Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies

I bought "Ripples from the Zambezi" thinking, okay, person-centered development from an Italian who did government-sponsored work in Africa, perfected his methods in remote western Australia, and now spreads his gospel in the United States. Ought to be an interesting read and a good 'little' story.I was *way* off.This is - in my estimation - a great book by a true visionary, Ernesto Sirolli. The two chapters in the middle of this book "The Esperance Experience" and "The Esperance Model Applied" are as good as business-writing gets. In Sirolli's world, the glass is neither half empty nor half full. Rather, the water is gushing over the top of the cup. The stories he tells here of enterprises 'facilitated' in the bleakest economic conditions imaginable...well, it can't help but turn you into an optimist.But Sirolli goes further. He takes these experiences and imagines them on a grand scale where, as he says, "reciprocity matters." Calling it a "civic economy," he envisions a world benfiting from "generalized reciprocity, from people helping people to succeed, with the understanding that well-being of the community is to everybody's advantage."Don't misinterpret these sentiments. Sirolli is a capitalist at heart, but he presses for a system "beyind capitalism...which enhances participation in the creation of wealth, not only in its accumulation."How does he connect the dots from tiny Esperance to his grand vision for a civic economy? I urge you to read "Ripples from the Zambezi" to find out.

Many people wish to strengthen their local economies, reduce dependence on multinational corporations, build community by doing things, or achieve self-fulfilment through meaningful work. Yet these results are not coming easily or economically from the top-down, programmatic, and strategic approaches typically used by governments, economic development districts, and even by community groups, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations.As E. F. Schumacher observed in Good Work, we cannot expect to raise the wind that will push us to a better world. What we can do is hoist a sail to catch the wind when it does come. Ripples from the Zambezi tells the gripping story of how Ernesto Sirolli learned to catch the wind of passionate, skillful, creative, intelligent, and self-motivated entrepreneurs--the acknowledged powerhouse of the economy as well as of social change.Sirolli's experiences as a volunteer for the Italian government in Africa during the 1970s convinced him that "development" schemes were anything but. After absorbing Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered and the person-centered psychology of Carl Rogers, Sirolli put his radical, antidogmatic ideas to the test in rural Western Australia. Instead of trying to motivate people, he made himself available as coach and advocate for anyone who was serious about starting or expanding a business enterprise.By treating economic development as a byproduct of personal growth and self-actualization, Sirolli was able to make a quantum leap in the effectiveness of business coaching, as well as create local miracles of economic development. He has devoted himself since to teaching committed civic leaders how to do what he has done."In every community, no matter how small, remote, or depressed, there is somebody who is scribbling figures on a kitchen table. If we can be available, for free and in confidence, to help that person go from the dream to establish an enterprise that can sustain that person and his or her family, we can begin to change the economic fortunes of the entire community."The strategy that Sirolli teaches to communities often involves a committed volunteer local board, who hires an "Enterprise Facilitator" who is then trained by Sirolli. The facilitator does not initiate projects or promote "good ideas." He or she responds to the interests and passions of self-motivated people. Because no one has equal passion for production, marketing, and financial management, all of which are necessary for business success, and because people only do well what they care about doing, the secret of success and survival for a business of any size is to find people who love to do what you hate. "The death of the entrepreneur is solitude." The facilitator and the board, with networking, help people form teams to advance their idea.This is a strategy that is always followed in large business, but remains unusual in small business, where most people are still advised to write business

Anyone who cares about the economic future of Iowa should read "Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship and the Rebirth of Local Economies" by Ernesto Sirolli. It might be the closest thing to an economic cure-all Iowa can find. Sirolli is an Italian native who now lives in St. Paul, Minn. He's worked for 30 years in economic-development efforts in Australia, Africa and North America. He's started something called the Sirolli Institute, where they teach a concept called "Enterprise Facilitation." It's a way to provide help for Iowa's languishing rural and inner-city economies.Under Sirolli's program, small communities are assigned "facilitators" who go around town finding people with ideas for starting new businesses. Sirolli has found that most potential entrepreneurs are passionate about their idea but lack management or marketing skills. Working confidentially with the potential entrepreneurs, the facilitator helps put together an elementary business plan, early financing and a marketing plan. The facilitator doesn't try to motivate anyone or dictate solutions, but only works to bring the right players together in a community to help them launch a small business on their own.   It looks to be a huge success wherever it has been tried. The National Commission on Entrepreneurship recently profiled the book by saying the boom economy of the 1990s transformed American society but left-behind many rural communities. "What can be done to develop prosperity in these so-called 'left behind' communities?" the commission asked. Traditional economic-development efforts may not be available to small towns.   "The remaining option for small communities is to build on their own existing assets and resources. But how can this happen? How can untapped resources be uncovered and exploited? A pioneering approach, called Enterprise Facilitation, may offer a potential solution," the commission said.   This oddly titled book describes how it all works. The title comes from Sirolli's early experiments in economic development in Africa, where the young developer was first sent by the Italian government to help poor villages. Ideas pioneered there worked in Western economies, too.   In Western Australia, Sirolli helped fishermen in a rural community sell fish to the Japanese sushi market that paid six times what the local cannery was paying for their catch. Another business was started smoking the fish for gourmet markets. Another new business made quality sandals from local kangaroo hides. Sheep farmers developed a processing business that turned worthless old ewes into valuable hides, wool and mutton kebabs.   In rural Minnesota, the Communicating for Agriculture folks hired Sirolli to work in one of the poorest counties in the state. Within four years, the effort had started 30 new businesses, helped 127 existing ones, retained 55 jobs and created 71 new ones. The county's work force was only 3,000.   In rural South Dakota, a broke cattleman developed

One of the most extraordinary books I have read. It parallels my own life experiences in working in international development. The abject failure of most top down economic development programs must be a major cause for concern for all of us.I first ran across the work of Ernesto Sirolli in 1991 when I attended a conference in Cairns, Australia and joined a workshop put on by Brain Willoughby, one of Ernesto's trained enterprise facilitators. The emphasis on not initiating or motivating when working in community development was diametrically opposed to the work I had been doing with aboriginal people in the Western Arctic and in Australia.The advice was excellent. But this new book adds even more gems of wisdom. The trinity of management explains how it is virtually impossible for any potential entrepreneur to supply expertise in all three areas of production, marketing and financial management. No-one can do it alone. 80% of small businesses fail during the first five years, usually because of poor marketing, an inability to repay loans or because of chaotic production of the good or service. What is even more depressing is that most of the remaining 20% close their doors and walk away from the business during the next five years.Ernesto Sirolli has really understood the secret to small business success. The book highlights the philosophical structure underlying what motivates entrepreneurs, and what facilitators should be doing to help people truly learn how to form a team with others who have the areas of expertise which are missing.The final piece of genius is the approach to teaching people. Again this is brought out of the philosophical structure underlying the book. The excitement mounts as we grasp the new pair of eyeglasses Ernesto Sirolli is giving us and we see the great opportunities for helping people start small businesses successfully, but only if we allow them to initiate.The book is filled with incredible advice for those who really do want to help people achieve success in their lives through their work in a small business. The style of writing is easy to read because of the many stories which support what the author is saying. As a result of reading the book, I took Ernesto Sirolli's course which was truly outstanding. What is interesting is that everything we learnt had already been covered in this excellent book. A classic which will go down in history as the work of a genius....

Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies, by Ernesto Sirolli. New Society Publishers, 1999. Review by Peter Donovan ([email protected]) Many people wish to strengthen their local economies, reduce dependence on multinational corporations, build community by doing things, or achieve self-fulfilment through meaningful work. Yet these results are not coming from the top-down, programmatic, and strategic approaches typically used by governments, economic development bureaucracies, and even by some community groups, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations. As E. F. Schumacher observed in Good Work, we cannot expect to raise the wind that will push us to a better world. What we can do is hoist a sail to catch the wind when it does come. Ripples from the Zambezi tells the gripping story of how Ernesto Sirolli learned to catch the wind of passionate, skillful, creative, intelligent, and self-motivated entrepreneurs-the acknowledged powerhouse of the economy as well as of social change. Sirolli's experiences as a volunteer for the Italian government in Africa during the 1970s convinced him that "development" schemes were anything but. After absorbing Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered and the person-centered psychology of Carl Rogers, Sirolli put his radical, antidogmatic ideas to the test in rural Western Australia. Instead of trying to motivate people, he made himself available as coach and advocate for anyone who was serious about starting or expanding a business enterprise. By treating economic development as a byproduct of personal growth and self-actualization, Sirolli was able to make a quantum leap in the effectiveness of business coaching, as well as create local miracles of economic development. He has devoted himself since to teaching committed civic leaders how to do what he has done. "In every community, no matter how small, remote, or depressed, there is somebody who is scribbling figures on a kitchen table. If we can be available, for free and in confidence, to help that person go from the dream to establish an enterprise that can sustain that person and his or her family, we can begin to change the economic fortunes of the entire community." Sirolli's ideas are not just good. They are inspiring, inflammatory, they resonate-and they are based on 15 colorful years of failing and succeeding at hoisting the sail in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S. The underlying philosophy has to do with empowerment rather than control. "A shift from strategic to responsive development can only occur," Sirolli writes, "if we are capable of believing that people are intrinsically good and that the diversity, variety, and apparent randomness of their passions is like the chaotic yet ecologically sound life manifestations in an old-growth forest." The message is that bottom-up, person-centered, responsive economic development works-and