Trading With the Enemy... Part 2

I'm just a second generation Cowboy living in Chicago making a living wrangling computer systems, so what do I know? That said, it is also true that one of the central tenants of this blog is the notion that all of us on the planet need to learn to do business together (see my post “Trading With the Enemy”). The world literally isn't big enough anymore for different countries or peoples to try to ignore each other. We either learn to do business together (or art together, or science together, or government together) or we wind up doing the other thing we've been doing with each other since time began - war.

And a major corollary to this tenant is that the calling of the IT profession at this moment is to play a key role in bringing the global economy to life; facilitating the networking together of all peoples; and enabling the flow of commerce that helps us all to prosper. (Okay, okay...I'm done...)

So, this weekend I'm shopping at a grocery store in my neighborhood and looking for some pesto sauce to go with the pasta I just bought. I reach over and pick up a jar of basil pesto and turn it around to read the ingredients. Here’s what I see on the label, "PEACEWORKS, Fostering peace through business since 1994."

The brand name is Meditalia and I continue reading the label, "Meditalia is made possible through business partnership among Israelis and Arabs. Shared wallets lead to shared visions of the future. 5% of profits go to OneVoice, a movement that empowers moderates at the grassroots. Learn more at www.peaceworks.com.”

When I got home I looked up their website and here are some of the things I saw on their site. There was this statement under “About Us”:

PeaceWorks is a not-only-for-profit company. We have proven that we can build and sustain a profitable company AND do a little good in the world.

Together with people striving to co-exist, we create and deliver unique and exciting specialty foods- only the freshest ingredients, always all-natural, always delicious.

PeaceWorks currently does business with Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, South Africans, Turks, Indonesians and Sri Lankans.

Under “Expertise” I saw this:

Our unique advantage is our successful track-record with mobilizing peoples striving to co-exist in embattled areas to produce top-notch food product. PeaceWorks first identifies potential trading partners, and then devises business plans that facilitates both cooperation and consumer value.

Under “Doing Business With Us” I saw this:

We also assist with marketing, investment, new product development, etc. Our company has developed an expertise, and a distribution network, in the food industry with over 5000 sale outlets in the U.S. alone. The criteria for business ventures include professional management, price competitiveness, unique selling propositions, high quality and quality control, and products in line with current market trends

Here is an example of a company using their mission and their business model to make money and make a difference. As long as this company keeps my trust that they are really doing what they say they are doing then I will seek out this brand of pesto on a crowded supermarket shelf. And I might even pay a wee bit more for this pesto because this is a small (but very effective) way for me to do my part to influence the world I live in and to vote with my dollars in a positive way. This is meaningful brand differentiation for me.

Talk about astute use of social networking to spread a message and build a brand. Here is a model of the kind of things we can do in this new real-time global economy that IT has made possible. I’ll bet that in some of their business ventures the partners can’t easily meet with each other face to face because of the tensions between their countries. But using IT such as email, Internet, and Skype people transcend physical barriers that keep them apart and that would also cause them to see each other as enemies.

In my travels this fall I noticed we Yankees have put some really onerous restrictions in place along our border with Canada; it’s getting difficult to move freely back and forth any more. I’m not sure what they did to provoke us; perhaps they’ve been infiltrating the National Hockey League, or maybe threatening to send in the Mounties to restore law and order in Detroit. In any case I’m thinking about contacting PeaceWorks to help me reach out to my Canadian colleagues on the other side of the Great Lakes. I have some ideas for a business that could help reduce tensions between our two countries.