Earth Day | The Barefoot Spirit

We Can’t Afford to Take a Break from Climate Change Mitigation

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 17:00:20 +0000

Why is it suddenly necessary for tens of thousands of scientists to march on Earth Day and implore us to take climate change seriously? Why do they have to insist that there is no debate and that the signs are already here? They obviously think we need a strong reminder.

The systematic dismantling of the EPA, rolling back of air quality standards and continued long-term commitment to fossil fuel are good reasons for a strong reminder. It’s not like we can take a break from avoiding this environmental disaster. The scientists weren’t satisfied with the last administration’s actions, and now they are marching!

What does it say for the level of education in our country that apparently allows this to happen in the face of irrefutable facts? Are we so short sighted and so selfish that we prefer to believe that the preponderance of science on this subject is wrong?

Will we have to get to the point of no return, have a stream of disasters hitting us regularly, and suffer vector spread pandemics before we wake up and listen to the experts? Will it be too late by the time we all get it?

That’s why the scientists are marching! They know enough to be scared for our health and welfare if we continue down this path. They don’t believe they did a good enough job getting the word out.

They thought, because they were scientists, that they would gain a certain level of respect above and beyond politics and not have to make a big demonstration. They were wrong!

Now we need scientists to really turn it up a notch. National Geographic’s last edition was on climate change. They had to write the article as if it was to a person who had been duped or wanted to believe that climate change was a hoax. Their article began with three highly substantiated statements: climate change is real; it’s our fault; there is no debate.

When our grandchildren ask us, “Why didn’t you do something?” Will we say, “We thought the only way to have jobs was to take your environment away from you”? Will we say, “Nobody knew how fast it would change” when in fact all the scientists knew and begged us to take it seriously. Or will we say, “We chose to get our news from sources that played down or denied climate change and scientific facts.”

It’s clear that the only industry that benefits from the denial of climate change is the fossil fuel industry. Even their relatively short-term gain will be a long-term loss due climate caused disaster to our economy.

Climate change is not political. You can’t vote, ignore, or argue it away. It’s happening regardless. The scientists are telling us that every minute we continue to increase emissions puts us closer to the tipping point of no return, and closer to run away warming. Are we really so foolish as to let this continue without making changes to mitigate it?

We believe the moves to dismantle the EPA and roll back emission standards are bad for business, bad for our standard of living, bad for our quality of life, and bad for our health. At their core these steps protect a has-been, buggy-whip industry which is using the government for its own selfish and shortsighted immediate gain – at the expense of our own, and our children’s, welfare. In short, these moves will be shown to have been on the wrong side of history. Let’s listen to our scientists!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Earth Day – Put a Buck on It!

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 19:00:31 +0000

Automobiles didn’t replace horse-drawn carts because the world suddenly ran out of hay. And alternative clean air vehicles won’t replace fossil-fueled vehicles because we suddenly run out of oil. In fact, due to technology, more oil and gas supplies continue to be discovered and exploited when just a decade ago we thought the end of fossil fuel was in sight.

Even though we are beginning to see the negative effects of man-made climate change, we continue to fill up at the pump! Why? Because we still think it’s cheaper than owning an alternative energy vehicle! We are waiting for the day when clean air vehicles and power generation are cheaper than fossil fuels. Shouldn’t we be looking at the total costs of a tank of gas? Shouldn’t we be measuring miles per dollar instead of miles per gallon?

Super storms, deadly winters, droughts, and generally unseasonable weather are already here. The costs are adding up, and we are paying to repair the damages and higher food prices. Shouldn’t all this be added to the dollars per mile? Just because it comes out of a different pocket, aren’t we all paying for it anyway? So is it really “cheaper” to continue with fossil fuels?

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released its report. Among other warnings, it stated carbon dioxide levels are rising almost twice as fast as they did in the last decades of the 20^th century. Otto Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chair of the committee who wrote the report said, “If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization.”

Sure, we all should be considering the real cost of climate change, but as human nature would have it, we are more concerned with the immediate cost of getting to work, the store, and the vacation. Never mind the down-stream financial consequences (let alone the survival of man as we know it). We somehow think the day of reckoning is still way off in the future. So we continue to wait for a cheaper solution.

How far away is that solution anyway? How much longer do we have to wait until we reach the economic tipping point where alternatives to destructive methods of making power and getting around are more economically desirable?

According to the UN climate report, some alternatives are already cheaper! The cost of wind and solar have dropped dramatically as a result of mass production, government subsidy and tax advantages. It now competes directly with coal, the major culprit in climate change. Hopefully developing countries like China will make the right financial choice for the long run and (finally!) for the short run as well.

What about getting around? Progressive governments have already slapped increased mileage and emission standards on fossil fuel vehicles. However, we are very heartened by last month’s announcement by Elon Musk. He is the founder of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and investing billions in the world’s largest battery manufacturing plant which will dramatically reduce the cost of batteries and significantly extend the range of electric vehicles. Bravo!

We all vote with our dollars but we all still look for the most efficient short-term use of those dollars. We are finally at the tipping point where we can begin to satisfy our short-term needs and reduce our long-term costs. Alternatives are getting cheaper all the way around! So now the earth, and everything and everyone on it, has a better chance of having a good future. Use your dollars to vote for a happy Earth Day, everyone!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Communicate the Reasons not just the Processes

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 17:00:31 +0000

As we celebrate Presidents’ Day, we honor our country’s two greatest leaders, George Washington who had to form a union, and Abraham Lincoln who had to hold it together. Both succeeded because they educated the people about the reasons for action. They both had to sell their cause.

The takeaway for leaders, whether they are politicians, managers, or business owners, is simple. To truly engage your people, educate them beyond what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. Give them appreciation for why you want them to perform in a certain way.

When we were building the Barefoot Wine brand, we found that our people were more engaged when they knew why they were doing a specific job, not just how to do it. We would explain our company’s mission statement, and how each staff member’s performance was essential to achieve the goals of the company.

We would invest hours with our new people explaining the cause and effect that connected their job to the customers’ purchasing decision. We would give them a “money map” showing them how the customers’ money went to buy our product, how it traveled through the retail and distribution companies we dealt with, and eventually ended up in their paycheck. We would detail the reasons why their job directly affected the provision of goods and services necessary for the customer to make a purchase. We would give them the reasons why every team member in our company had to perform excellently to keep our customers coming back. We explained each business associate’s loyalty requirements, from distributers to retailers, from store clerks to consumers, and how our people satisfied all of them.

Some said that kind of training was a waste of time, that new people don’t need that level of detail. They argue that the sooner the new hire starts producing, the better. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it assumes that the processes are already the best they can possibly be, and that there can be no further improvements in customer service or efficiency. It also assumes that expensive mistakes won’t happen due to misconceptions about purpose.

We found, however, that people tend to “make up” reasons when they don’t know the real ones. If they didn’t get it, we would go over it again – and again. When they asked a seemingly simply question about their job, we would listen closely for any misconceptions they held. We wouldn’t just give them the answer so they could thoughtlessly “cut and paste” to quickly get on with their job. We would take the time to sit them down and start from the beginning about the reasons until they connected the dots.

The time we invested in this type of education really paid off. We often heard, “Well, if that’s what we are trying to do, then why don’t we …” and they would streamline our procedures or make them more effective. Sometimes they would even come up with completely new ways of doing things.

Presidents and leaders at every level are only as successful as their ability to engage their people. If your people truly understand why they are being asked to perform, you’ll drastically reduce costly misconceptions and you’ll achieve your company’s goals in surprisingly more efficient ways. Your people will be happier and more engaged because they understand why their performance is essential to the company’s success and that their teammates are relying on them.

Productive people start with good leaders. Happy Presidents’ Day everybody!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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