Jun 22

Volunteerism is Free but Should be Spent Wisely

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Volunteer Sector Criticism
I have been a volunteer on a number of non-profit boards since 1997 and have found that there is an assumption made by paid staff and other volunteer board members that because the time volunteered is free, it is not valuable. This is false and insulting. Like most people, I do not like having my time wasted even if it is freely given. When I have paid work that is either a waste of my time or is overwhelming I can get philosophical and say ‘At least I am getting paid for this’. But when I am placed with tasks that are tedious or overwhelming as a volunteer, I get uptight. The time I spend as a volunteer is both an investment and reward and if I am given volunteer tasks that are unpleasant or unsatisfying, then I am losing whatever reward that I can get from the effort. Managing volunteer time and responsibilities is just as important as managing paid staff time and responsibility, perhaps more so. At the minimum, staff get a financial reward which creates a contractual obligation of their part to get the job done. For volunteers, the journey is the destination. The time they give […]
Jun 13

Personal Responsibility is the Crux of Everything

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Defining Life, Human Condition, Meaning of Life, Quotations
I am convinced that personal responsibility is the single most important decision facing humanity. I see evidence of this in humanity’s relationship with the great spiritual masters such as Buddha and Jesus. Assuming that we accept the premise that these masters were also great teachers, we must ask if it is the teacher’s fault if the student does not practice what is taught. Buddha taught for about fifty years and was highly revered as a teacher. Yet despite all his efforts there has been, and will continue to be, people who cannot or will not take his teachings to heart. This proves to me that students have the birthright of personal responsibility. Taking personal responsibility is the basis of every sound business, every helpful psychological system, and the every mystical tradition that the world has ever seen. It is simply the crux of everything.
Jun 12

How Our Educational System Fails and Fools Us

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Institutional Learning
After twelve years of schooling, plus two university degrees and a four-year business certificate, I have lots of experience with the Education System. I am not alone as there are lots of people who have lots of letters behind their names to reflect educational attainments. The Education System is vibrant and always expanding. It is now possible to get certificates in everything from being a beautician to being a health care attendant. We have so many options, it can be overwhelming. Variety and choice is a wonderful thing, but do we actually get what we pay for when it comes to Education? My biggest problem with our Educational System, from grade school all the way to doctoral studies and the ever-expanding range of certificate programs and vocational diplomas, is that because it run by institutions who dictate what needs to be learned, but the actual usefulness of the information is questionable. Based on my own experience and the reports from my spouse and all of the professionals I have worked with, the university education we received was not helpful in their ability to do their job. We all came out with an institutional framework that was completely inadequate to working […]
Jun 08

Who is the Corporation Beholden to? To Future Shareholders/Stakeholders

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Corporations Don't Think, Summarizing a Business Organization
I attended a workshop on the risk management responsibilities of being a Director of a corporation. I asked who was the corporation ultimately responsible to: the shareholder or to the customer/stakeholder. He said neither since the corporation is responsible to itself. When I pressed further, he said that the corporation’s assets are to be used to further its goals into the future, not necessarily the goals of the immediate shareholders/stakeholders, though these two usually do align. I was fascinated. This means that as a Director of any corporation (non-profit/for-profit) my fiduciary responsibility means being loyal first to the corporation and its goals. I and the other Directors are to operate the corporation as if it was going to be around another 100 years and then govern accordingly. Our goal is to have the corporation be a service to present and future generations of shareholders and stakeholders. Even though it might be beneficial to sell all of the corporation’s assets now, thereby dissolving the corporation, and distribute them to the shareholders (meeting the shareholder’s need for a good return), this is not good for the future shareholders/stakeholders of the company who cannot be present at the table. The same principle applies […]
May 30

Businesses Need Profits to Live, but Should not Live for Profit

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Business Dilemma, Entreprenuership, Summarizing a Business Organization
For those who believed as I once did that Business is greed focused, I would like the convince you otherwise. Businesses reflect the attitude and values of the owners. A business that becomes focused just on profits loses its true purpose and ends up in the news like Enron. The purpose of business is to provide a service. In successfully doing so, its shareholders are rewarded. We need to breathe to live, but don’t need to focus on breathing to live. In fact, focusing on breathing creates anxiety and poor functioning. The same thinking applies to business profits. A business needs profits to live, but to focus on profits makes for poor functioning because of misplaced attention. In the same way that we naturally breathe as we go about living life, we naturally will create profits as we go about being a service to others.
May 29

The Great Adventure of the World of Business

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Business as Endeavor, Entreprenuership
Having worked in government and a couple of its special operating agency incarnations, having been a director on seven non-profits boards, and having helped form two political organizations, I came to the realization that business is business no matter if it is done for profit, not-for-profit, or for principle. The business of business is the need to make difficult decisions regardless of the industry you are in or who your customer is. Difficult decisions need to be made because even if money is not a consideration, time and personal energy availability is. It is simply not possible to be everything to everyone. Somebody needs to decide who gets what health care dollars, who gets the most attention, and who gets exposure to an ad campaign. Business decision making is all about strategy. With this realization, I then asked myself. “Self, if this is the true reality about the working world, would you rather make difficult decisions to quandaries that others put in front of you, or would you rather make difficult decisions about quandaries that you choose to take on?” Being both ambitious and imaginative, I definitely was interested in the latter choice. But also being a realist and the […]
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Categories