Chapter 2: Think different
Don’t follow the safe path
Five years ago when we founded “Talento & Emprendimiento”, we used to organize conventional social projects; such as sporting events, vocational conferences and volunteer work in schools and hospitals in the city of Arequipa (south of Peru).
Years passed and we continued organizing similar projects. Two conferences of vocational guidance were organized in 2007 & 2008 and we couldn’t managed to fill even half of the auditorium. Also, the other projects began to decline. We were doing something wrong, we were following the safe path, we were not taking smart risks.
When we moved our main operations from Arequipa to the capital of the country (Lima) we decided to stop organizing conventional projects. There were hundreds of organizations doing this work and meeting the needs of those less favored. We wanted to do things in a different way, so we decided to find an innovative way to support the less fortunate. It was necessary to devise a strategy that differentiated us from other nonprofit organizations in our field and give us a sustainable competitive advantage.
Our new projects should be innovative and challenging. More important, all of them should be aligned with our mission. In other words, that they can help develop the potential talents of the members of our organization, and at the same time generate a favorable impact on our beneficiaries.
With this background, we created Sustainable ECO-Roofs. A unique and challenging project that is aligned with our mission of developing the talents of the members of the project while generating a positive impact in the communities we serve.
To see how we changed our strategy and how we apply it, I invite you next Monday to read the second part of Chapter 2: be creative!
Nice piece of advice for those struggling to increase involvement. I like how part of your mission is to “develop potential talents” or your organization’s members. Nice work!
Spencer
Thanks Spencer!
Yes we encourage our organization members to develop their talents by creating and implementing their own social projects. Most of the times, the projects that they develop are related to their own talents. For example, one of our members is really passionate about entrepreneurship and consulting, so he is creating a project to advise microentrepreneurs in poor areas of Peru to take their businesses to the next level!