Big World, Big Challenges, Hyper-Local Solutions

A little girl hides behind the leg of her mother, afraid and unsure as her eyes scan the mass of people around them. She and her family have just fled their home in Ethiopia amid a rising tide of violence and disruption. They are now staying at a camp for displaced persons along with thousands of others who, like them, can no longer go back to the home they once knew. There is overcrowding, disease, and little food or water to go around. 

It’s a heartbreaking scene, and sadly not an unusual story. This little girl’s struggles are a drop in the bucket when you take in the larger picture. The world is full of hard problems to solve. Hunger, homelessness, disease, natural disasters, education inequality. The list goes on and on and there isn’t a single corner of the world that is immune to all of these challenges. The need is overwhelming, but it can’t be ignored. As humans, we are all accountable to each other. But as humans, we are also limited in our capacity to help on a large scale. It’s not impossible, though, and certain organizations have found a way to have massive impacts, including UNICEF. The question is... how? 

UNICEF is a global organization that faces massive challenges head-on every day. On this episode of Business X factors, Michel Nyenhuis, the CEO of UNICEF USA, tells us how.

Main takeaways:  

• Global Influence, Local Implementation: “Think global, act local,” may sound like a bit of a cliché for companies entering new overseas markets, but many businesses are still guilty of having a one-size-fits-all mindset. They focus on large-scale economic, political or technological barriers without taking the local culture or those that have to implement a business model on the ground into account. To make a lasting impact wherever you work, give autonomy to local people who are better acquainted with cultural differences that could influence consumer attitudes and behaviors.   
• Partners to Solve Big Problems: While smaller businesses or non-profit organizations can be nimble and flexible and can try things that governments aren’t able to do,  to scale, these organizations often need bigger partners. Buy-in from multiple partners can help not only ease the challenge of expansion but also minimize the risk for individual actors.  
• Communication Paralysis: A lack of communication is often seen as the root of the problem in many businesses. The reality is that there could be too much communication happening, which causes channels to become oversaturated with business leaders acting as information traffic wardens instead of making decisions. Communications should be treated like data, there is plenty of it, but it needs to be channeled and sifted to add value. Don’t communicate for the sake of communicating, make sure there is value in it and that it does not lead to indecision.

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