Investing in People Over Ideas

Published January 16, 2009 @ 10:26AM PT

One of the best things about working with undergraduates is that I get to scheme, design, and execute new ideas with some of the most brilliant, talented people in the world. Sure, they don't have "skills" in an "I went to a school to get a certificate for a skill" sort of way, and they don't have a ton of experience, but the undergraduate setting is the last time, usually, when brilliant folks from a million different perspectives are concentrated in one place for an extended period of time.

The success that I've had in things that I've done has largely been routed in the teams that I've been able to bring together around a specific mission. This seems not just to be my experience, but a general rule. Great people are essential to greatness, in business, nonprofit work, or anything else. At a discussion a few weeks ago, the founder of Virgance Steve Newcomb gave "hire great people" as his key advice for building a great company. A few days ago, "What Should I Do With My Life?" author Po Bronson reiterated the importance of helping great people find their right places in a Fast Company article.

But the question becomes how you rethink investment to focus on people, rather than ideas? If its the idea (expressed in the business plan) that will eventually make they money (or the change), but its the people who make ideas work (or not), is it possible to create new settings where the priority of the capital investments is on the people?

Ooga Labs is an interesting model of this in the web tech world. Ooga brings together incredibly talented software engineers and designers, works on a number of products simultaneously, and pays for its own operations by building businesses around their most promising ideas. Their starting point is getting the right people in the room:

We really don't care about your degrees. We don't really care what programming languages you know...For us, this is about building a culture, not just a company. From great culture & people we will create great products which produce happy customers which produce financial success. Most companies start the opposite way -- by figuring out a way to make money and then making their people & culture an afterthought. We look to Apple, Disney in the 30's, Toyota, Pixar, Southwest Airlines, and HP-in-the-60's as our cultural models. We communicate openly and honestly, and enforce a strict no-assholes policy. The organization is very flat -- everyone works directly with the CEO at some point during every month.

The question for me is, as always, what's in the special sauce? What is it that makes it possible for something like Ooga to be successful. And based on the answer to that question, what pieces of it can be taken to the world of social change?

All Day Buffet, who I mentioned the other day as an Echoing Green semifinalist, thinks they have an answer. I think that there's a lot of great ways to bring incredible talented people together in order to explode their creativity and mutual capacity. I just wonder if its possible to take those settings - conferences, trainings, even mutual working spaces like The Hub - and turn them into a financially viable business model focused on investing in people. I'm really excited to see what the ADB folks come up with. If they've really got something, that's where we should all put what's left of our money.

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Comments (6)

Yes! This used to be the standard paradigm in the 1960s culture [and of course of many other societies for the majority of history] and for the 1st 15 years when I was teaching--people are indeed the lifeblood of the world on so many levels: they do the work, create the ideas, reach out to touch others, decide to love or hate, use weapons or diplomacy, to change the current ideologies or be part of the herd. Without people, all our technology means nothing, is for nothing, will do nothing. We must embrace that fundamental perspective for a global community, for true problem solving. As one of our greatest anthropologists [sorry, names escape me] said, we have survived NOT through competition but through cooperation.
The companies that have had the most success [not judged just in $ but stability, worker happiness, etc.] have also invested in people from the ground up and been humanitarian in their outlook, sharing profits, brainstorming from every level and creating community: the original Saturn, Ben & Jerry's, Celestial Seasonings, Gateway & in Denver Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore that Barns and Nobles has tried to put out of business and failed. It is based on trust: trust in its customers, employees, input from all and cultivating community.
In all my years of teaching, when my students worked together, encouraging each to become better, to brainstorm freely without trying to score hits off other students, the quality of the entire class was higher. As an artist, I also know not only from history but from personal experience that those that have support, groups that share [the Bloomsbury group, Gertrude Stein's salon, artist colonies, and so on]. The same goes for science discoveries as we have seen throughout history in cooperative labs and scientists' ongoing collaborations. We elevate individuals, but they never got there alone.

Posted by lana matthews on 01/16/2009 @ 11:46AM PT
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I totaly agree with you. It doesnt take a well educated idividual to come up with a solution to change a bad situation into a good one. The truth is the country is rapidly falling apart and we need to use whats left of this nation to turn things around. The question is, if you have a plan or solution that will surely make a difference, where do you go? or who do you talk to have your plan overlooked? and this place that you go or person you talk to, are they capable of getting this plan reviewed by congress or the president and his staff. I'm kinda new to this site but I have a plan that I believe could change the nation in reference to not just one of the situations the country currently faces but many of them.
Whats the next step?

Posted by Raphawn Staton on 01/27/2009 @ 11:52AM PT
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The solution to rethinking investment is to also rethink the bottom line and overall business objectives. If your goal is to do X, you need to hire people who have done X or know how to do X, there's really no way to get around that (except through employee training).

However, if your goal is to provide customer service, support, innovation, or something along those lines, then you can build a workforce, invest in employees, and nurture excitement about work. Who knows what the end product will be within your service/support/innovation categories, but you'll have successfully shifted your bottom line and I think you'd see the rewards there.

Having worked in higher education, I didn't necessarily have a bottom line within my program. However, we saw increased numbers, partnerships, and projects by focusing on hiring people who were creative problem solvers, who loved working in our environment.

Posted by Michelle Barber on 04/01/2009 @ 10:33AM PT
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Fantastic post, Nathaniel. I'm so glad your blogs bring so much attention and focus to this area. As a long time employee of Kiva, and now working with ChangeFusion.org and All Day Buffet, I sure am banking on these new social innovation incubators helping to lead the way of the future. At a time when people are feeling more disillusioned than ever, I hope that they will see the same potential in social business that I do.

Keep us the good work!

Posted by Brooke Estin on 04/23/2009 @ 04:54AM PT
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For us it's like this. People are the entire point of business, over greed based on abstract numbers of imaginary wealth. That's what we mean by people-centered.

http://www.p-ced.com/about/background/

In practice, for us, core funding derives from software development and maintenance. For example a product which serves major corporations who aren't aware of the business model and don't really need to be.

http://people-centered.net/MeetingPoint.aspx

The revenue is small but allows us to create influence overseas, where social enterprise is relatively unknown, for example in a conference last week with an opening plenary.

http://www.p-ced.com/projects/ukraine/sumy/

Posted by Jeff Mowatt on 05/10/2009 @ 02:26AM PT
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Trying again, those links needed trimming.

For us it's like this. People are the entire point of business, over greed based on abstract numbers of imaginary wealth. That's what we mean by people-centered.

http://www.p-ced.com/about/background

In practice, for us, core funding derives from software development and maintenance. For example a product which serves major corporations who aren't aware of the business model and don't really need to be.

http://people-centered.net/MeetingPoint.aspx

The revenue is small but allows us to create influence overseas, where social enterprise is relatively unknown, for example in a conference last week with an opening plenary.

http://www.p-ced.com/projects/ukraine/sumy

Posted by Jeff Mowatt on 05/10/2009 @ 02:29AM PT
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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.