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August 25, 2008
Creative Capitalism and Bill Gates
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Cause Marketing
The August 11 issue of Time magazine had a great article by Bill Gates titled "How to Fix Capitalism." He makes a case for "creative capitalism" by mashing the economic system in which a free market distributes goods with the power and imagination to create brand-new markets. The result can be life-changing opportunities for the billions of people who have not benefited from Capitalism 1.0.
This idea of creative capitalism and it's not-so-distant cousin, cause marketing, have been a part of Personality conversations for years. We've argued that it should be—and for the most part is—in the DNA of organizations to want to do well by doing good. It's a part of who we are as people and, in turn, what we should be about as organizations of people.
The article also included a sidebar by Barbara Kiviat titled "A Brief History of Creative Capitalism." I could not find this anywhere online to link to, but it does a great job of tracing the roots. She spans from 1799 with Robert Owen and his cotton mill that sets up a fund for sick workers and does not employ children under 10, to American Express creating the term "cause-related marketing" in 1983 for its campaign to help restore the Statue of Liberty.
A second sidebar in the article included eight examples of creative capitalism at work:
1. CADBURY - The British confectioner is investing millions of dollars in small farming communities in Ghana that provide the cocoa bean for one of its lines of chocolate.
2. TECHNOSERVE - The U.S. non profit gives business and agricultural advice to coffee farmers in Africa and Latin America and links them to buyers such as Starbucks and Peets.
3. BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES - The Indian food company teamed up with an NGO to provide children with vitamin-fortified biscuits that are served after a donated midday meal.
4. GAP - A sexy product (RED) T shirt is appealing on its own, but advertise that half its sale profits go to African women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, and you've got a real hit.
5. GRAMEEN BANK - The Bangladeshi bank makes small loans to impoverished people keen to start their own business. Since founding, Grameen has disbursed more than $7 BILLION to the poor.
6. SUMITO CHEMICAL - The Japanese company bought a stake in Tanzania's A to Z Textile Mills to produce up to 10 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets a year.
7. SAFARICOM - The Kenyan phone company does well by serving the poor. Customers buy prepaid phones, paying for the amount of time they can afford and avoiding hefty monthly fees.
8. TOMS - The program from the company based in Santa Monica, California, is simple: Buy a pair of our shoes, and we'll give a pair to a needy child. That helps the poor and attracts altruistic shoppers.
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