cross-cultural consumer base responsibility groups

[cognizor@cognizor.com]

Hi, guys.  Ran across this material on pan-national economic bridging support organizations while trying to find electronic versions of the true-equivalent English/Spanish parallel texts of the CD blurb pamphlet for Putumayo's Rumba Flamenco, a company that has a multi-cultural viewpoint and products.    

Interesting in regard to our Global...Bridging subcommittee.  Note esp. the business support associations Putumayo is affiliated to (info below), and their philanthropy programs, which might be a kind of thing we could get ourselves involved in, were it found suitable.

SC

============  Putumayo [Colombian tributary of Amazon River] excerpt from http://putamayo.com/about.html

"
Putumayo World Music was established in 1993 to introduce people to the music of other cultures. The label grew out of the Putumayo clothing company that was founded by Dan Storper in 1975 and sold in 1997. Over the last decade, the label has become known primarily for its upbeat and melodic compilations of great international music that are "guaranteed to make you feel good!"

Putumayo's CD covers feature the distinctive naïve art of Nicola Heindl, whose colorful, folkloric style represents one of Putumayo's goals: to connect the traditional to the contemporary to create products that people love. By combining appealing music and visuals while supporting its releases with creative retail promotions and marketing, Putumayo World Music has developed a reputation as one of the industry's most innovative companies. The label has produced more than 100 CDs and in 1998 branched out by signing its first artist: Ricardo Lemvo. Putumayo received its first Grammy nomination in 2001 for Miriam Makeba's Homeland CD. Other Putumayo Artists include Habib Koité; and Oliver Mtukudzi.

Putumayo is considered a pioneer and leader in the non-traditional retail area. Putumayo has built a network of more than 2,500 book, gift, clothing, and coffee retailers that sell, play and display its CDs. Putumayo also retains a strong presence in record stores around the world. It has developed retail promotions including Travel the World with Putumayo trips to Martinique, Senegal and Ireland, in-store events, and consumer gift with purchase promotions utilizing calendars, beach balls, journals and notecards featuring Putumayo cover art.

In 2000, Putumayo launched the Putumayo World Music Hour, the first commercially syndicated world music program available on more than 120 commercial and non-commercial stations in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

Dan Storper's vision of establishing a global, lifestyle company is being furthered by CD distribution in more than 50 countries. In April 2000, Putumayo Europe was established in Hilversum, Holland just outside of Amsterdam. Latin American, African and Asian sales and marketing are managed from the New York office.

A member of Business For Social Responsibility, Social Venture Network and Business Leaders For Sensible Priorities, Putumayo contributes a portion of its proceeds from many CDs to support non-profit organizations that do good work in the communities where the music originates. In 2002, Putumayo started the Putumayo Cross-Cultural Initiative, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding and facilitates community building through education and outreach. 
"


======= Business for Social Responsibility:  excerpt from http://www.bsr.org/BSRServices/2003/Agenda.cfm November 11-14 2003 LA conference agenda.  CSR is an acronym for "Corporate Social Responsibility".  Hefty dues.  Some of the conference talks are BigBiz std issues, but the following seem to relate to our stuff.  The group politics were not so immediately clear to me....

"
   Pre-Conference Workshops
Guided by experts in the field, these full-day workshops will educate participants about the techniques and topics involved in various CSR challenges. Pre-registration is required.

...

Supply Chain Management: Identifying and Implementing Social and Environmental Responsibility
This full-day training provides guidance to corporate managers responsible for developing social and environmental policies and implementation strategies for their supply chain partners. Participants explore the emerging issues and pressures arising from stakeholder groups and review common and best practices, codes of conduct, and implementation steps involved in setting up a CSR supply chain program. Using case studies and lessons learned from companies and industries that have implemented responsible supply chain practices, participants receive practical guidance on identifying risk and priorities, communicating with business partners, and implementing a CSR program for the supply chain.

Building Effective Relationships with Indigenous Peoples
Companies exploring resources on lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples need to develop and maintain good relations with the local population from the outset. Failure to secure their ?social license to operate? puts corporate investment, resource access and the well-being of the local population at risk. Designed in partnership by BSR and First Peoples Worldwide, this first-of-its-kind training provides corporate and operations-level staff with world-class advice and education on best practice for building constructive, long-term relationships with Indigenous communities. Participants learn how to address the most difficult questions involved in effective engagement between companies and Indigenous communities. Topics covered include prior informed consent, land rights, access and benefit sharing, and community decisionmaking in the development process. The training helps build the knowledge and skill that company personnel need to move forward in collaborative engagements with Indigenous peoples at both a corporate and operational level. 
"


"
  Global Trend: Migration and Its Impact on Business
The United Nations Development Programme has identified migration as one of five main global trends shaping the international economy. Trans-national migration, in particular, has been on the rise. This panel will survey some of the reasons for migration, how it impacts business and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead

Cultural Competency: Diversity and the Bottom Line
Discover the emerging trends in workforce diversity and what you need in management tools to advance a multicultural workforce. This session will provide examples of ways companies are incorporating diversity know-how throughout the organization?s marketing, public relations and community outreach efforts to outsmart the competition and impact the bottom line. 
"
==================  Social Venture Network

http://www.svn.org/membership.html

Founded in 1987, SVN is a community of leaders-company founders, private investors, social entrepreneurs and key influencers-who share a commitment to building a just and sustainable world through business. The relationships and initiatives born within our network have ranged from lasting friendships to investment deals to founding organizations to political action.

Through our network-its events, programs and technology-individual change-makers are able to deepen relationships and to work together with greater social impact. SVN enables and catalyzes action at three inter-related and coexisting levels: individual, organizational and societal.

    * Individual - SVN cultivates spiritual and leadership development by encouraging the expression of personal values through work and moving beyond leadership as traditional heroism or domination.

    * Organizational - SVN fosters business partnerships and investments that forge new models for social-purpose enterprise, particularly those that generate profitable opportunities in disenfranchised communities.

    * Societal - SVN encourages public service and social action by leveraging the voices of business leaders and the marketing reach of enterprises to bring about social change. 

SVN's semi-annual gatherings-each spring on the East coast and fall in the West-are extraordinary events that regularly attract many of the most insightful and inspiring speakers on the planet.
"

In conference description, mention of serving of organic food, photos of many "minority ethnicity" speakers....


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