Pausa di reflessione

What a relief not to see the face nor hear the voice of Italian politicans for 48 hours!!!!! Since the political crisis in Italy which brought down the Prodi government, the Italian public has been subjected to incessant and continuous 'political debates'....... They have been subjected to yelling matches and insults of various politicans......

What a relief to turn on the TV on Saturday and not see their faces nor hearing them yelling and insulting each other.... Would not it be nice the 'pausa di reflessione' lasted for eternity!

Philanthropy: The beginning of the end of development

It is great that Microsoft, Dell, Google and other big private sector movers and shakers want to join the global battle of fighting hunger and poverty. The question we should ask ourselves is how can they and how will they reconcile their quest to make money and profit with serving the most needy..... Will pumping in money solve the problem? Will parachuting inappropriate technology solve the problem? The answer is NO!!!! What they need to do is not DO IT ALONE, but in partnership with those who have been in the business for decades....... They pledged to work with the UN, civil society and the NGOs, but will they and if they do on what conditions? Their conditions?

It goes without saying that with the entry of foundations in the development arena and their with big bucks and lots of them ,the balance of power will and has changed.... but will it be sustainable? Gates may have recruited the creme de la creme from the development world, but will these top people be able to and given the space to implement sustainable development...... or will they pursue the photo opportunity, press and media coverage and be forced to put those who they are supposedly serving on the back burner!!!
All this public action is great. People have to be made aware of the plight of the 1 billion poor people. But to really and truly help the 1 billion poor people, we need structured, thought-through, sustainable plans. These plans need to be developed with the poor people and their organizations.

A thousand splendid suns

I just finished reading Khaled Hosseini's second book - A thousand splendid suns. I wonder why Hosseini does not spend some time and energy telling the world about the wonderful and rich history, tradition and culture his country.

As Hermann Hesse said: "And even the unhappiest life has its sunny moments and its little flowers of happiness between sand and stone", so does Afghanistan!

Tides of change: a project makes a difference in the livelihoods of artisanal fishers

Fighting rural poverty is a multifaceted challenge. It is not only about increasing the incomes of poor rural people, and providing them with access to safe water, health and education. It is also about transferring knowledge and know-how. And more importantly, it is about implementing policies that empower people and lead to reducing rural poverty. This is what the IFAD-funded Sofala Bank Artisanal Fisheries Project is doing in Mozambique.

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Small-scale farmers become entrepreneurs

Have you ever wondered where the cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and green beans sitting on supermarket shelves come from? In Mozambique if you shop at Shoprite, Africa's largest food retailer, which has operations in 16 countries, you'll be buying vegetables produced locally by small-scale farmers.

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How leaders create and use networks

According to Herminia Ibarra, successful leaders have a nose for opportunity and a knack for knowing whom to tap to get things done. These qualities depend on a set of strategic networking skills that nonleaders rarely possess.

She talks about importance of networking. She says, "typically, managers rise through the ranks by dint of a strong command of the technical elements of their jobs and a nose-to-the-grindstone focus on accomplishing their teams’ objectives. When challenged to move beyond their functional specialties and address strategic issues facing the overall business, many managers do not immediately grasp that this will involve relational—not analytical—tasks. Nor do they easily understand that exchanges and interactions with a diverse array of current and potential stakeholders are not distractions from their “real work” but are actually at the heart of their new leadership roles."

Read full article as it appeared in the Janaury 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review

Typically, managers rise through the ranks by dint of a strong command of the technical elements of their jobs and a nose-to-the-grindstone focus on accomplishing their teams’ objectives. When challenged to move beyond their functional specialties and address strategic issues facing the overall business, many managers do not immediately grasp that this will involve relational—not analytical—tasks. Nor do they easily understand that exchanges and interactions with a diverse array of current and potential stakeholders are not distractions from their “real work” but are actually at the heart of their new leadership roles.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=R0701C&ml_page=1&ml_subscriber=true

Leadership has nothing to do with titles

J. Frank Brown, the Dean of INSEAD has just published a marvelous book called the The global business leader. In this book he says he has met a lot of CEOs in his two-and-a-half decades in business and many of them are little more than LINOs – Leaders In Name Only.

Read more at the following url: http://knowledge.insead.edu/contents/FrankBrown.htm

Brown believes there are seven hallmarks of a great leader. “I think the most important one is how you communicate and how you listen because if you’re going to be a successful leader you’ve got to be a really aggressive learner,” he said.

In his book, The Global Business Leader: Practical Advice for Success in a Transcultural Marketplace, Brown lists the hallmarks of leadership: openness, integrity, humility, a view of the present and the future, an optimistic outlook, the proper use of authority, and an understanding of personal and organisational objectives.