SRI In the Rockies: The Big Picture

by Brian Reich | 30 Oct 2006, 2:00am

I spent the weekend in Colorado Springs, CO attending SRI in the Rockies, the annual gathering of the socially responsible investment industry in the United States.   I was there to  participate in a panel about online marketing and host a  topic table at lunch on the same topic.   I also had an opportunity to attend some of the speeches and sessions — and learned some new things about climate change its impact on disease, micro-finance and, perhaps most interestingly, the future of the internet.

Bob Veres, an author, speaker, and one of the most influential people in the financial services industry (socially responsible or otherwise) gave a talk entitled ”The Next Society.’   The focus of his talk was how the world of sustainable investments has changed, and continues to evolve, and how the world is now following the lead of SRI - for the better.   He noted that a decade ago, social screens were seen as a depressant on fund performance while today, social screens are the very best way to evaluate corporate character and avoid surprises in your portfolio.  

Then he launched into a commentary on the changing nature of communications and how it relates to the tough work of changing the world.   Here are my (rough) notes:

- The media industry is in crisis.   Stories are covered and then disappear.   Stories are covered by people who don’t know much about the subject and who have a very short attention span.   The future of news will be an environment where you can access a lot more information, a lot better information, from people who know a lot more than reporters.   And it will make everything more focused, more meaningful, and more actionable.

- The web has created a hostile world for advertising.   As we move towards the web as a content delivery vehicle, corporate america will not be able to artificially create demand for their products and services.   It is harder and harder for advertisers to gain interest and traction.   That is why TV advertising is suffering and that is why the future of communications will be information/content-centric, and not marketer driven.

- We are experiencing the death of the consumer economic system.   Why?   It doesn’t relate to the issues that people actually care about most.   That has also given rise to the concept of “Life Planning.”   People are finding they don’t want more stuff.   They want more fulfillment from their lives.   How do they know?  

Ask yourself, if you had one day left to live, what would be your biggest regret?   Write down 30 goals you want to achieve this year (the first ten will be easy, the second ten more difficult, the third ten will make you did deep).   If you had all the money in the world, what would you want to do?      

- How can we change the world?   He offered two directives:

1) Operate in your zone of personal genius.   Imagine a circle, with a circle inside that, and a circle in side that.   At the center of that innermost circle is a   blue dot  that represents your greatest energy, focus, and passion.   That is where we must all operate - get rid of the distractions and just work within our blue dot.

2) Hire a coach to help you get there.   They will help you put aside all of the work you do for others and help you focus on just what you need.   The coach will nag you because they will present your own goals back to you in such a compelling way that you will do for them what you can’t seem to find a way to do for yourself.

- The way we work is changing.   You are going to see most of the world’s work being done by ad hoc teams who are experts in their field and who are operating within their blue dot.   You will see corporations (who right now have office buildings filled with generalists and inefficient information flow based in hierarchy not expertise) “melt like sugar cubes in the rain.” The people who own the assets will control them - you won’t need marketers, etc.

- The internet will become the superconductor of human and financial capital.
The speech made  me think.   Not sure quite yet what it all means, but rarely does a conference speech make me think like this one did, so that must mean something.

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