Over the last four weeks, there was no blog entry on this site.

Did B1G1 team loose the energy and momentum? - Absolutely NOT!

We were touring in Australia and New Zealand covering 7 cities in total. And our main blogger and social media writer Paul Dunn was the centre of all these events this time.

Paul's fun, engaging, inspiring and insightful talk, "WOW - Standing out in 2010" created great energy and interest toward B1G1 in every city we visited. Some of the events attracted so many more people than we expected that we did not even have enough seats (RYDGES in Auckland for example ran out of all spare chairs and we had to 'steal' more from the restaurants!).  Many people were standing at the back of the room enjoying every moment of the evening until the very end. 

If you are one of them who missed the opportunity to be there, make sure to watch out for the next round because we had so many people saying that the event was full of amazing values that they could not believe it was free (thanks to the generous sponsors for each of the event) and some people even came from other cities driving hours to get there. 

• Read More »

Recently Masami and I were invited to the launch of the new Social Entrepreneurship  and Philanthropy Centre at the National University of Singapore. It was a great day with Assoc. Prof Albert Teo and his team.

And one lady stole the show in my view – Marie So of Shokay (www.shokay.com). In 30 months she and her partner Carol Chyau have set up an amazing social enterprise making a huge difference in rural China AND, in the process, garnering sales of US$6 Million of, believe it or not, Yak’s hair and yak’s milk.

The milk is made into high-end cheese (called Mei Xiang Cheese Farm - a community of ethnic Tibetan yak herders who live in an isolated fir-lined valley not far from the border with the Tibetan Autonomous Region) and sold to hotel chains like Ritz-Carlton.

• Read More »

Paul Dunn from Buy1GIVE1 got rated as the number 1 presenter at the recent CSR forum in Singapore. Business people around the world came to this recent conference to explore the latest CSR topics.

He was also interviewed by a reporter (Alicia Wong) from 'Today' newspaper after his presentation.

Read the article here .

Buy1GIVE1 transaction-based giving is now being recognised as one effective way to create more synergy and energy in organisations.

Buy Socks - Give Love - Be Happy

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Tom Minter, Founder of Socks For Happy People. Having spent just over half an hour with Tom, it was evident that this is a business that has the potential to effect positive transformation on a global scale.

Their motto is "Buy Socks - Give Love - Be Happy". Read the interview below and discover for yourself how buying socks will bring joy and happiness to the world.

 

Let's talk about your role as Founding Chief and how Socks For Happy People started.

It started because I love socks and it's hard to find really cool and

Masami Sato, Founder of Buy1GIVE1™ recently expressed her gratitude for being part of a movement that encourages businesses to get creative with how they do business. The power of gratitude, acting as a key driver for this paradigm shift should not be underestimated. Capitalism has provided us with freedom to trade, employ and use money for goods and services in response to a demand. There is definitely gratitude to be found in this.

Bill Gates has become central to this paradigm shift, calling for ‘Creative Capitalism’ in response to the vital question, he shares in TIME Magazine:

How

You'll be aware of Bill Gates recent departure from Microsoft to focus full-time on giving, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that’s created a lot of media commentary, most recently the front cover of TIME magazine. And we’re so grateful. Because it reminds each one of us that creating effective giving in business and in our life is now a ‘movement’. That’s such a significant shift and one that we’ll be writing more on soon for you.

Bill Gates has coined the term ‘Creative Capitalism’ which in short

In TIME Magazine recently, Bill Gates wrote a keynote piece on giving. It's 'required' reading for all of us here at B1G1.

The accompanying diagrams with the article showed how giving 'started' in the 19th century (funnily enough with Cadburys!) and then really picked up in pace since 1960 when people like Dave Packard (of HP fame) were making statements about Corporate Responsibility.  

The article also shows how, until now, CSR has been the 'domain' of the large corporations.  We feel it's now time for another 'movement' B1G1. And it would seem that Mr. Gates loves the idea too. Read on: