Ubuntu is an African philosophy captured in the story above as “I am because we are”, about valuing community above self-interest.
I love this, not least because it is also an easy way for readers to understand my philosophy around business. To add a layer, though, valuing community leaves a big gap if we fail to do it at scale when we have the opportunity and ability to do this.
What do I mean?
I love the movement towards social enterprise as well as Conscious Capitalism (that book was written in 2014), as for decades I have felt that unfettered and self-interested capitalism is something I cannot align with.
However, as a qualified accountant and (yes, I was a Venture Capitalist of sorts!) someone who see assets and supports businesses in building valuation, I see a big gap in most social enterprises.
Simply put, they don’t focus enough on making a profit, sometimes even rejecting the idea of being profitable as being unacceptable. Lots and lots of tiny micro-businesses in the social enterprise space, very few of scale.
I see a huge gap here, a huge space for those who are able to make a profit as an outcome of a) putting Purpose+People+Planet first, while also b) focussing on the numbers.
Those who do all of this create a virtuous circle that allows them to scale their impact, as per the “virtuous circle” and accompanying article below.
Ubuntu, “I am because we are” is about putting the interest of the community above self.
What an amazing world it will be when more and more people with the talent to build businesses of scale do it from a place of Ubuntu rather than self-interest!
