TRILOGY THE TURNAROUND OF MY COMPANY: SYMBIOSIS BUSINESS

Concluding our trilogy of articles “The Turnaround of My Company,” I share a strategy that we applied, initially inspired by a concept presented by Lynn Margulis, a professor and biologist at the University of Massachusetts, which was based on the phrase from American poet Emily Dickinson: “Life did not conquer the globe through combat, but through symbiosis.”

As I mentioned in the first article of this trilogy, we had the great fortune not only to restructure the company, saving it from bankruptcy, but also to project it onto the international scene. And this happened amidst an economic crisis scenario that affected our products.

Also inspired by the actions of Ikigai, we adopted the social group model applied by the residents of Ogimi, a village in Okinawa. They gather and form groups of five people who help each other. They do something similar to cooperative models.

With these two concepts in hand, we created the first model of Symbiosis Business by inviting some companies, one from each segment, to together form a business group. Obviously, aspects such as ‘professional quality and integrity’ were fundamental for this choice, however, the decisive point was a characteristic: the invited companies and professionals carried out social actions. It was determined that together we would develop at least one action per semester in favor of some philanthropic work.

We all needed some help, but what united and strengthened us was our commitment to doing something for others together.

Other rules were stipulated, such as: each company in the group promoted the work of the others to their clients, thus the clients of one company became potential clients of the others (this measure resulted in new jobs); each company, within its means, presented differentiated values to the other members of the group; some companies and professionals joined forces in joint projects and also in investments.

The “icing on the cake” also came through the social door. Because of the results of the social work carried out by my company, the RePacificar initiative, we were being recognized in other countries and this generated openings for international business rounds. We began to organize the group to gain international market together and to perform representations in Brazil.

At the end of this journey, and recounting this experience in a lecture I gave in New York, at John Jay College, in October 2019, someone from the audience gave me a comment that I made a point of bringing to the whole group: “from zero to hero.” Let us be the heroes of our own story.

This post is also available in: Japanese Portuguese (Brazil)