Is "Run It Like A Business" overrated?

Recently there is a boom on social media about the Flint water crisis. The town saved over $5 million with this bid; however, the problem does not seem to be the money at all. 

(Read the wrap-up story about the Flint water crisis here)

A few blog articles I've read regarding this very matter pointed the root cause of the crisis is the government was trying to run it like a business. In nonprofits as well, I like to think that many nonprofits should adopt business models to be able to sustain in this environment. This including my nonprofit marketing agency for nonprofit organizations idea posted earlier as well. I believe, many have missed the point!

Run It Like Business?

This does not mean "become" business. It is true for us, nonprofits, our goals and objectives are often subjective, which make it hard for us to measure... really, anything. Numbers are easier in every way to determine the effectiveness of our operation.

NEVER FORGET WHERE WE CAME FROM AND WHY WE ARE HERE

In educational institutions, if you had a chance to take a business program. They teach you, the ultimate goal of all businesses is "to generate shareholders' wealth". This got in my ears for years, and I always have the question, why? Until today, I cannot really figure it out why... of course for more investors, business growth, retain earnings, etc. but why? Yes, many people think I'm naive, maybe I am, but have you ever asked yourself why you do anything you do apart from just knowing "that's how things work".

Credit: Clker

All in all, I'm trying to say that, use business tools to improve your organization but never use business mindset to run your charity. If you don't get it, see this in an extreme way, you use a hammer smashing a nail into wood boards. Great! you are using a tool to make things more efficient. But you don't think to become a hammer, a nail, or wood boards. Of course, that's stupid and it's impossible, well, look at this, I believe we are trying to say, be yourself, use business tools that's it. Don't try to be a business person to use the tools.


A little note I'd like to add. If you are running a business, try to consider your business to run like a charity as well. How? I'll come back to that later.

"Shaping the Future of Business"

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Twitter - @Rathapat_S

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The Big Idea for Nonprofits Marketing

Each and every year charities in Canada receive less financial supports from the government sector. If this pattern keeps going where would the charities end up? In my prediction, we will see more and more of larger charities 'acquire' the smaller charities forming a larger organization with boarder scope of work. There is no certainty of the circumstances if it happens. “If they are doing exactly the same thing (eg. breast cancer related charities), wouldn’t it be better off to have a single organization to handle the subject?” I do not know the answer to that; what I know is that larger organizations require lots more processes and procedures before one action can take place, smaller organizations have much flexibility to act upon needs. For this reason, I believe the combination of both large and small(er) organizations would be more effective for social needs.

I’m all for the small to medium size nonprofits, not because I do not like the big guys, but I believe thousands of small guys can make a great impact no lesser than a big guy, beyond that, much faster (if integrated well). The idea here is how to make the small guys sustain themselves in this competitive and blood-sucking environment? I say, marketing, market your impact, market your cause, and ma[r]ke[t] the difference. Above other important things needed in the organization, you need marketing.

What Am I Saying?

Here’s the click, marketing is so expensive! Oh, yes, it is. What if there is a nonprofit organization professional in marketing that works for nonprofit organizations? That’s the idea. I am an apprentice in marketing/public relations and I can see this is possible.

How?

By connecting small businesses those depends their revenue from communities with charities those are the centre of communities. Charities have much to learn from the business perspectives and vice versa. That’s the basic concept; however, it will get lots more complicated in term of how the organization runs: revenue model, managements, board governance, etc.

If this is a nonprofit organization, does it mean, it cannot make profit? No, it doesn't mean that it cannot generate profit. Many people misunderstand that a charity cannot make profit. The difference is that charity does not pay dividend (nor have shareholders in this regards). The income is used and the profit is return into the organization. The excess income will be used to train and educate the other nonprofit organizations for self-sustaining as well as to expand. 

I believe the goal of all nonprofit organizations is to solve the social imperfections and cease to exist due to their services are no longer required (very unlikely, but that’s the goal). Once the small guys have the skills to maintain or even better, grow itself with minimum support from the government sector; then, the organization achieve its objective.

I am currently an MBA student working on a research project on effective nonprofits management, partially to find the best way that would make this type of organization works. If you are interested in further detail of the organization I am planning, let me know, maybe we can make an important change for the charities in Vancouver, and perhaps, Canada.

"Shaping the Future of Business"

Keep in touch:

Twitter - @Rathapat_S

LinkedIn - Rathapat (Moe) Suwanaratana

4 Criteria of Personal Core Competencies

Have you ever wonder how a person get paid so much for their career while you believe the job is not extraordinary? Well, I do sometimes. 

Recently I learned an corporate internal environment analysis in my master and came across the core competency criteria. It was nothing particularly new or unique, but at a closer look, I tried to apply to myself as a person. 

It WORKS! Let's see how...

What is Core Competency?

Following the concept by Coyne, Hall, and Clifford proposed that the core competency is "aggregates of capabilities, where synergy is created that has sustainable value and broad applicability." 

The 4 Criteria

A core competency must be:

• Valuable
• The set of capabilities should help the person in the process of finding opportunities and create value, or preventing threats from surrounding.
• Rare
• The capabilities are possessed by few people, or none.
• Costly to Imitate
• The capabilities should not be easily copied due to 3 main factors:
1. Experience- Rich or extraordinary personal experience
2. Causal ambiguity
   - Unique ways of doing things that no one can understand
3. Social complexity
   - Network and relationship of the person
• Non-substitutable
• The capabilities that is invisible to others; thus, make it difficult to substitute.

Core competencies are the reason behind the differences between individuals which create competitive advantage that makes others perceived you are an important person that cannot be substituted.

I hope after reading this article you can find your capabilities and create your own core competencies.

"Shaping the Future of Business"

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Twitter - @Rathapat_S

LinkedIn - Rathapat (Moe) Suwanaratana

Time Management: The Irreversible Treasure of Life

Irreversible Treasure Of Life

"I have no time!" or "I am too busy" are two sentences I often heard from my peers. It is true that we cannot bring back time, but we can use each second ahead of us to its best. Today's posting I would like to share with readers how do I manage my time using several books I read.

Sunday night is the time for me to sit for about 30 minutes to manage my schedule for the following week. First, I setup objectives for the week (the lesser the better). From those objectives, now I follow five steps.

Five steps to setup a schedule: 

listing, ranking, separating, plotting, and reorganizing.

Listing

Listing is the process of noting down everything I think it is required to achieve the objectives. In this process, I keep on writing rather than trying to figure out if they are important or not.

Ranking

Now, I have my list but I don't know which one is important. The next step I do is to categorize the items to each objective and see if they will lead to the objectives. The purpose of ranking is to put number in front of each item in the categorized list according to its importance.

Separating

I would have a cleaner list that will lead me to the objectives by now. This step is the most challenging among all because many people cannot separate between "action" and "activity". Action will lead me to the goals, and activity will make my life easier to achieve the goal. However, I am looking for "action" rather than "activity". I put activity items aside and focus on action items.

Plotting

Plotting involves a two-dimension graph. On x-axis labeled "least important" and "very important", and y-axis labeled "least urgent" and "very urgent". Simply plot down the action items from the list and I see what should I concentrate on for the following week.

Reorganizing

Just before packing up and get ready for Monday, it is a good idea to look at the list and the graph again to make sure I understand everything correctly. Sometime I have to readjust and reorganize the items (often because there are too many of them).

Remember that this method works for me but it may not for everyone. After all, we are humans, we cannot work more than our body and mind can. If it is too much to handle, it is always a better idea to hand some works to your colleagues or put them down for now.

This method can be done in day, month, or year scope as well.

I hope this technique will help manage your time.

"Shaping The Future of Business"

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