Modern day China is a land of immense opportunity- a country that will surprise, enthuse, annoy and charm; a place many new things must be learned and, equally importantly, many unlearnt.

The Country.

Looking at China today we see the world’s second economy and -arguably, the most influential market today. China’s growth and wealth has assured rescue plans all over the world and is becoming increasingly important in calming our global economy. Yet, at the same time; China is not the international player Japan (previously the biggest economy in Asia) once was. China’s presence on the world stage is rather more subtle; there are (almost) no big Chinese brands of importance and Chinese investments in (Western) companies (or governments) are received with a certain level of suspicion -and thus not very widely reported.

Business.

When looking at the development of the Chinese domestic market we see interesting patterns developing and (slowly) emerging. But let’s take it from the beginning.

In recent years, talk of China (in the socioeconomic sense) has almost always covered cheap labour and bad products – essential elements that defined ‘the factory of the world’. What is often forgotten is the fact that China has a civil history older than that of all of the Western countries- it is a country with a long, rich history of culture, art, music, and poetry. For a large part of the last two millennia China was the world’s largest economy. Only in the later stages of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912) did this country’s economic development slow down, which, combined with Europe’s rapid development during and after the Industrial Revolution, let the latter surpass China.

Today the Chinese government has implemented a program that is aimed at elevating the country from a low-cost production economy to a high-tech innovation driven economy. If the last 3 decades of Chinese development are indicative of what the future might bring, the ‘traditional’ high-tech countries would do well to gear up and prepare themselves for competition.

Add to this the fact of China’s recent increase in urbanization. Currently (according the 2010 census) China boasts 160 cities with a population over 1 million people. To put that into perspective, the Benelux has (if one measures by actual city borders): zero. The size of China’s urban middle class was about 230 million people in August 2011, or 37% of the total urban population -coming from 80 million in 2007, forecast to be 700 million in 2015 and expected to hit 1.4 billion in 2030. This is about 100% of the entire population of current day Europe.

Obviously, this will attract many people looking to make a quick buck. Yet, looking at examples in the last 10 years, we see that ‘a quick buck’ in China is often short lived and detrimental with regards to your ROI and brand value in the long run.

Coming here.

So what does starting a company in China entail? There are many different elements in the equation that need to be given some (and some a little more) thought. For instance, what does the government have in store for that particular industry, or indeed, all of the industries? Have a look at the latest 5 year plan the Party published (KPMG has published a fairly decent summary). Here you will be able to find leads with regards to subsidies that might be available, and let it be known, that there are many. These subsidies may be related to the industry of interest, but might as well be related to where the government wants to develop a region and how they wish to (financially) stimulate companies to locate there.

These are only some of the elements that come into play when starting a business in China. What is often overlooked is the sheer amount of options available and how important it is to understand the steps that need to be taken in order to file all correct documents, in the correct manner, with the right people. There are several organizations that can help you do so- your local chambers of commerce being the starting point most likely. It is also advisable to get in contact with a good local accountancy and have a localized lawyer look into the company structure and administration plans- they have a thorough understanding of the local market and requirements and will thus be able to give correct advise and help avoid tax or regulatory problems.

This has very little to do with your own business, marketing or brand so far. Yet, these steps are incredibly important with regards to the circumstances and ‘Umwelt’ you are creating for your company; these steps will help you to be sure you ‘understand’ what you are walking into and how you can make this potentially highly rewarding endeavor as smooth as possible. Once you’re ready and set is when the fun begins.

Market.

How will you tap into this wealth of new eager consumers? In deciding where to establish a business it might not be a bad idea to look into the local consumer- what are their patterns and desires? What is the cultural orientation with regards to certain products and services and how well integrated is the use of social media? These are important indicators of what will work and what will not, in terms of communication and brand strategy.

A key fact that must be kept at the forefront of your thoughts, is that despite the current run on the ‘Chinese consumer’, this consumer is still very much undefined and diffused, at best. China, in all its splendor and sheer size, is still a country with one dominant ethnic group; the Han Chinese. Yet, the Han-Chinese are an ethnic group that has become an amalgam over time, and is comprised of hundreds of different ethnic groups. Many of these have different cultural interpretations and dialects – thus, different consumers all across the board.

The 1st and 2nd tier cities in China are highly competitive marketplaces, where everybody is fighting for the same pie and many of pieces have been given away already. Is being in Beijing or Shanghai really necessary? Or is this choice driven by ‘this sounds right’? Because it might not be.

Some argue that focus groups and quantitative research are the best way to create a solid business strategy. Certainly, this is a good place to start. Yet, in a marketplace that changes as rapidly as China’s, do not rely on research only. When you focus purely on what people might be thinking today, you’ll have already lost the battle for tomorrow.

A brand that leads and is relevant to people will always be more successful then a brand that follows.

The Chinese consumer is quickly catching up. They know what is going on and they know what they want. They are highly status-oriented and very willing to share their brand preferences. While in Europe ‘showing off’ the brands that you care about is increasingly becoming an act that is frowned upon (in terms of FMCG’s) in China it is called ‘shi’ (which means ‘shining’) and is one of the favorite pastimes of the generation Y consumer.

With the rise in quality of life in China, we also see an increase in the demand for more security- not only in terms of the protection insurance of oneself or ones possessions, but more importantly, in the demand for clean drinking water, safe food, energy and clean air. For those of us from Western backgrounds, these are all things that we take for granted as being ‘normal’. Yet with the rapid developments over the past few decades and subsequent increase in energy use, food consumption and urbanization, these are now genuine concerns for the Chinese consumer and they are increasingly vocal about it. Consequently, the government has been sure to stimulate the reduction of energy use, the reorganization of the agricultural industry and to install incentives for clean(er) technologies.

This also presents an enormous opportunity. The clean tech industry is heavily subsidized, and building using technologies that will increase sustainability will be heavily subsidized according to the 12th 5-year plan. Currently China is the world’s greatest investor in these kinds of technologies, and is spending 1 in the 3 dollars they spend on defense on clean energy development, as opposed to the USA’s 1 in 54 dollars.

This is also a good indication of what will be top of mind in the Chinese consumer in the decade to come.

At times, the average Gen-Y/Millennial/Digital Native might feel somewhat lost with regards to what is happening in the world and how we can find our piece of that world to truly make our own. We live in a world where we all have our own respective podiums in social media. Our connectedness is -historically seen; unprecedented, while our know-how on world-affairs and ability to deal with information surpasses that of the average computer from the year we were born. (This is an aesthetic argument, don’t quote me on that)

But do we still have the context necessary to put ‘life’ into perspective?

Our education focuses all it’s effort on helping us become valued contributors in a (semi-)liberal market economy. It, unfortunately, doesn’t give us any scope or insight in how this market-driven world works and what it’s consequences are on the larger reality of life. And, increasingly, we see our education become irrelevant in what we end up doing, how we do it -and most importantly; why we do it.

But how is that related to progress?

My question exactly. When I hear talk of progress and I watch the news, and see it related only to economical/financial news, hardly any mention of health, the state of nature, bio-diversity, quality of food, or -dare I say; quality of life. But what of the increasing inequality both abroad and at home? What of cuts on education-budgets? (Which could prove to be a push towards out-of-school education in relation with the ever increasing amount of stored knowledge in 1′s and 0′s and alternative platforms for education arising.) Then I haven’t mentioned the increasing amount of people on either uppers or downers, increasing obesity in kids, rising prices of food, increase in gen-modified foods which haven’t been very extensively researched, (Don’t mind me, I am aware of the possibility of genmod’s ending up as the only option to feed the world at some point, I don’t know, but I find the code-of-conduct of -for instance, Monsanto, not very heart-winning.) What about the rising nationalistic sentiment in countries all over the world? (Most visibly in the ‘developed western world’.) How do these elements tie into what we have coined progress?

The negativity that is projected on society, is taking its toll on people’s imagination, creativity, hope and even love. I feel we are wasting human potential. Might it be an idea to use the second wave of the Information Era in order to self-organise? To try; city by city, community by community, school by school, market by market, brand by brand, push towards a frame-work for society that re-institutes a societal-fabric that allows for an engaged and responsible paradigm for policy-making, business ethics, educational models and media-platforms.

I feel the current ‘trend’ around sustainability might allow us to renew the frame-works and incentives in which we work and live. It can function to re-trace the current consumption/waste model (in every aspect of society). I also feel (and some might perceive this to be ignorant, but the belief is fueled by the people I keep on meeting even as I have now moved to the boiler-room of capitalism that is Shanghai) that business (brands) can (and must?) take a leading role in the development of these systems and enable people to articulate their ideas and suggestions for code-of-conduct, policy and different ways of consumption.

Talk about stuff like this with your friends or random strangers you meet on the street of cities you have never before visited or with trees or your grandmother or your colleague and your sister and mother too. Or not. Suit yourself.

I’m just saying that if the rest of the world is doing well, chances are likely you will be too.

Happy hunting.

Love, L

In business this would cost you your reputation, turnover, agility with regards to technological development, and thus eventually your entire business. Governments so far are lucky as they are not (yet) going bankrupt (despite the economic reality in which several governments are operating) and can continue to ‘work’ because we seem to be holding on to the idea that the democratic-process will and can bring change.

I’m not entirely sure on that one frankly, but let’s wait and see.

What I am rather sure of is the increasing role of platforms in our lives. Platforms that deal with ways to engage with the enormous amount of information we are faced with on a daily basis. We live in a time where the question of; “What is relevant and how does it impact my life?” will be more frequently asked than ever before in the history of our species.

And thus, companies will have to ask themselves how they can be relevant to their consumers.

Google and Twitter jumped to the mark by opening up a phone-to-twitter phone line when they saw the reaction of their users toward what was happening in Egypt. Doing the same they do here, using a mix and match of ‘old’ and ‘new’ technology; enabling the masses.

Whatever you might think of Wikipedia, Twitter, Google, Huffington Post, Mashable, Wikileaks or Facebook; what they do, is creating relevant information for people when and where they want it, it enables them to connect with like-minded individuals, share the information they want to share and allows them to ‘follow’ people they like, think are interesting or the opposite of the two.

So how is this relevant to brands?

Let me show you an example by Greenpeace, who seem on the right track but just missed out on one part in my humble opinion; true engagement.

Their old Rainbow Warrior (1957) has sailed the oceans and will now be put to rest. So they wanted to build a new one. One that holds Greenpeace’ values high and can be seen as a boat with which they will fight the necessary fights over the well-being of the ocean in the future. But Greenpeace is an NGO and gets most of its money from individual donations. So they launched a (very good-looking) campaign (A New Warrior) to try to get people to donate money for the continuation of the Rainbow Warrior saga.

In this quest they have launched a website that enables you to look at the blueprint, construction schedule, progress so far, a donation ‘wall’ (which will be realised on the boat as well) and buying necessities for the boat like a GPS, life-boat, couch or an electronic steering-wheel. Which is a great idea I find.

But why do it halfheartedly? Why not empower the people -who are literally the lifeblood of your organisation, to have a say after they gave you a part of their resources? There are tons of ways to get people more actively engaged with Greenpeace’s cause when you give them the opportunity to do so and become true ambassadors of your cause. Give them the tools they need and they will do the task at hand and help you reach the goals you have been working hard to reach for the last 40 years (congrats Greenpeace btw, and thanks for doing what you do).

Examples? Ok.

Give ‘them’ (the people who invested in your organisation) a say in your agenda by enabling them to co-decide on the course of the boat they ‘co-own’. Greenpeace provides them with a list of possible cases and background info on these cases and let them decide. Surely, this brings a lot of potential ‘unknowns’ into the equation, but it will most definitely lead to higher involvement and commitment to your organisation.This will also lead to them telling their friends about it which will lead to more relevance to their friends (someone I know did this and that) and thereby a bigger crowd for your message.

What does this mean for the organisation? In Greenpeace’s case it would mean they would become a ‘research and execution’ platform with a following of highly involved people supporting their goal and protecting their interest. Which is a great thing to be I’d say. You can’t sink a rainbow -type deal.

There are lots of possibilities for ‘non-NGO’ organisations to engage with their ‘eco-system’ / ‘tribe’  / ‘crowd’ / ‘consumers’ in such a way, yet it seems that we aren’t quite there yet. If I’m honest I see opportunities like these in child-care (yeah really, so much to be won there), for Innocent Drinks, Amnesty International (I know it’s an NGO, but I like them), Simple Shoes, the Cradle to Cradle organisation, Williams F1 Triodos Bank and We Generate (last two are Dutch). Just to name a few.

Peace.

We’ve all heard about the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. It so happens, I’m not a big fan of institutions such as the UN. Especially not when, though it is a ‘voluntary’ organisation for countries to join, and establish somewhat of a ‘world-government’ type deal (or so is my interpretation), it’s regarded as a ‘second-choice’ in terms of political decision time. (remember the Iraq War?)

Anyway, the UN also has some good ideas. They have, in the years running up to 2000, decided to form a set of goals that are for the betterment of mankind in general (eradication of poverty / ensure environmental sustainability / achieve universal primary education / promote gender equality and empower women, for example). This, I find, is a ‘good’ thing, ‘we’ (Westerners) ought to break through the inequality we find in our world which is, for a good deal, maintained through Western behavioural patterns. So; 1-up for the UN.

Now, despite the good efforts, Ban-Ki-Moon, the tribal chief of the UN, has warned the people of the world that because of the economic crisis the goals are under pressure (see the full report here). Yeah. Right. The eradication of poverty for instance, in 15 years, can indeed be done, but the simple fact of the matter is that as long as western companies (and thus governments) still make money on this form of inequality, this will not be achieved easily (remember the ‘secondary choice’-thing). Same with the gender equality idea. This is not even achieved in ‘developed’ countries. Next to that there’s this counter movement of ‘new-feminism’ in which gender equality became some sort of chauvinistic idea, but I’ll leave that to your own judgment. In my opinion men and women are not equal, yet, should be given equal rights and men and women should be judged on their individual qualities when it comes to whatever it is you’d like to judge them on. Let’s be happy men and woman are not equal, it would be a monotonous world.

As it is, maybe we should look around and see what small initiatives are doing, and how you and I as individuals could support those initiatives. In this case, for instance, by supporting them in an effort to win an award where UN money is given away, in name of the Millennium Awards. (Because like it or not, the money will go somewhere anyway.) And I’ve got just the NGO to do that for!

As part of ‘doing my part’ I’ve joined Satara to assist in the further development of their strategy, communication and business-wise. Satara works on Ghandi’s philosophy “We need to be the change we wish to see.” We’re currently working on a spring/summer 2010 collection, produced in India, empowering women that are manufacturing the collection (by hand). We do this through paying honest wages, education and setting up a more secure social system. Satara’s profit is re-invested in a local education project in order to stimulate and enable local parents to send their kids to school instead of being forced to be dependent on their income to feed the family. (read the whole story here)

This is Moniek van Erven, telling you the story of Satara;

You can help out by voting for Satara both on- and offline;

Vote online via the following link.

Or via text-message;

Text ‘nhd satara’ to 4999 (in the Netherlands) (remember the single space between nhd & satara)

You can find more on the UN Millennium Awards here (Dutch) and here (English).

As it is, this was shameless self-promotion, but it’s for a good cause, hope you’ll help us out! Thanks in advance.

Love and Peace.

The idea of our wasteful behaviour was brought to my attention (once more) by a (new) friend of mine, who was talking about a documentary about how big corporations don’t wish to sell their products under a certain price, in order to maintain the year-long efforts in building up a reputation that would justify profits margins of 70-190%. It happens to be the case that I wrote a thesis on the relationship between a company’s reputation and it’s general ‘corporate social responsibility’. And I can’t help but feel the hope sink towards the bottom of my being, when big corporations such as Samsung (here/here examples of how they are ‘good citizens’) for instance, seem to think that throwing money around in a seemingly altruistic fashion will cover their ‘efforts to maintain a price worthy reputation’. (or something of that kind, I am not entirely sure how to name this kind of behaviour)

These efforts consist of systematically wasting brand new products that are not sold and thus dumped, dissembled and partially burned. We see DVD players, HD TV’s and MP3 players go down in price and most people get happy, as it is now available for a bigger public. Yet, for the corporations that manufacture these products (being ‘stock-market-companies’), these kind of ‘free-market’ dynamics create a problem. A reputation problem. The products that are sold under the general price-level of the company will give the brand a ‘bad name’ or so it the thought. But destroying the products, where we ‘the people’ don’t see or hear anything about it, will only show up in the books, somewhere deep and buried.

She also talked about fashion-labels ‘un-stitching’ their labels and shipping their clothing off to ‘development-countries’. This I see as somewhat of an attempt to do something about the unequal dynamics in our world, not too bad. But also, here we again, talk about a matter driven by the fear of ‘losing face’, but mostly, bad business-strategy. If, apparently your product is not good enough to sell your stock (or mis-priced, mis targetted or whatever), perhaps you should thing about what and how you produce, how you market it, and how you price it.

But I’m drifting off.

Apples.

Do you eat the center part of an apple? If not, why not? Have you ever tried, or do you simply don’t eat the center part of an apple because you were taught to do so? (when mum was still citting the apples for you and gave them to you in one of those brightly coloured bowls, yesh, we’ve all been there) Just think about it. Why would you not eat the center part of an apple, it’s tasty, it’s healthy, and ehm, it gives eating an apple yet ANOTHER dimension. It’s great.

To illustrate what you could do to stop the wastefulness of our Western being. I don’t want to ask people to simply start ignoring red-lights when you think it to be safe you see. It’s in the little things, and starts with yourself. Anyway, I’m off eating an apple.

Love and peace.

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.

What’s new? Met some cool people, got disappointed in some others and will start the initial build of the website for Cradle of Design.

Disappointment, good start for a story, as I’ll always look for improvement, came from my day today at the Dutch Entrepreneur Week opening. You hear a lot about the weird kind of people entrepreneurs are, might be true, might not be, probably depends from who’s side you’re looking at it. But the thing is, especially when you look at young entrepreneurs, is that it’s not too easy to get your funding, administrational guidance, government policy introduction when you are ‘fast paced’ (or have a short-attention span ).

The thing is; (here comes the disappointment) who do you look for? I’d go for governmental guidance or semi-governmental guidance as a first guess. But.. Except for the Dutch KVK, there’s little to be found. Google gives you shit-loads of companies who will be happy as to help you out, against a price or some kind of other endorsement in the form of (profitable) business. There are some initiatives around the world for young over-energised tornado’s like myself (Sprout Challengerday or TwentyTwenty), but I mean, the fact that 2020 doesn’t even have an explanatory website already shows how much they are connected to the world of experience of the average 20-something year old.

So I wonder, when the director of Enterprise of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Drs. Kinke Zonneveld) starts talking about guiding young ‘star’ entrepreneurs to foreign organisations (I believe he was talking about the Kauffman Institute), helping them further into the business world, why he thinks they would need the governments’ help in such an undertaking.

His answer was as followed: “I’ve been hearing this today a couple of times today from you young people, and I think I should tell you that if you think you don’t need help, you are not a real entrepreneur. You can find everything you need to know with 3 clicks on Google.” (RESULT OF THAT TEST in Dutch; Starting Entrepreneur HELP, there’s no governmental institution saying, ey come on over here and get your unbiased, non-profit kind of information) He continued his answer but I stopped listening seeing the fact that this was the 5th time I heard governmental officials referring to young entrepreneurs as “young guys, the kid with an idea etc. My point is; Where the fuck do these people think they are contributing to promoting young entrepreneurship with this kind of stigmatising, de-motivational and authoritarian kind of approach?!

There seems to be no, non-what-so-ever link between what these people think and what the future of our country (and thus their pension in this case), want, need or look for to start their own company.

The world’s changing, so should these kind of organisations and the people that work for them.

Funny thing is, I was talking to this guy afterwards (young entrepreneur) who after my little blaze said, “I’d never knock on the government’s door if I’d be in need of help.” Which is exactly the problem the government would like to solve (or so they say). So maybe, just MAYBE, they should open up to suggestions from youth, which is even kind enough of saying, hey, you know, maybe this is an idea, free of charge and all.

I’m happy I’ve got my own little group of people around me. =) (Herbert, Dick, Hans) Thanks for saving me the endless frustration of having to work with government institutions or officials. =)

Let’s go kick some institutional ass.

May you all be in love and peace.

Len

Anyway just to say that today as well, 30-90 Afghan civilians were killed by an american airstrike . Of course he’s not in office yet, but, still it shows how much change the world needs, coming from Mr. Obama. The point is that NOW is actually the time to press subjects that need change upon the US and the only way this will happen is through our voice.

You can do so at Mr. Obama’s website for change where you can write your thoughts and ideas. Also through organisations such as Avaaz.org ‘The world in Action’, an independent organisation for social change that has set up a ‘Wall of Change’ in the centre of Washington DC, which has the messages of people calling out for change from allover the world. You can send your message here

But enough on politics for today.

Yesterday I was invited by Herbert to join him to the Sprout Challenger Day. A day organised by the Dutch entrepreneur magazine Sprout. I met some interesting people and even got to do an interview for an Internet TV-channel. The channel is Talk & Do TV run by Edo van Santen. Edo is a friend of Herbert and was willing to give me a shot at talking about Cradle of Design for which I am very thankful.

Besides that I also ran into the guy that organises the Dutch Entrepreneur Week; Tristan and he invited me to all sorts of cool events in a week or 2, sweet as and more on that later on this month! =)

On top of all that I had the pleasure to meet the mother and daughter running the country’s smallest Wellness Centre; Sauna Hotstones who invited me to come and stay there for a night so I will soon go and check out together with Elisa. Besides that I might help think out their concept a bit more which is always fun to do, especially for people who have heart for their job!

All and all a great day, which got even better with the last keynote speaker Dan Germain (Innocent Drinks) who had a very refreshing presentation after being in and out of concentration due to trails of thought of all sorts and lack of external stimulation, Dan, together with Ruud Koornstra were the two highlights for me during this day. Dan had a great talk on how to say; ‘I’ll do it my way, just by saying, yes we can’ type of approach, which always appeals to me.

I hope to get in contact with him in the future (I’ll find you Dan! =)) and see whether there are possibilities to be part of a cewl brand as Innocent (or it’s foundation Innocent Foundation which is granted 10% of Innocent’s profit a year) in whatever way possible.

That’s it for today, I’d like to thank Herbert for his invite and the opportunity to put myself in the middle of his network.

Love & Peace.

Len