From Bracing to Embracing
A Shift of Posture
The late economist E.F Schumacher once said something that’s been on my mind for the last 3 months. In the wake of the industrial revolutions of his time, fossil fuels were being used to create the backbones of industry; energy production and logistics. The theory at the time, first coined by (1) Lord Keynes, was that if there was enough material production, there would eventually be enough for everyone, and would bring about the possibility of world peace. The hypothesis was that we could materially produce ourselves into happiness, and that there would be an initial period of unfair sacrificial labour for those nations who would shoulder the workload, but that in due course it would be worth everyone’s time, a utopic hypothesis, and a experiment of consumerism. Hence the west built itself partly on the resources of developing nations, and GDP’s were put in place for national perpetual growth.
What Keynes theory did not take into account were the social and environmental limits that would be crossed, and to this note Schumacher had the following sentiments to which I paraphrase,
(2) ‘Civilisations rise and fall on the same soil. It’s how they steward their resources, and educate the mind of their populations on how to do so that determines their success or demise’.
To Schumacher, the solution to issues of his time was to steward resources sustainably and equitably, instead of increasing production. This required education for all, to know what to look after what we’ve been given. He believed that work was good for us, and that we didn’t need to create a world where we were void of it. In his words, the economics that govern work need “peace and permanence”, as peace is sustainable by design, because in harmony systems can function perpetually, allowing everything to work according to the universal (divine) design of our planet and its inhabitants continuously.
Fast forward to the Covid-19 Pandemic, and we see the truth in how a globalised world that was living without limits had such serious cracks across social, economic, environmental and political lines. The theories of “donut economics” (or circular economies), and “fixing late capitalism” have become huge topics, along with the notion and practice of regenerative design (man made developments that are not only sustainable but contribute back to the environment over and above their needs). As the world has seen, Keynes theory of production has fallen short. Material doesn’t make us happy or bring peace, regardless of where you sit economically. In fact, it’s breaking our planet and dividing our societies into the haves and have nots. The consumerism experiment is failing, and we need new systems. We need new ways to steward our resources, and new ways of educating the public on how to participate in stewardship.
Bringing it closer to home, the unrest that took place in Durban, South Africa in July 2021 was a screaming snapshot of the disproportionate levels of inequality in South Africa. A post apartheid South Africa existing in political emancipation, but still in rigid, legacy, economic entrapments. The proximity of the haves and have nots was so tangible, my personal experience was traumatic at best, one can only imagine the effect it has on those in the eye of the storm. Regardless of which side you sit on matters of liberal vs conservative ideas on wealth creation- one thing is for sure, if the gap isn’t healed, the future has a lot worse in store for us as a country. For economic emancipation to progress, I broadly believe the answer lies in sacrificial leadership and democratised access to education, leading to the ability of a nation being able to steward its resources, from environment and mind, at individual to organizational levels, to build our nation, and our continent.
As a company, Black Box was born as a for profit company designed to solve real world issues by leveraging technology and partnering with industry specific experts to unlock resources and have scalable impact. As a result, we are profitable, although that is not our core motivation, rather a by-product of work done well and challenges solved or contributed significantly to. We started in 2018, two years before the pandemic hit us, which gave us just enough time to build some relationships in the tech industry to keep us on our feet and learning. During the turbulent times we were lucky enough to gain attention as the world looked for virtual solutions, and were able to steadily grow in expertise, character, people skills and agility. We built platforms and apps for PwC, Open Cities Labs, The University of KwaZulu-Natal, The Coffee Magazine and a medical startup in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This period has forged key character traits in our small motley crew with huge collective ambition to play a role in leaving work and infrastructure behind us one day, that loves people beyond ourselves and our lifespans. Our vision is a 200 year vision, and we will pass it on to those after us.
The season of bracing must come to an end, as we walk with tender humility brought into tension with a focus to put ourselves to the task of what our hearts and minds hold true, and that is to say that if we are to thrive in this nation, we must contribute to building it. In order to build, we must steward selflessly, and in order to steward, we must be robust in posture while partnering wisely and diversely outside of our own skill sets and knowledge bases. Our world has shifted from complicated systems to complex ones (Mark Sayers), and cross pollination across various industries is proving fruitful in many scenarios (take Musk’s SpaceX + SolarCity + Tesla combination of institutional knowledge being shared across industries — although I’m not his biggest fan, respect!).
Last year we hired a financial manager and a new UX/UI designer at a risk, who have in return unlocked new revenue, capacity and potential, putting us in a strong starting position this year. A small risk to some, but to a startup a series of gambles which paid off, because we’re aiming to make calculated decisions based on our hopes and not our fears. As we shift from our posture of bracing, to embracing, as we walk slightly taller into this new future, our trajectory needs to be refined if we want to play a role in shaping our world to come, specifically for our context. It was appropriate to refine our vision and mission, and I’m happy to announce it as the following:
Our vision:
“Stewarding African Resources for African People”.
Our mission statement:
“Through our commitment to Human Centred Design and Intermediate Technology, we pioneer in designing digital platforms that collaboratively steward African resources for African people, solving sustainable development challenges for our continent while providing regenerative value to all stakeholders, resulting in sustainable businesses and products.”
It’s with this clarity that we are set to learn, partner and build new products, services and systems that focus on unlocking the potential of African resources. Our systems are digital, and use expertise in product design, software engineering, data science and go to market strategies along with community engagement and research to definitively understand the problems we’re solving.
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References
- E.F Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, Part 1 — The problem of Production
- E.F Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, Education — The Greatest Resource, pg 60
