#2 - Leadership Questions from Gingko Fellows : Create Public Credibility

During a workshop with 9 Chinese social entrepreneurs (Gingko Fellows), hosted by I-Genius, in collaboration with the British Council, Beijing, in July 2011, I was thrilled to be invited to meet with the fellows and exchange concepts on leadership. After this tour, full of visits to great social enterprises, the fellows returned to China with fresh new ideas on leading the future of philanthropic development in the Far East.
Here's the series of transcripts of the session we had together.
#2- Gingko Fellows: What are the experience and methods to create public credibility, vs the brand's core competition? 

Servane Mouazan: You will build credibility if you are consistent, transparent, if you show that you have planned ahead, that you have done your best to create a product that will stand to scrutiny.

There is no perfect product but laziness is not good for credibility.

I will compare my experience with martial arts.

You know you are delivering something interesting when your customers are loyal and do the marketing for you (word of mouth, referrals, champions, sponsors)

Like in a martial arts club, you can be judged not just by the numbers of people buying or supporting your cause, but also, and that is very important, by the numbers of followers who have been with you for the long run.

See how they talk about you (they may have a different perception of what you do!) and learn from it.

Like in martial arts, you need to understand what your competition offers. It’s not as black and white, there is always a way to complete each other, to learn from each other. 

You position yourself in the supply chain from your strengths first, but you  seek to offer what your competition can’t offer, you offer a different methodology. If you really can’t find anything to complete them, it’s probably that you have lost touch with your vision, your objectives, your niche, your usp. You have to go back to the drawing board or close the business and do something else.

It's fine. You'll be stronger next time.

The thing is in the space where we are evolving, which is about sustainable change, it's not just about competition, it's about bringing maximum value to people and environments that need it the most.

To be continued.