This blog was concluded some three years ago. Thank goodness its vision for a fairer, better, and more harmonized world is coming to be true. There is some more struggle to go, but we'll figure it out.
I never announced here that this blog has concluded. Well, it has. I might soon delete it. Until then, the visitors may want to know that I now reside at my website, ramlaakhtar.com.
An event by Pakistan's first futurist consultancy NEXT> in association with transformation consultancy Schuitema.
Future of Business Event - by NEXT - Oct 28/08 - Karachi
In the inner-city of Johannesburg, The GreenHouse Project is turning one urban park into a seedbed for sustainable communities. The program takes a holistic approach to the city's challenges, integrating green building and design, efficient and renewable energy, recycling, organic farming and nutrition.
Via: The Global Oneness Project
E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com
Jareeda first fell in my hands when, having finished my work for the day during an internship at IUCN, I decided to shuffle through the stuff on the office bookshelves.
I promptly took copies of several issues home - where I keep them close to my heart six years later. Because this magazine is so informative, so sincere, and yet so amazingly unknown. And because it features some of the rare-to-find research on Pakistan's environmental and sustainability issues.
At least back then, the thin magazine was being published in English and Urdu - and was available free. It has topical issues - the current one on the website is all about the wonderful Juniper tree.
Previous issues have explored mountains, water systems, national parks, and other matters of ecological concern.
I'll tell you what's beautiful about Jareeda:
Look! How happy people are when they serve!de-
pref.
- Do or make the opposite of; reverse: decriminalize.
- Remove or remove from: delouse; deoxygenate.
- Out of: deplane; defenestration.
- Reduce; degrade: declass.
Mastering the Problem:
Your unique reason of being today, and your "unique edge", is in the human element. Skills and technology and ideas - once the staple of competitive edge [a term outdated in a world of crazy collaborations] - come cheap(r). To just about anyone. For example, if we thought having a social network was still the latest path to billionaire glory, we haven’t yet known Ning.
As long as we serve, we are needed. As long as we are needed, we don’t need worry about an edge. When we serve with more courage and passion, we develop more numerous and stronger ties - and so gain "interestingness".
Benefits:
Which place of work would you rather leave:
a. one that demands (more) work for as few benefits as possible from you?
b. one that makes it a mission to create a space where you can express your talent while working on a win-all business model? Such as the remarkable The Hub?
It's a contest between the demander (a) and the server (b). Your answer is the answer of any sane person - you like those who serve you. You will be liked by sane people if your serve, at a quality.
So the benefits: Costs of broken ties saved. Lesser time spent making new relations and creating trust. New ideas and partnerships brought in by passionate partners. A happier life, lesser partner turnover, consumers in love, healthy sleep and a glowing skin.
Also read: Google Made Ideas Free. So Where's My Edge?
Image credits: Paper Men, by Brokenarts
Everybody knows it. From programmers finding code, to ex-lovers looking up dirt on jilters, to graduate students procuring thesis - Google has it all.
Google is the highway to 100-ideas-a-minute factories. So how on Google earth are we to have what is variably known as "competitive edge" or, in quaint business speak, "unique selling proposition"!?
In human speak, it means, to thousands of corporations and millions of free agents, "What worthwhile thing can I offer if ideas are free? When someone else has done it already? Or I look a fake doing it? Or someone can simply steal my idea?"
Over: the Edge?
I've been through this anxiety. It paralyzed me when undertaking a new enterprise. A mere curious googling of keywords of a "new" idea would reveal darn! I have arrived too late. And just as I can be "inspired" by those I Google - [no, honestly, I don't disrespect the concept, inspiration is a valid-legit thing] - well, so, anyone can also pick my idea and run with it. So what now?
Yet there is one answer. Like all things in life, the "answer" to this contemporary challenge is deviously simple.
This amateur sketch (excuse my MS Paint skills!) puts us as the center of the "elements" of our unique life - these elements being other people, organizations, resource, places... just about any "organism."
We are each thrown in a certain set of circumstances. These circumstances yield a singular "mix" for each one of us. From our own position, we will have the ability to connect to other elements.
This “lifeset” becomes a macro-organism that thrives on adaptability and change of its parts. It’s like any other living organism in that respect.
The key is to understand the golden principles of making this "web" work for us, which are:
NEXTers>
Comments are re-enabled. Now you don't have to take the lengthy email route.
Enjoy!
NEXT> by Ramla is seeking collaborations with like-purpose websites and print publications. To test-launch the idea of syndication, NEXT> and its creator, yours truly Ramla, have been publishing a carefully curated list of trends at TrendHunter.com since February 2007.
I was wild with joy when Jeremy Gutsche, the visionary young owner of TrendHunter, made me a Senior Trend Hunter within two weeks - in acknowledgment of the quality of trends and the writing of content. I would give credit to the purpose that I dedicate NEXT> to: searching for a better possible future, envisioning a better tomorrow and creating solutions and strategies for it.
Here is a selection of my favorite trends:
3/ Voluntourism - Volunteerism + TourismDear readers:
I found out how well NEXT> by Ramla was anticipated by the readers when some promptly reported that it was "down" or "weird." While the blog was being reviewed by the Blogger Team, who were sorting the splogs (spamming blogs) from the blogs, it was taken over by a splogger.
Persistent requests for support as well as some pro-active tracking of the spammer dude helped to get the blog restored. Back again. Thanks to the beleaguered Blogger Team.
I am going to transfer the blog to a certain nextbyramla.com that is registered. Only looking for a designer who understands the needs of contemporary blog design.
Secondly, much has been going on in the background to take NEXT> by Ramla to the next level. More in the next post.
A special thanks to everyone who reported the breakdown and expressed their concerns. And thanks to all the readers who take interest in the blog and have encouraged me to take this further.
Version 2.0 of the PC-MoB: People-Centered Model of Business will incorporate case studies collected since the PC-MoB was first published. If you wish to participate, send in a 1000-1500 word, clearly-written summary of your people-centered enterprise/organization at nextbyramla. (It's a G-mail ID.) Mention the area of business and operations, and the application of your people-centric approach. Be bold, share the challenges, failures, successes, opportunities. A website for the business/ organization is required.
Send by June 10, 2007. Much thanks! Selected case studies will be published in subsequent versions of PC-MoB.
And don't forget to vote for PC-MoB, V 2.0 @ ChangeThis !
If you think Business must care about People…
…then do vote for: The People-Centered Model of Business, a change manifesto.
Vote here: http://www.changethis.com/proposals/982
Do you think business should be more responsible? More sensitive? Do you feel that marketers and businesspeople need to "get it" that they are servant leaders?
May be you do. But as an MBA I can tell you: there is little in the business education curriculum of most schools that inspires such thinking.
But we don't need to stay with the problem! We can see this as an opportunity - and CHANGE!
I have proposed a manifesto for changing the face of business education at ChangeThis.com! Please vote for the manifesto proposal. Your vote means my proposal will be turned into a manifesto and published at ChangeThis.com!
Please forward to your friends who care about (corporate) social responsibility and conscious capitalism.
P.S. on May 10, The Economist ran a story " Business Schools" - that reports that business schools are reclaiming falling enrollment by putting ethics and people first 1
So dear readers and change agents in your-own-right! Do your part in changing things! Help me publish this manifesto, and your effort will mean you have helped change minds!
++++
Preview Version 1.0
of the People-Centered Model of Business here:
http://nextbyramla.blogspot.com/2006/05/why-do-we-do-business.html
This was written specifically for Pakistani students. Updates in V 2.0 from a global perspective.
Just going through the archives of ad history when up popped this Steve Jobs speech from 1984 - the year Apple shattered the IBM legend with a single ad. Just watching this man's enthusiasm makes the hair on the nape of my neck stand up!
Enjoy!
E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com
This is the third in a series of posts about The Secret - 1 & 2 here.
What is The Secret/Law of Attraction?
Humans can create what they want.
More here
What is more important than The Secret?
"The End" - that is, what we want to do with the Law of Attraction. Which is only a method, though very powerful.
More here
Recap: Be Careful What You Wish For
a. To use the Law of Attraction, we have to want something. In fact, when we want something, the law of attraction automatically sets to work; whether we know or not.
b. Want the right thing. Because the law of attraction has consequences.
c. Prepare yourself to be the kind of person who wants the right thing, naturally...
d. ...So that when the not-so-secret law of attraction sets in motion, you can be sure that you get the thing you most wanted, and...
e. ...it was for the greater good.
Q: How Do I Prepare Myself?
A: Four Steps to Preparedness
I first called them the four steps to "enlightenment" for want of a more apt word. In this context, "preparedness" may be a better word.
To prepare yourself to be the person who naturally wants the right, good thing - and therefore sets the Law of Attraction to work for the better of all humankind (and so, yourself), these are the four steps, in this order:
This is the second in a series of posts about The Secret.
What is The Secret?
Humans can create what they want.
More Important than The Secret...
...is knowing what to do with it: "The End." The Secret is only a method. A means. A strategy. A "How?"
The End is the "What?"
Beyond The Secret: at The End of Individual Paths
I believe in what I call "the theory of individual paths." A revolutionary manifesto for humankind, the Qur'an says:
And to you have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah has revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come to you. For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed Hu could have made you one community. But that Hu may try you by that which Hu has given you (Hu has made you as you are). So vie one with another in good works. To Allah you will all return, and Hu will then inform you of that wherein you differ.
A Pickthall translation, with my emphases and modifications of the pronouns, esp. "He" to "Hu" (005.048)
"The Secret."
"The Law of Attraction."
The knowledge of the ancients.
What all great people knew.
This one thought with its many names has been making the rounds for quite a few months now, since the release of the movie Law of Attraction.
Very simply put, here is the secret:
Humans can create what they want.It's called a law of Attraction because once a human decides what they want, they start attracting the required resources and situations. The Wikipedia summary of the idea is more enlightening:
You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny.
Where is this Secret? Hint: You'll have to Look
Longer live the Green Turtle of Karachi!
In a series of bans on thin, bio-hazardous plastics bags that is spreading across Asia, the City District Government Karachi's ban is the latest. In late February, the Karachi City Administrator Syed Mustufa Kamal urged town and union councils to create awareness amongst residents of the city before the government clamped down on businesses.
However, news these days are best received through word-of-mouth despite the large ads the government has been placing in national newspapers - I got this one on the right from the leading Urdu daily Jang. And so, it was our milkman who informed us that he will no longer be serving milk in infamous thin plastic bags. We have to get utensils.
Then yesterday, I went to the bakery to do my usual large shopping - and wasn't the only one who had to lap up her purchase like a baby... they told us to remember to brings bags from home.
My environmental-conscious mother is delighted - and I am glad, too, that our government has taken the ban seriously. In Pakistan, we tend to buy from small shops around the corner, and in the past two days, all shopkeepers denied us plastic bags. A medical store owner informed me that shops have been fined since March 15th, 2007, as promised in the ad above.
Not all plastic bags have been banned, only those less than 30-microns thick. These are not bio-degradable. Which means they don't "melt, evaporate, break down into other substances nor can be converted into other stuff." In ecology, everything must come from something, and then become something after being used, or we will be stuck with stuff. This is called an ecological cycle (and see carbon cycle too, here, another).
All natural things become something else upon birth and death. Humans, however, have created some stuff which gets stuck, because it does not break down ("degrade") into something useful. Such as, thin plastic. That's why governments across the world are taking swift action to ban this stuff. States as far apart as South Africa (2003) and India (selected states, 2005, etc.) have banned bad plastic.
Bio-stuck plastic has been killing the marine life of Karachi, especially the famous Green Turtles (WWF page here) who choke on bad plastic.
So. Get a cloth tote. DON'T rely on paper - because sometimes producing paper uses more energy than producing plastic. Save the planet, one shopping trip at a time!
Photo credit:
Top: Karachi City Government ad reproduced in good faith.
Bottom: By Hemanshu Kumar @ Flickr. May not be reproduced for commercial uses.
E-mail: nextbyramla AT gmail.com
Young. New. Joyous. Communicative. Fresh. Clean. Natural. Green.
Green is the new blue; that is, it's the color of the age. Green represents freshness, new-ness, hope, and the natural life around us. I also see a sense of giving and "equality" in this color as it symbolizes Nature - serving, giving, equal productive or destructive without prejudice.
Politically, Green is an important color in 2007: with a growing concern for ecological imbalances, and the need to manage the humanity's environmental behavior, Green has risen to become not just a color, but a concept that represents the attitude of a younger generation that cares.
NEXT> thinks that Green symbolizes all that is immediately ahead of us; the critical factors that will decide the fate of humankind. And NEXT> has a self-pledge to bring the best of the future to the present in a responsible fashion - to create hope, to advocate what really matters, to change beliefs and premises where they must. So, the look & feel of NEXT> by Ramla has been greened up! (Yes I know I am still a horrid designer, but Blogger just doesn't load in Pak and I'm having trouble accessing Blogger.)
The very busy photo on the top is from the Haramosh Valley in Pakistan where I trekked in search of wisdom and "fresh". It's a place that educated me about the origins of society and the nature of people. It also made me feel very strongly about the importance of respecting all people, our environment, and nurturing the development of society and self. And the whole experience was summed up in the shades of green that is the future. And now, it's my concept, my philosophy - one that I wish to share with all...
From NEXT> to a greener future!
Adil Najam, Awab Alvi, Hakim, and Ramla (i.e. myself) - four Pakistani bloggers - four different blogs - three different time zones... all invited together - by Muntazir Solangi of Voice of America's Radio App ki Duniya to discuss -
1. What IS a blog?
2. It is a tool to express frustration - only? What is a blog NOT?
3. Can blogs truly be banned?
4. Do blogs report original stories - or merely repeat primary sources?
5. How have the four blogs covered the Chief Justice story?
6. What is the impact of blogs?
