Thinking that some little stories might have a lasting character to them, i decided to post a link to the following post on SmartMobs even after having held onto it for a little over 4 months.

Read it in full here. Even though both reviews, including the one review on Gizmondo had a smily written between the lines, this Japanese service did make me wonder what chances a similar one might have here in Australia. There is an ever growing obesity problem here in Australia, something I would have never thought of before coming here in 2006. A quick Google search reveals numerous services and websites dedicated to helping you loose weight. But what about ones that are focused on educating Australians how to not gain fat? Shouldn't insurance company down-under also love a concept similar to what we read happens in Japan, maybe with a spiffy website in addition to the phone service to help people make their own choices?

Beginning of this year we published an entry on a "network of philantrophic, for-profit companies" and how we could take our initial slogan of "consultants of compassion" to a whole new level and create value by giving our work away for free to certain projects. In our quest for such a project, we have had the honour to meet many great and passionate people. We are also in the process to launch a website for our network of compassionate consultantsTM who will share similar values, ethics and work practices with us and whose services will be complementary to ours in web-strategy consulting and project-management.

The first project in what we intend to be a line of different ventures for us in the future is free2tradefair. It is an e-commerce site that connects artisans and producers in developing countries with consumers in Australia. The team is made up solely of volunteers who committed their precious time and energy to the launch of this producers marketplace. "The Free2TradeFair website provides an open marketplace that supports the buying and selling of fair trade products from around the globe. It seeks to assist producers overcome the many obstacles that can be faced in relation to access of developed markets such as Australia. As such, the website provides support for the selling of their products with the aim of returning all profit made directly to them."

This will represent a unique chance to Australians in supporting people in developing markets by purchasing products directly from the producers site and featured on free2tradefair. We look forward in continuing to work with the free2tradefair team in enhancing the website and making it even better going forward. On our personal wishlist are local payment methods and to keep as much as possible of the shopping experience on the free2tradefair site in general.

Theandb has worked with the free2tradefair team in creating the business website specifications for the project and giving general advise wherever necessary on a range of topics to ensure the projects overall success. We've come far from where we started out from and still have a way to go to the official launch of the site but it's looking very good indeed.

We feel truly blessed to have worked and continue to work with such wonderful people. Thanks to (in totally random order) Helen Burrows who pulled the often changing team together - never forgetting the end goal - Sean Torstensson for his inspired designs, Michael Vullings as web-developer for working his way through the at-times difficult to understand Catgen system, Michael Fuller as our biz-guy for lending focus on critical business issues, Andrew Eagle for coming up with just the right content based on his long years of experience in the NGO sector, Ewa Potaczala for managing all aspects relating to our producers, Ewa Potaczala and Christie Hall for the superb organisation of producers and... many others whose names i must have omitted from this list who should feel very welcome to complain to us. There have been a number of people involved earlier on in the project to get it off the ground that we have not interfaced with directly as we came in when things were already in quite high gear. A particular Thanks to them for lending their positive energy in shaping the free2tradefair project (then called JustTrade) from a simple idea to reality.

See it for yourself.! The link points to the current development site which will soon be replaced by our domain. In addition, the content is still in-progress and producers are still signing up to be part of this exciting new producers marketplace.

Since our early beginnings in 2004, we carried our sub-line "consultants of compassion" with us, eliciting a wide range of feedback from people who saw it for the first time. Across the board, people were curious. We decided that it is about time to pull the sub-line from the fringes to the centre of our company. Going forward, we will create Consultants Of Compassion^TM. Several website-addresses will go alongside this new .

We know that we are not alone in our approaches. There are other small (and large) companies like us that wish to be for-profit but remain ethical and integer at the same time. Our goal will be to build a strong network of philantrophic, for-profit companies that will adhere to the same ethical guidelines and having similar approaches to conducting business.

Why do this? We want to make a positive difference (also see, "Can Corporations Save The World?") in this world. We want to be integral and open in what we do and how we operate. And we know this will set us apart from other consultant companies (more on intangible assets and standards in a later post). It is about time that we change the image of consultants back to what it should be; individuals with the will and drive to help and support others for the better.

Please do get in touch with us if this teaser sufficed to raise your interest. Getting signed-up now means that you can have a large influence in how we built Consultants Of Compassion^TM and the code of conducts we will create.

Following, some bits and pieces from a research that Agnes made on the concept of the compassionate consultant.

• Recognising a new energy in organisations: "More companies are recognising that the quality of communications in their organisations largely depends on the energy and values of its employees."
  
  "The trend towards cultural capital is highly dependent on values or business principles and some corporations are even beginning to recognise the "energy" or "spirit" that people bring to their work."
  

• There are also parallels with our co-conspirator Howard Bloom who wants to "put the soul back into the machine": Richard Barrett (formerly with the World Bank), author of "Liberating the corporate soul: building a visionary organisation" and "A guide to liberating your soul" notes that we have been moving from the information age to an age of consciousness and cultural capital (see diagram).
  The fundamental shift is to values that support the common good. Corporations that cannot move beyond self-interest will find themselves struggling to survive," says Barrett in an interview, www.paraview.com.
  
  
• "Two Canadian academics Val Kinjerski and Berna Skrypnek from the Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, in a paper called "Defining spirit at work: finding common ground" published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management... Authenticity is often described as "bringing your whole person to work." The authors also note that the spirit of the corporation is the mission, vision, principles and values of the organisation ".
  See also: Spirit at Work in the Research of Val Kinjerski
  

• European Baha'i Business Forum: "People Inspiring Responsible Business"
  
  VISION: To enhance the well-being and prosperity of humankind.
  MISSION: To promote ethical values, personal virtues, and moral leadership in business as well as in organizations of social change.
  SEVEN CORE VALUES:
  

• Ethical business practices
• Social responsibility in business
• Values-based leadership
• Sustainable development
• A new paradigm of work
• Partnership of women and men in all fields of endeavour
• Non-adversarial decision making through consultation
• "...organisations learn only through individuals who learn. He [Peter M. Senge] says that when one does undertake and practice the discipline of personal mastery gradual changes take place and one begins to see more of our connectedness to the world, compassion, and commitment to the whole. This is important, as companies need to be reminded of their connectedness to the outside world, where their publics reside. "