The Optimistic Cynic

Be better than that…

Yesterday I wrote a blog about disability services but thinking about it again, the thrust really does apply to all business. Traditional benchmarking quality against your competition limits your outcomes. We should always aim to give the customer the best possible experience, not just a better experience than they can get elsewhere. We keep sayingContinue reading “Be better than that…”

Champions

I had an great chat with Ben Scott from the Hamilton City Council yesterday. One of the points he made was that we need a Social Enterprise champions in our local area. Someone who is out there raising the profile of what it really means to be a social enterprise. I couldn’t agree more. IContinue reading “Champions”

Our thinking is what holds us back

A good friend shared this Ted Talk by Dan Pollata with me. It is from the perspective of a fund raiser but the message is true of our NFP thinking in general. Charity, doing it on a shoe string etc shouldn’t be seen as badges of honour because they hold us back from making significantContinue reading “Our thinking is what holds us back”

Growing The New Wave

How we can grow and develop our social sector A white paper from The Optimistic Cynic End Fragmentation We need genuine collaboration towards shared goals. Organisational interests need to take a back seat in our drive to achieve these goals. We need to look for partners outside of our specific sector to broaden ourContinue reading “Growing The New Wave”

Win : Win

Good businesses that are doing well, can be an important tool for our communities to also do well. We need to help businesses to achieve – and just as importantly, we need to help them to develop their passion for doing good. This is one of the reasons why I set up The Optimistic Cynic. I want toContinue reading “Win : Win”

Falling for a good cause

On the 8th of April I will be joining 50 other brave souls abseiling down the Deloitte Building in Hamilton. Abseiling is something I’ve never done before but it’s for a great cause – our Waikato youth! The Graeme Dingle Foundation does some awesome work and it’s an honour to help out. Read more