Concepts

1. Sustainable – both in terms of itself as a business and of the products it will sell.

2. Values – for the company, society and the environment.

3. Ethical – in all aspects of the business.

4. Alleviates Poverty – to help those smaller producers to get to a market.

I am still formulating these ideas and what they mean.

Let me give you an example, a Woodturner in the UK, will often sell their crafted products at summer shows. Using the winter to make and the summer to sell often travelling around the country to a series of major agricultural or regional events. Competing with all the other sellers in the craft tent.

It is often a part-time job, requiring another source of income. 

Do we want to help them? Do they want to be helped? I would like to think so.

The costs and the sustainability will require their products to be small runs, not huge manufacturing runs. Consumers will have to understand that something available today may not be available tomorrow. 

Similarly with a village in Africa, if a set of suitable products can be shipped or air freighted and the margins benefit the poor in that society. Are we prepared to incur the pollution aspects of that shipping – I would say so, but would prefer that ships are used even if they then take a long time to arrive. Both for the business and in terms of returns for the village. 

We are,  therefore, in need of a clear set of Do’s and Don’t’s which will guide the business as its concepts develop. Both now and in the future. Business must change and adapt otherwise they die.

The 3 P’s – Purpose, Production and Power

The New Economic Foundation booklet – Ethical Business – How a new breed of business is changing the world – sets out the above 3 P’s

And for me these three equate to the following:

Purpose – Bamboo Biz is there to have an ecological basis for all decisions and to provide products which are an alternative to plastic and possibly metal as well.

Production – provide sustainably sourced products which meet modern needs. Organic fabrics, recycled metal items and fair trade arrangements can all be part of the offering.

Power – A minimal governance structure which returns profits to all levels of the business. 

How can we put back into the communities where we have the products manufactured?

How can we pass on knowledge of simple technologies such as rainwater harvesting, keyhole gardens which help the local community as well as the employees of the local employers.

Local childcare for example to help single mothers work.

Cash structures to enable people to buy a home or land.

Education help – be funding or providing new equipment for a school.

Local transport initiatives – electric vehicles etc

5-10% of annual profit to be re-invested in sustainable community projects. 

And What about Culture…

Culture is to me is about behaviours. They say we Brits are always talking about about the weather and with our climate it is no wonder – 3 seasons in a day is not unusual. As a business we need our own cultural norms. And for me that starts with the logical equivalent of the knock on the door.

What do you do when someone unexpectedly knocks on your door?

Well that might depend on whether or not your a real people person or if you are in the middle of something and do not want to be disturbed or if you are a vulnerable person. Ideally, I think we would all agree that what we would want is to be treated in a helpful and respectful manner. 

While trying to type this so far the cat from across the road – very much a people cat – has come to the door to be let in – I have put computer aside, opened the door and once he came in and went out again – then about 5 minutes later came back and this time just wanted to say hi and then went off again. By the final time, I was complaining that he was a pain in the butt, after all he is not even my cat – we don’t have one either! I treated him with respect until I had had enough and I think 3 tries is about right. Once – could be a mistake, twice – you are skating on thin and third time – action will be taken. So thanks Ollie, I think you have just given me another behaviour for my culture.

I think there are two other things for me that are very important: adaptability and flexibility. Business is a changing world, unless you adapt you die. The customer wants it in blue this week and red last week – we can adapt – we might also charge you for that privilege. Flexibility, is to me bending over backwards to help – staying a bit late, working on an important deadline – meeting people when suits them – those are flexible attributes. While still maintaining a work/home balance of course.

I think we also need to all agree with the culture values and want to reduce the plastic in the world. If each one of us does not believe we can do that we might as well go home now. Historically we use to eat off wooden plates with wooden forks and spoons. Now we see them as a poor alternative but perhaps we need to reevaluate? Don’t get me wrong when I am chopping up the veg for dinner I want a good sharp metal knife. But do I need a metal fork? Or spoon? I am not sure. Not tried it and perhaps that is what we as a company needs to do is try some of these things. I know that I can do a lot with chopsticks. So is it strange to use other non-metal objects? By us all agreeing we want to reduce plastic (and perhaps some metal too) we have the opportunity to use our imagination to explore each idea we come up with and not only explore historic uses for wood and bamboo but new uses for bamboo. Ideas can be shaped, created and sold. The fact it may be radical – as something we have not seen before – does not mean it should be abandoned. It needs to be treasured and nurtured. If we cannot make it – well perhaps we need to wait – a new method may come along in the future that makes it possible. 

In these Covid-19 days, we are all learning new ways to do business. And keep improving, I have spent a good while in regulated industries and so know what it is to work in a rigid manner. It is not my preference, as it often stops innovation – even the 1% continual improvement – because it is so complex to improve the process. Business these days needs flexibility. Speed is often a blessing and a curse. A sensible pace often outperforms outright speed as too many mistakes can be made by pushing ahead relentlessly. I believe in designing systems the best that you can initially and that makes taking all the ideas and moulding them into something that works well. Over time, you can improve it. Whether it is a product, a method or even a member of staff. We all have excellent ideas. These are the ideas to take the business and products in new areas. If we can make it work we will – maybe not on day one but we will hold it until the right day.

We want to make beautiful and hopefully useful things. I enjoy pottery and make non-functional pottery. I am not interested in making plates – OK – I have made a few bowls. But in general they are for decoration not for a functional use. Today, though I feel while we need decorations – they can also be useful as well as decorative. My WeeWood watch has a hand painted bamboo strap. It is both highly decorative and functional. I have bamboo spectacles cases in a couple of designs. I also have a favourite – dare I say it plastic case – why is it my favourite because it sits open on my desk and it is somewhere I can safely put my spectacles down. If I could find a similar design in wood or bamboo I would happily throw the plastic in the recycle bin.

That poses another issue – how to make these items effectively and efficiently which allows them to be made at a suitable price and not hand-made prices. Some items may require to be hand-made and the cost needs to be passed on – but to replace plastic we need to make the products available and to make them a market tolerant price. Too many plastic items are just thrown away after either a single use or after a few uses.

That is unacceptable for natural products. Like the wooden plates, we take care of them, oil them if necessary etc and use them with love and care. I have some stunning wooden bowls. I have had them for years. I do wash and oils them after I have used them for a salad for example. Or if they are for a bowl of snacks at a party. All these uses are valid. The bowls are stunning by the nature of their woods. Decorative and functional. 

At the end of the day I believe we can change the world, for the better. We may have a radical idea to produce sustainable products which are beautiful and functional and which replace plastic items as cultural choice. If we believe, and I firmly do believe, we can change the idea of what people expect and accept as a usable product. 

Hewlett-Packard was started in a garage in 1938, making instrumentation – they got their big break via Disney and formally were founded in 1939. Now the garage is a monument to the start of Silicon Valley. One of the original 11 garage rules (as opposed to the more famous HP Way) was “No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage). “ See https://konghq.com/blog/the-11-rules-of-the-hp-garage/

I like these sentiments for two reasons 1) the inclusion of politics into any business means to my mind a loss of integrity and it is very different from a company owner giving personal money or time to a candidate of their choice. That I view more as you would a hobby. I spend my own money on what makes sense to me. I do not ask you to endorse that. But the business personality, income and expense needs to have integrity. 2) bureaucracy – well – in this digital age we don’t need paper – it is wonderful what a camera or scanner can do to replace handling paper. Some digital paperwork is required. But I agree let us think of better ways to do things. We need to define quality criteria – otherwise how do we know it is good enough to ship, we need to decide how do we sell something – so there are processes but a minimum. And there does need to be mechanism for agreement – I know consensus management works but it can also delay decisions. If we can only pick 6 products to sell – how do we decide which 6 of may be 100? I don’t have the answer – and maybe that is one for much later. But I can – even now – see the need for agreements. 

So we have in house designer? Maybe later but not yet. Do we just sell what some else is already producing – yes it it works. But I can also see taking an idea to a different level or changing it in some way that improves it.