. (Gasp!) He instead relies on their web pages, along with his Google home page for his news. Newspapers? Set for
Best glide speed.
TV? My 12 year old will not and never has watched a commercial. She is a master of the DVR. She will never remember a time when she didn’t have this cool device. And she has never, ever watched the local news. Best glide speed.
Now what?
Focus on restarting the engine.
The trick is not to let the plane crash.
Organic growth is next big buzz word. It’s basically a fancy term for businesses thinking and acting like entrepreneurs. Killing their own cash cows before they die of old age. Restarting the engine.
Here's a book review reprinted from a great weblog by John Moore - BrandAutopsy.com The Six Keys to Organic GrowthIt's an excerpt from Edward Hess's new book. I cut and paste the article, and would encourage you to visit John Moore's site.
“Growth achieved through a commitment to customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and core profitability—organic growth—is a smart long-term strategy for any company. Organic growth represents the underlying strength and vitality of the core business.” (p. 1) “Our investigation found that [high-organic growth] companies generally possessed the six keys discussed below.” (p. 20)
1. An Elevator Pitch Model“High growth companies have a simple, understandable business model that their employees can understand and execute—none has a complex or sophisticated strategy.” (p. 70)
2. Instill a “Small Company Soul” into a “Big Company Body”“High organic growth performers have a small-company soul housed in a big-company body. A small company soul is entrepreneurial, with employees having ownership of the customer, being held accountable for results, and sharing in the rewards of those results.” (p. 81)
3. Measure Everything“One of the six keys to building a consistent high organic growth company is measurement—of everything. The 22 companies on the organic growth index (OGI) list track a variety of metrics—financial, operational, behavioral—to understand which areas of their business are not performing as efficiently as possible, and then they take action to shore up those numbers.” (p. 97)
4. Build a People Pipeline“All the high-growth companies have a high management and employee retention, high employee loyalty, and high employee productivity as compared with their competition. Employees in these companies ‘own’ their results and their careers, and most even own part of the company. These companies’ management teams are frequently home grown, with long company tenures.” (pgs. 22, 117)
5. Leaders: Humble, Passionate, Focused Operators“Rather than being overly confident about their success, at high organic growth companies, leaders are frequently paranoid about complacency, arrogance, and hubris. Although many leaders are very wealthy, for the most part, you would not know this from their dress, their office, their demeanor, their attitude, or any outward appearance. Few of the leaders, if any, take credit themselves. There is a sincere respect for line workers, where many had begun their careers.” (pgs. 139, 140)
6. Be an Execution and Technology Champion“The high-organic companies generally do not have unique strategies, products, or services, nor are they market-leading innovators. But they are execution champions—day after day, they have figured out how to get consistent high-quality performance from their people. These companies use technology to drive efficiencies across their value chain. To them, technology is not a service function; it is an operational function.” (pgs. 23, 161)
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