The main issue I had with the board at Nortel is that for a technology company, almost no one on the board had any experience in technology at all and that was a big problem which turned out to be a key factor in Nortel losing its advantage in the industry and finally cease to exist.

What should we expect of a board? In my opinion, the board should set or approve strategy then monitor and correct over the course of time. This means they need to understand the industry of the company, have the CEO present the strategic plans, make recommendations for changes as needed then approve the final plan. They should get updates at least quarterly or monthly to ensure that the company is fulfilling the agreed metrics.

The board of directors should not just be about profiling and prominence but about being the compass for the organization and its success. Maybe, its worthwhile studying the composition of various company boards to see which ones have well aligned boards and their relative success.

Here is how I think this could be realized for most people worldwide.

1. Land space – People will need to occupy land space in order to build a home. My take, is that government or private owners could provide land based on people engaging in some positive activity such as completing skill courses or direct labor.

2. Home Construction – Training people to build their own homes – Make the process simple and let them participate in the process to save on labor cost.

3. Payment – Allow some kind of savings account that collects money, recycling materials or labor towards the purchase of house materials. Any combination should work better for the future home owner.

4. Flexibility – Make the designs flexible so that people can add more rooms as they accumulate resources – My take is that you could build a studio with bathroom first then add more rooms later.

I think the biggest obstacle in all of this are the bigger businesses whom are afraid that innovation would reduce cost and thus reduce their overall profitability.

The best way to eliminate slums is to pay those in the slums to change behavior. What does this mean really? It means you need to have some kind of welfare program in place. In fact lots of countries have programs around this theme. A good example is Brazil and they have seen lots of progress with that approach.

Here are the key elements to focus on.

1. Make sure that the children get an education, so you break the cycle of poverty in the first place. This means to provide whatever means possible to make sure the kids can attend school at all times.

2. Have a mass education program in these areas. This education would cover personal development issues as well as basic skills. You at least want people to have a good high school education and a useful skill. They can continue to university or more advanced skills once that is done.

3. Renew the housing facilities within the slum. This could come in two parts. One is to train people to have the necessary building skills and the second its the ability to get them to implement in their communities. Basically, Government could provide the design, materials and supervision but the people themselves will build. Government in this case could mean private groups contributing to some central project.

4. Develop alternative technologies to aid slum development. This covers from building techniques to energy generation. This could reduce the cost to build as well as reduce the cost to maintain for example with power generation.

To reduce slums all over, we need to change the mentality of people to think of abundance as oppose to scarcity(Meaning we can all prosper). Here is the principle, a person with a good skill, job or business has more buying power and has less chance of becoming a criminal or dependent on society. In that case if you as a business person or professional contribute to such effort, it will benefit you in the long run significantly.

My view is that a good start is to have research initiatives on how to practically solve slum issues. This would cover from physical development issues to human psychology concerns. It’s also a great opportunity for co-creation as well.

P.S. There is one very brave initiative to solve the problem of housing for the poor called the $300 House Challenge, this is the right way to think for long term solutions.

While I have not read this book fully, the description has some good strategies to investigate.

Approaches to Urban Slums: A Multimedia Sourcebook on Adaptive and Proactive Strategies (Wbi Learning Resources Series)

Posted via email from lmorley’s posterous

Why is this the case? It seem from what the study is saying that knowing the funders actually helps more with ultimately getting funding.

Here is what I summarize from this.

1. Focus on networking to launch your new business. Find out where VCs hang out and make effort to meet them and make bounds.

2. Still do your business plan as that would help you organize your business and convince you that the end game will be good. The exercise is necessary to have a viable business anyway.

You can read more about the study here.

Humility can go with confidence actually, it does not mean you have to be cocky to be confident either. Most times it means understanding any given situation, get the facts and present your honest opinion. How many times you deal with people that presents an opinion that’s wrong which they know but will not back down? This is where humility comes in.

Here is the article again – Enjoy

There are several ways to have a business. One way is to invest such as buying stock or a little more active such as participate in the strategy and significant part of the funding. The other option is to actively run a business and this can have different models to consider. Case in point is that you could be the Chairman making major strategy decisions while getting others to execute or it could be the case where you are a one man show.

In the investor type business approach, you could keep your regular job for the fun of it or you could now do some other activities while your investment continues to grow with the company.

I am planning to provide as much research as I can on the business building side of things and I have developed a new blog to cover most of this called the Business Start-up Guide Blog.

It could be much easier to start a business than you may think. For example if you are a technical professional, you could incorporate a company for $220 or more then seek technical contracts in the company name (lots of tax advantages). As things grow you could get others to help under contract while you look at more long term strategies. I will cover some of these scenarios in the blog.

One of the most sticky point is financing. I have a cool idea of how to get very good financing for your business through your company. Can’t wait to share that and I am testing it out as we speak.

Until next time…