The Garden of Business

Being a good business is like being a good gardener. Or so says William Rosenzwieg, 2010 recipient of the Oslo Business for Peace Award. Rosenzwieg is the Co-founder at Bay Area-based Physic Ventures and works with purpose-driven businesses like Recyclebank, Revolution Foods, GoodGuide, and Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. 

The Oslo Business for Peace award is awarded by the Business for Peace Foundation, who, among other things, touts being Businessworthy as a modern day business gauge like creditworthiness. As stated on their website: What is Businessworthy? Similar to being Creditworthy, the concept of Businessworthy means applying your business energy ethically and responsibly with the purpose of creating economic value that also creates value for society. Sounds very similar to concepts like Benefit Corporations, the triple-bottom line (People, Planet, Profits) and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Rosenzweig highlights the parallels of the successful business person to the wisdom and outlook of a gardener in this excerpt from his award acceptance speech.

“A gardener sees the world as a system of interdependent parts – where healthy, sustaining relationships are essential to the vitality of the whole. “A real gardener is not a person who cultivates flowers, but a person who cultivates the soil.” In business this has translated for me into the importance of developing agreements and partnerships where vision and values, purpose and intent are explicitly articulated, considered and aligned among all stakeholders of an enterprise – customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and the broader community and natural environment.

Here at BetterWorld Telecom, we couldn’t agree more. Building partnerships with businesses and organizations who are aligned in mission and purpose is what we’re all about. We’re working to make telecom a force for good, through supporting organizations doing amazing things and making communication technology accessible.

Here’s some more excerpts from Rosenzweig’s speech:

Also gardening, like business, is inherently a local activity, set within an ever-changing and unpredictable global climate. Showing up in person, shovel – and humility in hand is essential.

I am just coming to understand this work of business gardening – and investing in keeping people healthy – as an act of universal responsibility. His Holiness Dalai Lama reminds me: “Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one's own family or one's nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.”

In Service,

The BetterWorld Team