I always urge my clients to factor sustainability considerations into their vision and strategic planning. While reading in the July 8th issue of Time, I was delighted to see an article titled, “Farming the Desert” by Aryn Baker (http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2146442-3,00.html if you subscribe). The article recounts how Qatar, the richest nation in the world, had difficulty finding adequate food supplies during the 2008 Economic Downturn. Qatar has plenty of oil and cash. With tight credit squeezing international trade, food was simply not for sale.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization considers only 1% of Qatar’s land to be arable and Qatar is importing 90% of their food. Fahad bin Mohammed al Attiya, Executive Chairman of Qatar’s National Food and Security Program (QNFSP), has a goal to make 6% of the land arable and grow half of the nation’s food within the next twelve years. All of this comes at a price and enormous complexity. The Qataris will need to desalinate 91 billion gallons of water a day, generate 753 megawatts in solar power to fuel the desalination, and become a leader in agricultural water conservation techniques. Audacious, but feasible!
I find the Qatar story inspiring on a number of levels. The Qataris scaled their dreams and imagination to match the consequences of not being successful. The Qatari plan gathered the resources they had in hand to obtain resources and capabilities that seemed out of their reach. Business leaders are so often schooled to minimize risk and make incremental changes. In a world that’s changing so quickly, organizations that do not realize the level of innovation required, will go the way of the dinosaur.
The lessons I take away from this are:
- Stay abreast of technology. Know what’s possible
- Be objective and realistic in assessing threats
- Dream success!!
For more information on sustainability in a business world, go to my website at www.accelachv.com/tqm_sustainability.html.
I drop a comment whenever I appreciate a article on a site or if I have something to add to
the conversation. It’s triggered by the sincerness communicated in the post I read.
And after this post Audacious Sustainability | The Breakaway.
I was moved enough to post a comment 😉 I do have some questions
for you if it’s okay. Is it only me or does it appear like some of the
remarks look like they are written by brain dead folks?
😛 And, if you are posting at other sites, I would like to keep up with you.
Could you list every one of all your shared sites
like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Visit my homepage … iPhone 4 jailbreak (Deangelo)
Thank you for the appreciative words. I looked at your site and have to confess that I’m an Android guy. Looks good, though!! Reviewing posts is hard. I get a lot of trackbacks. I always give people the benefit of the doubt. I only blog on my site. You can find me at http://linkedin.com/in/charlesreeseinct and @ChasReese.
Useful information. Lucky me I discovered your website by accident, and I’m surprised why this twist of fate didn’t happened earlier!
I bookmarked it.
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!!
Finally I’ve found something that helped me. Cheers!
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering
if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that
automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve
been looking for a plug-in like this for quite
some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your
new updates.
I’m afraid your question is not my area of expertise. I’ve used a widget on Linkedin that tweeted my updates from that site.
This blog was… how do you say it? Relevant!!
Finally I’ve found something that helped me. Cheers!
Glad you find it helpful and thanks for the encouragement!