Charles Handy and the second curve

I went to a talk by renowned business thinker Charles Handy at Leeds University Business School last night. He was very good, and I'll no doubt blog more about some of the things he said over the next few weeks. For a taste of what he said, have a look a this short video on the Social Edge site.

He was talking about his new books - including one called The New Philanthropists - about people who've made plenty of money in business and who are now using their wealth and their expertise to do good.

Of course, he tailored his message to his audience - primarily MBA students. He talked about the importance of the second curve in your life and career. The idea is similar to that of the product life cycle - to continue to be successful, you need to be thinking of what you're going to do next at the very moment that you're enjoying the greatest success in what you're currently doing.

Clearly, he believed that his new philanthropists had embarked on this second curve with great success, and his message to the audience appeared to be that you should consider using your second curve to do good.

That's great, and the world is no doubt a better place for having access to the riches and expertise of a second curver like Tom Hunter, who's using the millions he made from selling Sports Division to fight poverty in Africa.

But did he have a positive social impact on the world in his first curve? Those who work in sweatshop conditions to produce cheap sports wear probably wouldn't say so.

Who knows, maybe with what he knows now, he looks back and thinks he could have done good there too - but he didn't know how to at the time, which is fair enough. And this is where, for all I admire Charles Handy, I couldn't help but reflect that he writes about a business world which has had its day. Slowly but surely we're getting fed up of people who make their millions without taking social and environmental issues into consideration (that's what shareholder capitalism is all about isn't it?) and who only then think about doing some good. I think we need entrepreneurs to be doing some good on the first curve, not just on the second one.

Comments

[Todd]

Rob,
Agree completely, particularly with the latter part of your comments. I felt a bit cheated by the premise of the book.

Where are the people practising social entrepreneur -ism on the first curve?

I enjoyed his talk and found him engaging, but I thought that praising wealthy people who give back was a bit...low caloric.

Cheers,
Todd

[Rob]

Thanks for your comment Todd. I've spoken since with a few people who were there who have similar thoughts. I'm reading the book this week so may well post some thoughts once I'm done!

Rob