see www.worldconnectors.nl and www.linkedin.com for my speeches/papers/opinions;

for linkedin connectivity: mulderherman233@gmail.com

for other mail: mrhermanmulder@gmail.com

AMAZON YOUR BUSINESS: a wonderful book with 40 cases of sustainable Amazon products, collected and written by Meindert Brouwer (ISBN 978-90-811942-1-1), lifetime Dutch conservationist. It shows how nature can work for business. Beautiful, very inspiring, taste for more: next book should be AFRI-CAN YOUR BUSINESS.......

LEVERAGING 0.8%: REBALANCING FROM (direct & indirect) public funds based on top down public policies(from here) to governmental institutions (there) for mostly humanitarian reasons, TO private sector (business and civil society organisations') collaboration and "bottom-up co-creation" with local communities (with important role for women and youth) for focused livelihood/cluster development and creation of entrepreneurship (there) facilitated by public guarantees(from here).

Export Credit Insurance schemes (with political risk protection for exporters by government here) are an interesting template to redesigned: create a Social, Biodiversity&Climate Impact Guarantee Scheme, whereby the guarantee (for which a fee must be paid!) will only be paid out if certain preset public policy criteria will have been met (improved health, education, productivity, less flooding, etc).

A variant hereof may be to create a Carbon Floor Price Guarantee Scheme to accelerate the renewable/clean energy agenda (eg. Euro 30/ton in 2020?)

(nb am working in India on a $20mln Social Impact Bond)

WHATABOUTS: for all my "whatabouts", see my blog of 9 January 2010; these days in particular work on: challenging companies on their CSR/ESG/PPP-practices; the Euro 15mln SEWA social impact bond (with SEWA/IFC/YES/Taellberg/FMO); roll-out of TEEB/GRI (!); "new development cooperation" with more entrepreneurship and different government role; NCDO/Worldconectors in 2011.

THE TRIPLE TOP LINE: No Planet: No People: No Profit!
Companies can be bailed out by banks, banks by governments, governments by international financial institutions, BUT the Planet & Nature cannot bail us out, definitely not all 6.5bln people (and growing....): we, government and business, MUST change our economic compass. See www.teebweb.org

HAKUNA MATATA? We all suffer from unintentional blindness; in my days at ABN AMRO we met each year with CRO's of the 12 major international banks to share what was keeping us awake during the night: we all had a different beast, or rather gorilla (remember the video " who saw the gorilla..."?). None of us even suspected that the whole zoo("the system") would revolt in 2007/8. Have we learned from our professional and human shortcomings? Are we sufficiently observant, anxious, imaginative to learn from this experience only 2-3 years ago? I CHALLENGE YOU my readers to present to me (and others) which signs on the wall or gorilla's on the basketball field we do not see. First prize: A HONORARY GORILLA!!

(as inspiration, please read my earlier blog, January 9, 2010: We cannot Walk Alone: Beware of Monday 12 October 2015....)

THE CASE AGAINST CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: CSR an illusion, even potentially dangerous because it distracts from the core responsibility towards shareholders? Aneel Karnami argues in WSJ 23/8 that the case for CSR is either irrelevant (there were business and and public interests are aligned) or ineffective (where shareholder interests are opposite to public interests). The issue is whether or not profits and public good are at odds.

Well, business can not be profitable without customers, business will fail in failed societies, ecosystem degradation has direct impact on the business performance, so does social unrest. Picturing the contradiction as in the WSJ is false: thriving businesses make sure that their mission is aligned with the realities, risks and opportunities in the societies in which they operate. So the case for CSR as "irrelevant" becomes increasingly relevant, mainstreamed. Those CEO's who do not embrace CSR as a fundamental driver for their business in the interest of their shareholders and stakeholders will face desertion by their stakeholders (incl talent, customers) and extinction over time. Those CEO's who adopt CSR as core to their business should consider being leaders, rather than adaptors.

So, the case for CSO: corporate social opportunity......it's really there!