Business Seed - Workshop

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It all begins with the Business Seed.

  • The Seed is the source of everything that the business will become.
  • The Seed is alive.

Since we're talking about a living thing, this requires a shift in language. We have traditionally talked about business using mechanical metaphors as a throw back to the industrial revolution (running like a well-oiled machine, firing on all pistons, get it in gear, etc). It wasn't until 1960 with Douglas McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise that someone began to talk about the human side of business - up until that point, business had been all about machines, not people. If business is alive, how we think about it and talk about it has to be different. Our language has to come out of the natural world and this new language is now evolving. If you have a naturally formed business, work will flow naturally from it.

  • The Seed starts with an Idea


Why is the Seed Important?

  • The Seed is a source of renewable energy. Every time you return to the Seed, it will give you energy. Belonging to a natural business feeds people, the community and the environment.
  • The Seed contains the business Photosynthesis. Business can take energy in and transform it into something (guitar pedals, for example) Money is just stored energy that can get released when it is spent. If we get the seed right, we have a source of renewable energy. Often, people get burned out because they expend energy but don't taking any energy in.
  • The Seed creates a focus, your "North". Without a clear focus, without understanding what direction you're heading in, all energy will be dissipated.
  • The Seed is generative: Everything grows from it, literally unfolding. The "unfolding" represents the transitions that you go through as your business evolves into something new.


Bizseed.jpg

Components of the Business Seed: (See plant diagram)

  • The Person is the steward of the Idea.
  • The Idea (It) is the "DNA" of the business.
  • Core Relationship: A relationship exists between the Person and the Idea. For this relationship to be healthy, there has to be both love for the Idea (It) and competency. You may love what you do, but if you can't bring a level competency to the work, then you don't have a business. Also good habits are essential; if you don't have the habits/discipline to do your work well, your business will not be successful.
  • Deep Root: All of the above sits on a deep root, a kind of foundational life experience, ethic, belief, which you must be able to identify. Adrienne's deep root for her animal care business is animal ethics, for example. Her business might take many different forms, but there has to be animal ethics or her business has no value or meaning to her. For the Siteks (Pill Pouch), their deep root was their relationship with their grandmother. In general, people who have a purpose in life seem to have a deep root that is identifiable.


Seeds grow in Ecosystems:

Living Organisms: We consider businesses as living organisms which exist in living ecosystems consisting of other businesses, organizations, government and members of the community. If you take the Seed and put it into its natural environment, you can then see how it might grow, and what it might affect and be affected by. Remember that ecosystems are alive and changing. If you took FOODLAB out of the picture, the ecosystem in which is functions would still exist without it. Traditional businesses don't consider ecosystems except in the form of competitors to their business.

Relationships within the Ecosystem: When you look at the ecosystem within which your business exists, you can begin to decide who you want to develop deeper relationships with. Energy flows between members of the ecosystem - they feed and support each other - and it becomes less about competition, more about cooperation. Business leaders today are just now beginning to talk about business ecosystems (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ecosystem).

Trends: This is an area where working within a community can be very advantageous. Members of your community can help you to identify trends in the ecosystem. Start to think about how you might work with those trends, go with the flow, and let that energy feed your business.


Triple Bottom Line Yields: Like crops that we grow, triple bottom line businesses produce yields in all three areas of impact; economics, community and environment.

Economic Yield - It's important for any healthy business to be profitable

Community yield - A triple bottom line business will improve and uplift its community by increasing the numbers of healthy, productive relationships within that community. If another business says "we are better because of our work with you", they will work on your behalf because they want you there.

Environmental yield - In conducting its everyday business, a 3D business should have a positive impact on the natural environment through reduction of waste, toxicity, energy use and water use.

We are trying to get a triple bottom line yield, not just for ourselves, but for those we work with.



Business Seed Case Study: Detread - Audra Carson


IT: Getting tires out of neighborhoods - clean up, detoxification, reduce mosquito infestations, etc.

Deep Root: Empowerment (It took about 4 months to find it for Audra). She wants to empower neighborhoods so they can grow enough capacity to get the tires out. If they can do that together, as a community, what else will they be able to do?

DNA: Solution: new products made from old tires. She may work with Ford Motor Co. In addition, Ford is in a position to help Audra with clean up through employee volunteers.

Competency: Audra has developed a huge competency in tires and is a self taught expert now. When the state had questions about tires, when the Brightmoor neighborhood wanted to clean up the dumped tires, they all called Audra.


Here's what we've learned:

Learning Process - This is a process of discovery; you learn as much about yourself as you do about your business.

Very Personal Outcomes - Your outcomes are unique. They will be reflective of you as a person, of your ideas, of the relationships that you build.

Develops Naturally - This process develops naturally, taking as long as it is going to take, adhering to no strict time schedule. Bob says: Most business models would be found in the fiction section of the library. When people develop a business model, they are trying to get it all done within a time restriction and usually end up making things up.

Stewardship - Be aware that stewardship takes a lot of energy

Community input = Power. You will find immense power in the community that you are part of.

Just the Beginning: When you create the SEED, you're really just at the beginning of the process of building a business.


Discussion Portion:

Business accelerators: if you want to create a business and flip it quickly, that's the model that works. But if you want to grow a business to last and is for you, don't use that model. The word "serial" - in front of anything is pretty suspicious. People think that a serial entrepreneur is a good thing - not necessarily true. Decisions made just to puff up a business and make it look good to sell don't help the workers or community.

Developing naturally: Group of people with their own perspective brings together really great stuff that works well.

Ideas evolve over this process - original idea almost changes completely after going through this process. Adrienne: initial thought: form a small retail business; present thought: consulting/service business. She has also formed relationships with people she hadn't thought of in the beginning - MHS, Purdue University for their research.

How does an existing business (going thru this process) change gears: Bob: they have to be under a certain amount of stress in order to thru a change. How do you change from one culture to another? The stress allows you to acknowledge the need to change, and to transition to a different paradigm. This gives you a chance to identify what you really want to do and what you don't want to do. You have to be able to love your work. In addition to stress, you have to have leadership - won't work without it.

Finding the deep root: keep looking until you find stuff that not gonna move - unchangeable. Audra: empowerment Pill Pouch: Stella's story Adrienne: animal ethics Matt Dibble: Being able to work ON things instead of IN the busyness of everyday tasks. (Paul Hawkins Growing a Business - look this up - free online?)

Bob: re, deep roots: Breeze Cab: it was a great and exciting and worthwhile business model, but the guy who was doing this business didn't really have the deep root necessary to carry this through.

This model is not for the impatient person. You must be thoughtful, deliberate and patient. You should not move faster than your comfort zone. This process takes as long as necessary, and this can be a long time. There is a personality type that works well in this environment and it has to be a good match for you. Very much wrapped up in the energy of the person.

You need different people to balance a business - accelerator and slow moving

Money is not the focal point of this business development model. Model is important in order to be able to move forward, but focusing on the money too much might distract you from other opportunities that could be more helpful, healthy and lucrative.

Might have a deep root that you aren't quite aware of or can't quite articulate, but you know it's still there (Doug)

Being purposeful in your work can be hard to do. You need to figure out how you will spend your time, what you will and will not do to move your business along. Maybe you shouldn't answer every email, for example.

Deep Roots: If you haven't yet found it, its something that is part of your psyche and your experience that provides a kind of compass that directs your work. It just kinda "comes out"