Flow Internet: Zen Cafes: introducing independent career support for graduates.

www.ethicalenterprise.info

1. If you work in a firm where you have many

directors all earning “out of the same pot”, your
enterprise will not be able to offer superior values
at less cost than your rivals. This will affect the
stability and long-term viability of the enterprise.

2. When the firm where you work is successful and

your boss knows it, the owner will want to get
out and cash in. This will put the business in the
hands of outsiders who are interested in cash,
and not interested in you!

3. If the business has inherent problems then the

boss will want to divest himself. Again this means
putting the business in the hands of outsiders
who may bring their own people in and dispense
with you.

See: www.flowidealism.org

The call for ethical enterprise

4. Either way, success or not, any employee risks fall from favour. This is the
inherent instability of working for an organisation whose reason for being
is the removal of money from customers’ pockets to be distributed to the
owners’ pockets.

5. The most valuable asset of a business is not the buildings or number of

staff, or its products or services, but its customer list and the means and
methods it uses for engaging and retaining those sources of income. This
is entirely invisible and intangible.

6. Reputation is often easily lost. Public favour can disappear at any moment,
for any number of reasons. Balance sheets, clever accountants and
important-sounding reports cannot define this as other than “Goodwill”.

Hallmarks of the sustainable enterprise

7. The successful business has self-

employed Business Developers
creating and maintaining clients and
client relationships, while making
alliances with firms offering
complementary products and
services, and continuously improving
its offer of services so as to be the
one-stop shop and prevent migration. This is kai-zen.

8. The successful business replicates its business model not by investing in

buildings or borrowing money but through independent license
arrangements into other towns and cities and other countries.

See: “Leadership and the New Science”: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World by
Margaret Wheatley: http://www.linezine.com/2.3/themes/bgsbrlns2.htm

30something.biz – a membership service for graduates and professionals who seek to work towards
achieving financial independence and work-life balance.
See also:www.rightlivelihood.org.uk
Flow Internet: Zen Cafes: introducing independent career support for graduates.
www.ethicalenterprise.info

9. Summary

If you create clients but not your own

clients then your business revenues
are unstable. One day you will either
leave or lose your job for whatever
reason, and your income and hard
work will disappear with your clients,
unless you can ensure your clients
remain yours.

When you have done this self-diagnosis then you need to follow steps 5-7 above
and implement step 8.

Successful businesses operate as part of a network, on co-operative principles

that ensure that Business Developers create and maintain their own clients
through provision of support on a client-sharing basis supported by the Hub
organisation.

10. Further improvements - Memberships

Membership subscriptions are a good way to ensure the

best of both worlds; you get client revenues, intermediaries
look after clients.

You both create loyalty through superior service and client

dependence through attractive offerings - which
continuously improve to prevent migration.

Consider the business case

Don’t take our word for it! Do your research and consider the business case!
See the work of Ketan Patel – head of Strategy Group at Goldman Sachs:
http://www.venturemagazine.co.uk/content_archives/Jan06/index.html

The next step

1. Principles of ethical, sustainable enterprise

To read more:
See: www.resurgence.org
See: www.flowidealism.org
See: www.thesystemsthinker.com

2. Ethical enterprise – in practice

To study with a future with us, apply to:
Eco-Campus@ The Spirit of Life Centre, Mani,
Greece

For enterprise support for ethical enterprise, contact: www.rightlivelihood.org.uk

Contact us directly:
Zen Cafes @ The Hub 35, King Street, Bristol. UK.

www.zencafes.co.uk

30something.biz – a membership service for graduates and professionals who seek to work towards
achieving financial independence and work-life balance.
See also:www.rightlivelihood.org.uk