The more or less part is based on the fact I’d like to address travel. Because I’m traveling to India in, ehm, 17 hours. After I had finished my thesis (according to me, not my coordinator), I was stoked and annoyed with the fact (very dualist I am aware), and decided to get out of the country for a while, as it has been a very intense last 10 months. I’ll leave out the details, you’ll just have to believe me. (BTW, really stoked about the visual identity of Cradle of Design I received just now, looks great and will be ‘alive’ August)

Alright, travel.

The thing is, I’m quite surprised about the reactions people have been giving me about ‘just leaving’. A selection; “Wow, you’re nuts” (that’s not a very original one though, and not necessarily concerning the travel part), “How do you afford that?”, “I wish I could do that”. I think you can, both afford it, and do it (Yes we can type deal, but than for real).

First of all, it doesn’t have to be all that expensive; put some time in finding a ticket. I found a ticket for 420,- euro’s two-way. (here) It took me 3 days and the great help of Femke, but still. Than, I became a member of an organisation called WWOOF which is an NGO that enables us Western kids to really engage in ‘cultural understanding’. You work on an organic farm in a local, small community, 5 hours a day, in exchange for food and a spot to sleep. This ‘work’ ranges from building sheds, milking cows, teaching kids English, sweeping the place, cooking or planting seeds. It gives you the opportunity to get a taste of the local community and learn about organic agriculture (no use of chemicals and/or pesticides). Next to that the people (seem to be) (are) very willing to teach you things such as yoga and/or meditation, local cuisine, language and culture.

The thing is, besides that it’s very cheap travel, it also helps you to not just ‘do’ a country (the typical backpacker-attitude where we all just gather on the other side of the world and get wasted on both alcohol and hallucinates (don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, but you can do at home too) but really visit a country and gives you an opening into a culture in order to ‘live’ it (although for a very short time). (articles on ‘vagabond-travel’ here & here)

Next to that, the I wish I could, is, for me anyway, just an excuse. I’ve once learned, at some point, that if something scares the living shit out of you, it’s probably because you haven’t got a clue what to expect and it’s easier to just let it sit there in your mind and move along the steady path of current life. In my opinion, this results in people (I’ve met loads of them and so have you I guess), saying, oh yeah, but you’re young, easy life, etc. Well, sure, I am young, sure, I have an easy life, but I’m also building a company, I’ve also graduated, I’ve also done loads of network building in the last months, some projects etc. ect. It’s not an excuse not to do other stuff. If you feel like leaving for a while, do it. Life is too short to have to say; “Oh, I wish I had done this, or that.” It’s a choice, sure, but well, if you feel you ought to do something, go f&%^* do it. The only time is now and if you have the opportunity, grab it. Don’t be afraid of things you don’t know, all learning comes with pains and gains, and scary things are most likely the ones that’ll teach you most.

I think we can all agree on the idea of life being a journey, and I found this quote from Vonnegut the other day;

“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”

Now, I don’t necessarily believe in the monotheistic view upon God or anything (more so that it is all one, including all of us, which in itself is monotheistic again, circle, circle, let’s talk about that some other time), but the opportunities arising in our lives are too often past by and left alone, which is a bloody shame.

For now, I wish you all love and peace, hope to see you upon return, take it easy.

A bit opportunistic perhaps, but I felt like writing something on the subject of my thesis, so I did. The thesis is in its final stages and consists of a range of interviews with; David Fellah, Herbert van Hoogdalem, Dan Germain, Mikal Hallstrup and last, but surely not least, Sir Richard Branson. Also, a survey with 150 respondents, loads of literature review and the text here would, I think, be classified as my conclusions without the sources. Hope you enjoy it.

Throughout the process of compiling the thesis I came across several often returning ‘tag-words’ if you wish. One of them; ethics, others; transparency, genuine behaviour and long-term strategy. These four ‘drivers’ so to say, are very important in implementing a CSR strategy. In my personal opinion, Dan Germain put it very well, CSR is not a strategy, it is part of the DNA of a company. Yet, I would like to say, it is not the DNA of the company, it is the DNA of the people behind the company.

The most important part, when it comes to social behaviour, is that it needs to be true, the truthfulness, of CSR, no matter what it’s business or communication consequences, is vital in even considering implementing a strategy as such. Although currently CSR is becoming somewhat of a ‘trendy thing to be in’ and a popular thing to implement, in the base, it should be a feeling of people who control the larger sums of money in this world, to do ‘something good’. This, in times of declining world economies, based on unclear, confusing financial constructs, leaving, hardworking, honest people bankrupt, job- and homeless, is a message received with a heartfelt cheer by activists, political left and right-wingers, consumers and non-consumers.

This, as touched upon earlier (in the thesis that is), is also the risk. In times of superficial entertainment, de-humanised wars (on the Western side of the equation), increased negative outlooks on world economy, the return of ‘pirates’ in our daily news and the continued callings of the ruling western spiritual leader- the Pope, to not use condoms in Africa, news, which is ‘true, ‘good’ or ‘positive’ is received with great enthusiasm and appreciation, without looking much further into the matter.

Companies have a responsibility to, if they choose to, be truthful, transparent and ‘in for the long run’, when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility. The interesting conclusion I came to, through talking to the ‘business-leaders’ for this thesis, is that most of them claimed companies have more ‘power’ to instigate change than governments do. This, I personally believe to be true, it is also interesting to see the response coming back in the questionnaire, in which the respondents show an obvious ‘pro’ corporate responsibility and are willing to pay more, with money being the ruling paradigm in our world, I find this a very interesting development. This also indicates, I believe, a system change, in which companies are going to be ‘platform creators’ in which civilians are to participate, thereby, together, creating a world of which one can be proud.

The ‘change in the system’ cannot be ‘announced’ with any light concern to the ruling ideas that are here now, and therefore, I found a nice and ‘simple’ illustration to accompany it, I believe (based upon the 6 product-phases Eger has once proposed).

When we look at the process of becoming who we are today we, as a species, have had a long journey (and still a long way to go?). When we first got up on our two hind legs (homo erectus), we had to start evolving ourselves in several ways, in a physical way, which lead to the emergence of the species of homo sapiens (Performance). After that we started to optimise our bodily functions that lead to increasing mental development (Optimisation). Through that optimisation we began to develop skills other homo sapiens had not (itemisation). Through that we were lead to segmentation by the skills we had attained, worker class, bourgeoisie and royal (segmentation). When this wasn’t enough anymore we started to individualise which lead to the last couple of decades of the self (individualisation). Which brings us to where we are now. Awareness.

As such, I believe, we humans are increasingly ‘aware’ of what is happening around us, mind me, we are merely at the beginning of this stage, but as seen in (and enabled by) the increase of communication means we have at our disposal, internet ‘activism’, for instance, is an increasingly important mean to people who wish to ‘change the world’ and, even in mainstream news gathering, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

If a company or brand chooses to indulge itself into a strategy that addresses social behaviour of the company itself, it needs to be heartfelt, I would even say, they should not even want to communicate it. Although this, especially coming from a communication student, is perhaps not the most ‘financially profitable’ way of going about it, surely would indicate it’s sincerity.

The core beliefs of wanting to be a ‘Good Global Citizen’ should come from within a company, otherwise they cannot be lived, and therefore they will, most likely at some point, fail to be responsible, resulting in a massive spanking. Corporate Social Responsibility can be a very useful and profitable addition to a company strategy, what is vital it to realise how much you will lose if you do not treat a strategy as such with honesty, sincerity and loyalty, it is a long-term, costly and hard process and one not to be taken lightly.

The fact that people are dying due to this evolved ‘flu’ is, obviously, very sad. Yet, it is also so incredibly clear that we, as humans, are the single reason for this to happen. With our ‘continuous growth’ paradigm, a mostly western issue, we have created ourselves the need to keep growing, otherwise we would ‘stagnate’. But what exactly would stagnate? Human satisfaction of the current moment? Self-development? The planet?

No. I don’t think so.

A striking illustration of our misconduct, I find, is the existence of ‘mega-farms’. These farms sometimes ‘house’ up to 10.000 cows, who do not get any ‘outdoor-activity’ or ‘raise’ chickens in 40 days (from chick to full-grown chicken), which would, from a natural point of view, normally would take between 90-110 days. The idea is that a chicken that grows twice as fast, will be replaced by a new chicken that can than again, be sold, thus, making twice the money you would with a normal chicken. Good thinking, right?

Ehm.

Well, in a way, sure, we live in a society that is based upon economic continuity and growth, thus having a turnover that goes against organic development seem reasonably feasible. The only problem is, it comes at a cost. The ‘normal’ chicken we eat is pumped with hormones stimulating growth, these hormones, of which the use is denied by the USDA (here), are implemented not only in the animals, but also in the humans that eat them. This, just the same as eating veggies that are sprayed with chemicals, or soil in which they grow is fertilized with non-natural products to limit the degeneration of the soil because of exhaustion, is simply not beneficial for human bodies.

The consequences of our ‘waging war upon the planet’ (argument put forward by Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael), we can see all around us. Rapid development of obesity as a ‘decease’ (come on…), 2 in 4 children in the UK is now officially diagnosed with overweight, the staggering idea that Coca Cola in some countries is cheaper than water, (an interesting article I found recently about the effects of Coca Cola upon the human body, here), the rise of several animal viruses within the last 5 years (Mad-Cow-decease, Bird-flue, Pork-plague) and now the ones that are potentially also threatening human life; SARS, Swine Flue and it wouldn’t surprise me we’ll be facing another one, but one that actually does kill more than the 903 confirmed cases worldwide (4-5-2009). I mean, on a daily base there are still 15,000 children dying of diarrhea due to the lack of clean drinking water.

I’m sorry I just can’t get worked up about this ‘possible pandemic’. Except for the idea that it is so deeply rooted in our societies, “You are what you eat” type deal, this does worry me, because how to stop something when when a society is based upon the principle that most things and problems are never something directly associated with people themselves but every problem is faced with an attitude in which people say “well, but what can I do about it?”

Well, first of all think about what you eat, your own eating patterns have enormous impact upon, among others, environment, animal ‘guardianship’, social structures (fair trade, all that) and most directly, your own health (you care about that I assume).

Next to that you can ask your local supermarket to actually offer food that has been produced within ‘sustainable boundaries’ and with respect towards the animals we use as food.

So to start, my supermarket is Albert Heijn, if you wish to ask them to elevate the standards of their ‘footprint’ go here, I’ve prepared a text for you (in Dutch) if you don’t feel like typing.

Geachte heer/mevrouw,

Ik wil op deze manier aandacht vragen voor de, in mijn ogen, vreemde verdeling van ‘biologisch voedsel’ en ‘normaal voedsel’ binnen uw assortiment. Daarnaast is de prijsstelling van het gezondere en sociaal ‘eerlijkere’ (ook tegenover dieren) ten opzichte van ‘het doorsnee voedsel’, mijns inziens, contra-productief voor het stimuleren van een gezondere levensstandaard van uw klanten (waar u met uw “Gezonde Keuze” producten wel de indruk wekt dat dit een interessepunt van uw bedrijf is), als wel positief voor het in stand houden van de zogenaamde ‘megafarms’ die op vele manieren geen boodschap hebben aan dierenwelzijn of de milieutechnische consequenties die het runnen van een boerderij als deze heeft.

Ik begrijp dat u een beurs genoteerd bedrijf bent en als zodanig winst dient te maken om de aandeelhouders gelukkig te houden, alsmede ‘de Holding’. Maar, mijns inziens, de toekomst van zowel onze planeet, als onze maatschappij heeft bedrijven als u nodig om de huidige omslag te maken die we nodig hebben om als planeet gezond en zonder ons te hoeven schamen voor ons gedrag ten opzichte van andere diersoorten de toekomst in te helpen.

Hopende in de nabije toekomst een verandering in uw strategie ten opzichte van voedsel verstrekking tegemoed te mogen zien, wens ik u alle goeds.

Hoogachtend,

(Your name)

Well, long story, hope you understand my point though. And please take this little action in order to actively contribute to a ‘better future’ for planet, humanity and animals.

Love & Peace,

Len

My website will be a bit messy today, (header for instance) I’m playing round with some new ideas. Not going offline though, work in progress it is for today. =)

Peace & Love.

Now, having friends that make music is real nice, always original music round, free piano or guitar concerts, quite inspirational I must say. I got him a gig at OT 301 in Amsterdam and it was real sweet, he also got asked to come back which is even nicer.

Also, which crossed my attention, someone who I wrote about before Little Boots is coming to town! 1st of May we’ll all be able to do her thing in Paradiso. Which is real nice too!

Next to that; Still writing my thesis, more or less getting there soon, for those who’d like to take the survey please do: http://bit.ly/gQX1q

Besides that there are some good things going on. I was asked for this congress which is about making business more about skill and passion than about corporate profit machines. Among the speakers are Michel Albert and the former prime-minister of Belgium. More info on the congress you can find here (sorry in Dutch). I was asked to take part of the congress after the kind of unexpected presentation I gave at the ‘Birthday-bash’ of Great Place to Live about the Magical A4 I’m writing together with Herbert van Hoogdalem.

Next to that there are some projects coming up. On which I’ll tell you more soon. =)

Cradle of Design is also showing its first signs of life. Working on it. =)

So far, wish you all the best, I’m back to work!

Love & Peace.

Being a student CAN be hard. The only thing is, when you work (in the mainstream use of the word) there’s someone who will kick your ass when you don’t (work that is). Which is exactly what makes it hard being a student. There’s no one who will, and if ‘they’ try, you’re not very likely to give a flying fuck. Of course being a student is a very relaxed way of living, you don’t have very filled days, classes are more of an inter-social happening than a ‘must’ and next to that, you don’t have all too much ‘responsibilities’.

But, then you have to write your thesis. There’s this gap of, hey, we want you to do this 15,000 word paper, we give you until June, report back to us every now and again, good luck. When you actually HAVE until June that’s cool I guess, I mean you won’t notice ‘pressure’ (which is completely self-created, I am aware) until June. But when you (hey, here I am) give yourself to the end of Febuari, things start to look pressured around the 12th of Febuary. You find out that, you still need to write your literature review (and kinda still need to read some of it too), are not too sure where it’s all moving towards, but you do have an interview with Richard Branson, but you doubt whether they’ll let you pass on that alone (must admit, haven’t tried it).

My thesis is on Corporate Social Responsibility and whether it could strengthen customer relationships. I think it’s an interesting study and I will inform you guys here on what the outcome will be.

Anyway, only reason for this post is: PLEASE TAKE THE SURVEY and help a self-pressurised student out!

Much appreciated!

Peace & Love,

Len

But, I think I should give it a try. I came by this blog on StumbleUpon called (surprise, surprise) Daily Routines and got inspired. The blog writes about the daily routines of successful (and not so successful) people, writers, politicians, businesspeople.

Why would I need a daily routine, I asked myself. Especially in the last 3 weeks after the whole adventure I noticed I was running after myself a lot. Of course, you can’t expect to jump into an adventure like that and not expect an aftermath, I understand, but for some reason I felt it was more. I’ve got the feeling that time is not so much simply an object in existence for me as a tool, but more so, it is a 3D kind of cubical in which I am to create whatever it is I wish to create.

As both me and my housemate are trying to move ourselves into a certain direction (his; a spot in art school Rietveld, mine; a successful business start-up (more on that subject soon)) we are ‘struggling’ to get into the right mind frame. Loads to be arranged, ‘cleaned up’ and foundations to be laid.

I am lucky in so far that Herbert has proven himself willing to be my Virgil, but it’s not like that excludes me from having my act together.

I guess when I talk about a daily routine I should explain what I mean by that. For me it is creating an environment in which I have a ‘waking-up ritual’ on weekdays, thereby, I’m thinking, a basic energy level to start the day with. Don’t be afraid, I won’t become a 9-5 kind of guy, as such, my mornings from now on will consist of;

6.30: Wake up
6.31: Coffee, Fruit shake & Cruesli
6.35-7.30: News
7.30-7.45: To do list for the day
7.45: Work-out, shower
8.30: Get to work

Now, some of you might tell me, that’s no daily routine. Well, for me it is =) It is a routine and a daily one at that!

“May you be orderly and regular in your life, like a good bourgeois. So you may be violent and original in your work.” Flaubert

Only thing with that quote is that I think my work is my life, it’s quite inevitable that I do what I do, don’t think I can do anything else, thereby making what I do, what I am. Yet, at the same time, when you look at the overall picture, there’s so much more too, like waking up and setting yourself up to do what you do best, I’m thinking, sweet!

Do you have a ‘routine’? Or tips? Or reasons why I shouldn’t? =)

Take care!

Love & Peace.

Well, Tuesdays are a good one for those (well, they’ve proven to be in the past 2 weeks anyway).

Being someone who loves a good song, sang from the heart, I’ve been going to the singer/songwriter night in Sappho on the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam (straight across the old ABN building). Nice vibe, good music, cheap beer and great staff.

Well, my point being, last Tuesday we (together with Artun) went to Sappho again and met an awesome singer/songwriter by the name of Matthew Davies. Besides making super nice music, also a fun guy to hangout with, although I’m not entirely sure whether he was too convinced of our sanity (completely understandable, I’ll spare you the details). BUT, I’d like to put his music out there. Check it out! =)

Matthew in StumpJack Coffee in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

You can find him: here & Myspace with more songs of his making.

Also, perhaps if you’re around Amsterdam, come to Sappho next Tuesday, it’s a blast! Perhaps good to know, it’s an initiative by the Amsterdam Songwriter guild

Maybe see you round, otherwise, take care and enjoy the music!

Love & Peace,

Len

Newspaper header next day

In D.C. with carton puppets of Obama & Biden (Omar, Mr. Branson and me)

Links to some video reports:

Press conference NU.nl

Talk & Do TV (CASE presentation)

SBS Hart van Nederland

Well, it’s been a lot of fun. But now it’s back to normal life again.

Everybody thanks loads for the comments, effort put in this adventure  and the coverage given to the whole story. But now I’ll go back to being a start-up entrepreneur and final dissertation writing student.

If anyone would like to join Mankind is no Island please click here.

Hope you’ll be part of the following adventure which will be posted again, right here.

Peace and Love,

Len

Start at the beginning. When we arrived in Washington we were chucked in a van after having thanked Mr. Branson several times and said goodbye to him. Then we were brought to the Sheraton where we decided to let everything sink in a bit and than go for some food. As it was 3 at night for us already (in our heads), we were slightly (not too long of course) doubtful about what to do, but after that got into a cab and headed out for D.C. nightlife.

After having driven around a bit in a ‘yellow cab’ (go for the full experience right? ) we decided to taste the feeling on the streets and walk around a bit to end up in a bar called Tattoo Bar. A bit of a rockish kind of place, we had a laugh and a couple of drinks and did a radio interview with Giel Beelen, who (I think) is the coolest radio DJ in Holland. I think I was a bit tipsy but well, I don’t think I said too many weird things (so I hope).

At some point there was a flower salesman, and Omar decided to give the good man some flowers, as we were sure he deserved them. You should have seen the look on his face, priceless.

Once we got home I fell over and slept, thinking over and over, what a day, what a day….

When we woke up we went out into the area where we were staying. We had to ‘sniff’ some of the American lifestyle and decided to go to one of these mall things. Must say I quite looked like Australia, which made me feel quite at home, despite the -7 degrees temperature.

We were picked up at the hotel around 5 together with the Virgin staff who were staying in the same hotel and brought to the airport. The staff, who were rather startled to see us asked us about the story and started laughing to be followed by all sorts of stories that supported the image we already had of Mr. Branson being a very generous and kind man.

Once arrived at the airport we walked over to the Virgin desk where we were looked at a bit funny when we started talking about Mr. Branson the faces changed when we said we had two tickets waiting for us, reservations made by Mr. Branson, within 5 minutes we were at the security check, no waiting in line (how nice is that!) and than I was asked about the bicycle-pump and hydraulic pump grip I had on me because of my bike (that was still in Amsterdam), which was looked at funny, but I was ‘allowed’ to pass after a couple of strange looks.

Once in the plane I turned on my phone and got a message from Mr. Branson (dance dance dance!) and we decided to call him to thank him one more time for all his effort and spontaneity to our silly question.

We flew back to London where we were picked up by a private chauffeur by the name of Anthony, who was incredibly nice and helpful (thanks loads!) and brought us to another airport where another private jet was waiting for us, arranged by an anonymous new friend of ours haha, (it doesn’t stop does it?) to ship us back to Amsterdam.

I even got a really cool offer for Mankind is no Island from Rashej Patel (CEO Exact Software) to host the first event for the network. This will happen at the point where there are a hundred members on the platform, so please join.

The ‘coming back’ party was insane, and I’ll tell you all about it, later on when I’ve got the pictures!

Peace & Love,

Len