Whatever the area of operation or business activity the success depends on the value addtition one tries to impart.
The value addition starting from the activity should result on the product or project and to the business and entity and finally should be trnasformed to the end suer or the customer whether corporate or Individual.
The key person should always think about this and his activity as individual,delegating or control should have a ficus on that area inly.i.e., what best value addition can be done .
The article is generally best one having lot of inputs.At one stage of leadership the real happeneing is the merger of technical,commercial leaving alone those specifics it the VALUE ADIITION THAT COUNTS FOR THE ACTIVITY AND END CUSTOMER/USER.
Re: PRINCIPLE 1 Costs of Serving Should Always Decline
In many sectors that non-profits work in the cost of delivery increases. Lets look at the challenge Blue Planet Run Foundation faces in its vision of bringing safe drinking water to 200 million people.
The projects get further and further away from the ‘highway’ and the cost of managing the project, the cost of transportation, and maintenance goes up. Initially we saw projects costing $30/person. Now, by seeking out projects that are more in need, project costs can go up to $150/person (some of it is due to rampant inflation).
Trying to lower costs, many NGOs only stick to easily achievable projects and then move into other areas. For example, instead of sticking to water and venturing into less accessible areas, an org will move to AIDS or carbon credits, for both easy of accessing funding and ease of doing projects. Thus, many challenges facing our society never get addressed completely.
Other behaviors are worse: you will see multiple projects in the same village, same school, by different NGOs and gov’t agencies. There is nobody to verify that duplication was done, and the ribbon cutting ceremony photos don’t show other projects nearby. Building a project on top of another will be reported as two success stories and the costs (at least for the second one) can be dramatically lower.
Basically, some problems work with a vaccine solution (like the examples in the article such as making and distributing cookies). Other problems faced by our society require community ownership, transfer of knowledge, long-term maintenance and monitoring, and (most importantly) a change in behavior. For decades we have been unable to scale up or replicate solutions to these crises, which include water, climate change, AIDS prevention, etc.
At Blue Planet Run (http://www.blueplanetrun.org) and the Peer Water Exchange (http://www.peerwater.org), we are witnessing an escalating cost structure and there is no way to bring it down. We are seeking efficiencies in management to scale through innovative peer review processes and shared decision-making (even about funding!), but we will not push grassroots implementers to always come in cheaper than before.
Thank you for this article. It speaks to some of the founding principles of our organization. I think it is especially helpful to have reference points to come back to in remembering what the core elements are that contribute to successful and sustainable growth. I would say that these subjects shouldn’t be the elements of breakthrough performance, but a standard that we set as non-profit leaders to reach a heightened potential and ability to do more for those in need.
COMMENTS
BY G.Venkataraman
ON June 20, 2008 01:34 AM
Comment:
Whatever the area of operation or business activity the success depends on the value addtition one tries to impart.
The value addition starting from the activity should result on the product or project and to the business and entity and finally should be trnasformed to the end suer or the customer whether corporate or Individual.
The key person should always think about this and his activity as individual,delegating or control should have a ficus on that area inly.i.e., what best value addition can be done .
The article is generally best one having lot of inputs.At one stage of leadership the real happeneing is the merger of technical,commercial leaving alone those specifics it the VALUE ADIITION THAT COUNTS FOR THE ACTIVITY AND END CUSTOMER/USER.
BY rajesh shah
ON July 22, 2008 02:02 AM
Re: PRINCIPLE 1 Costs of Serving Should Always Decline
In many sectors that non-profits work in the cost of delivery increases. Lets look at the challenge Blue Planet Run Foundation faces in its vision of bringing safe drinking water to 200 million people.
The projects get further and further away from the ‘highway’ and the cost of managing the project, the cost of transportation, and maintenance goes up. Initially we saw projects costing $30/person. Now, by seeking out projects that are more in need, project costs can go up to $150/person (some of it is due to rampant inflation).
Trying to lower costs, many NGOs only stick to easily achievable projects and then move into other areas. For example, instead of sticking to water and venturing into less accessible areas, an org will move to AIDS or carbon credits, for both easy of accessing funding and ease of doing projects. Thus, many challenges facing our society never get addressed completely.
Other behaviors are worse: you will see multiple projects in the same village, same school, by different NGOs and gov’t agencies. There is nobody to verify that duplication was done, and the ribbon cutting ceremony photos don’t show other projects nearby. Building a project on top of another will be reported as two success stories and the costs (at least for the second one) can be dramatically lower.
Basically, some problems work with a vaccine solution (like the examples in the article such as making and distributing cookies). Other problems faced by our society require community ownership, transfer of knowledge, long-term maintenance and monitoring, and (most importantly) a change in behavior. For decades we have been unable to scale up or replicate solutions to these crises, which include water, climate change, AIDS prevention, etc.
At Blue Planet Run (http://www.blueplanetrun.org) and the Peer Water Exchange (http://www.peerwater.org), we are witnessing an escalating cost structure and there is no way to bring it down. We are seeking efficiencies in management to scale through innovative peer review processes and shared decision-making (even about funding!), but we will not push grassroots implementers to always come in cheaper than before.
BY Folarin Adekoya
ON August 20, 2008 03:54 AM
Hi,
I’m deeply excited about your thesis, and I’m surely going to recommend this to my superiors.
Regards
Bye
Folarin
BY Stephen Durkee
ON December 5, 2008 02:29 PM
Thank you for this article. It speaks to some of the founding principles of our organization. I think it is especially helpful to have reference points to come back to in remembering what the core elements are that contribute to successful and sustainable growth. I would say that these subjects shouldn’t be the elements of breakthrough performance, but a standard that we set as non-profit leaders to reach a heightened potential and ability to do more for those in need.