then money, then things. Suze Orman is on to something. This is still the week of the Global Voices Newsmaker Event on Corporate Responsibility and that phrase has got me thinking. It’s really the essence of social responsibility. People first. Simple as that. Not profit, not the bottom line. People.
Take a really basic example: Over the past few days, my laptop has been behaving erratically. While I’m not eager to re-hash the annoying details, my point is this – a real live person is the reason I am now working on said laptop writing this post. This was not an IT specialist who sits behind a help desk all day waiting for calls like mine. This is a person, who, even with her own stress and deadlines, took the time to sort me and my iBook out. I couldn’t have paid for that kind of attention at a time when I was also on deadline and about to lose my last nerve ending.
Bottom line? There’s going to come a time when I can return if not the favour, then at least a favour. And people, whether as part of the corporate community or not, all have that responsibility – no, that privilege – of being available to help where they can, if they are in a position to, when another person really needs it. And that holds more currency than all the money in the world.
Of course you could have paid for that kind of attention! And I’m sure the person who delivered it would have been happy to have been paid in cold, hard cash instead of food. Like certain people we know.
But don’t think this blog post lets you off the hook when certain people are in need of a vital organ.
Maybe, but would never have got it back immediately. But damn! I thought it was such a clever way of avoiding the organ issue! :O)