Buy1GIVE1 Blog (www.b1g1.com)

'Conscious Capitalism' the Solution?

paul — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Most weekends I try to get started on at least one book. Some I can start and then get back to over the course of a few weeks. Others I've just got to keep reading. This weekend I got one in the 'other' category. I'd actually had the book for 4 weeks but hadn’t read the inside flap properly. Had I done that, I would have been writing about the book 4 weeks ago. The reason? It's brilliant: probably THE best book on Social BUSINESS Entrepreneurship a [...]

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Is it hurting? On sadness, smiling and giving.

paul — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Every day I’m in the gym early in the morning. And I find it tough whether it’s 25 minutes at level 6 on the stepper or 40 minutes on the treadmill at a 15 incline. Then there’s the ‘core’ exercises afterwards. Sweaty. Puffing. And tough. But I’m fortunate to share [...]

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Dialogue in the Dark - so many lessons from the blind (and not-so-blind too)

paul — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Earlier today we were invited to a trial opening of the brand new Dialogue in the Dark facility at Ngee Ann Polytechnic here in Singapore. It was a stunning experience. For nearly 2 hours you get to [...]

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This is how to do Social Entrepreneurship

paul — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

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 [...]

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Giving and Goats on B1G1 (and the G word!)

paul — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100

This really has been my week for ‘G’ words – words like ‘geek’, ‘gift’, ‘gratitude’ and my current favourite g-word, ‘goat’. Until Tuesday this week, whenever I used to talk around the world about ‘WOW’ things, I’d always begin the discussion by talking about the iPhone [...]

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B1G1 (Buy1GIVE1) and the Negroponte Impact

paul — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Just a few weeks ago, I had the real pleasure of meeting Professor Nicholas Negroponte. He is, of course, most well known for his breakthrough ‘Being Digital’ book, his work at MIT Media Lab and, most recently, his breakthrough One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. [...]

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B1G1 Giving: Acting alone not an option.

paul — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Yesterday I wrote a blog about a dream I had about President Obama. I related how I’d envisage him taking a stand and imploring business to take a stand. And today I realised that the President had already sai [...]

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Giving getting better. Would you like giving with that?

paul — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Over the weekend I had an email conversation with Vicki Slade, the B1G1 Business Ambassador in Christchurch, New Zealand. Vicki was what I&rs [...]

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Could Obama really say this?

paul — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

A few nights ago, I dreamt about Obama making a speech – a very special speech. And I remember now what got me into that dream. Before I went to bed I read a piece that made me say, ‘I wish I’d been g [...]

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Could it be that we're missing something fundamental about giving?

paul — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Just yesterday I wrote a piece for the July issue of the B1G1 newsletter. I called it ‘Y [...]

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Don't pee on the toilet seat

paul — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

It's really interesting how things come into your life in groups isn't it. You know what I mean - this happens and then some related thing happens and we go 'what a coincidence' or 'dah dah dah dah' in that scary movie tone of voice. Well, today that sequence happened to [...]

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B1G1 Founder, Masami Sato, a hit in Malaysia too

paul — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

One lovely things about being involved with B1G1 is that people 'get' it. And that usually happens in a heartbeat. That's particularly true when people meet the founder of B1G1, Masami Sato.And last week, lots of people in Malaysia had the opportunity to do that. [...]

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B1G1 Partner wins National Innovation Award

paul — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The Australian Business Awards for 2009 were announced over the weekend. And at B1G1 we’re thrilled that one of our B1G1 Partners, Af [...]

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Less communication, more connection. It's about giving. Period.

paul — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Here I am on Flight SQ 245 out of Singapore to Brisbane, Australia. And in meeting after meeting last week in Singapore [...]

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Giving - is it actually about getting?

paul — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Several times a week it seems we have the question asked, “so when we give, what do we get?’ The question is rarely asked precisely that way. [...]

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Fabulous Footprints: the Power of Buy One Give One

100607 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Imagine a world in which consumption created contribution, in which our lifestyle left fabulous footprints rather than a path of selfish spending. Imagine if you could patronize the goods and services of companies that give back with every transaction, not to you the customer, but to someo [...]

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Twitter and B1G1- Explosive growth

elvin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Some reports suggest that the micro-blog platform, Twitter, is growing at the rate of 131 per month. That’s huge. As one commentator put it ‘At that pace of growth everyone on the planet will be Twittering by 22 December, 2009’. And B1G1 is part o [...]

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Impact from unrelated situations

masami — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Interesting questions often come up in life in seemingly unrelated situations. For example, last night I was at a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) briefing listening to a CSR specialist talking about the importance of harnessing the power of Social Media. He spoke about how, via cyberspace, we can speak [...]

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How my broken glasses gave sight through B1G1

paul — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

If you're like me and you have glasses, you treat them 'not well'. Mine get (or used to get) pounded. And eventually they simply gave up - first a simple matter of the lens falling out. And then, two days later, they split in two right across the little piece that goes across the nose (I think it's called [...]

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Results worth reporting - Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1) giving brings great outcomes

paul — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Sure we love what we do at Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1). And when we see the results of what we do we get even more passionate about the [...]

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