NZ Business, February 2011

The give and the take

Peter Dixon is a great bloke with an interesting mission.

Peter serves a vast number of charities  as the National Advisor for Capability. He helps them do a better job of connecting and 'reaching' (he told me recently that New Zealand has 1 charity for every 17 people).

And recently he was interviewed by New Zealand Business Magazine in a piece about what 'for-profit' businesses can learn from the not-for-profit sector.

The magazine put it this way: Peter Dixon brings some clear-cut commercial nous to a talk about the give and take of business.

He says more and more companies are now asking how they can talk with their customers about the value they create rather than settling for just making a buck. "They want people to talk virally about the great things they do rather than just about the products or services they sell,: he notes. "There's a lot to be said for the way not-for-profit organisations listen to the people or the cause that they serve."

Dixon suggests SMEs look for ways to care for the customer so they feel 'held'.

Partnering needn't be complicated, he says. He points to the Buy1GIVE1 website [www.b1g1.com] — online portal that enables small businesses to fill out their value proposition by linking their selling to giving.

"Its premise is, 'Buy one and I'll give something worthwhile'."

"They've created a channel to help businesses help others in the community. Companies can scroll through a list of options to find a good match to their values or brand. "Maybe, for example, you sell plasma TVs. You could link up with a partner and be able to say that for every TV you sell you'll give the gift of sight to someone in India. It adds intrinsic value to the customer experience."

In Dixon's view, the scale and longevity of some not-for-profits means they can offer value to all types of commercial businesses from the tiniest enterprise to the likes of New Zealand's largest Fonterra-scale giants.

Dixon notes that New Zealand's charities include organisations that turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

"And a lot of New Zealand charities have been around for 25 years and are doing a great job. In business terms 25 years is a long time. People write that under their logo."

We're really thrilled to have people of Peter's energy and calibre speaking about what we do and how we do it.