Global Direct Investment Solutions

Corporate Development for a Networked World

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Bruce Donnelly   bruce@gdi-solutions.com    (Biography)

Thank you for spending the time on this website to find this message.  I hope you will find it to be of interest as a further insight into the logic and vision behind this new venture.

As indicated elsewhere, this is an unapologetically for-profit business, but rooted firmly in principles of social responsibility on a global basis.  Refer to the sections on the personal philosophy and background of  myself, and the vision behind GDI Solutions in general, or our services, or the GUIDE services in particular.  There is a common thread of importance here, involving higher values than just shareholder value.

The substantial start-up investment in this business during the first two years was, in effect, a form of "venture philanthropy", rather than just a business plan to try to earn a quick profit from the work to address the many obvious inefficiencies in this market.  In other words, it really took far more knowledge and research work than money to launch this business.  I have chosen to take my twenty five years of relevant experience and contacts worldwide, and invest them to create this new venture as a service to this market.  I hope to employ other professionals with similar knowledge to contribute further to the process.

The first year year of professional research work and networking activities was invested to launch this new business in fall 2002.   I already know that I can earn a very good living at this work, as I have done for many years, and I fully intend to do so.

Although there were some setbacks because of the economic environment in the wake of 9/11/01 and other issues during 2002 and the slow recovery of business investment activity in this niche, those just slowed down the progress and raised the cost.  The vision behind this business has evolved over nearly thirty years, so it merely took a little longer to put all the pieces in place to finally launch it at the end of 2002 and start to grow it to scale.

In effect, I have "thrown down the gauntlet", challenging others in this profession to join this initiative and invest in cooperation through shared services which can create a far more efficient market for global direct investment flows than exists today.  If I just wanted to earn a salary again in this niche, I could easily have found a new job quickly after leaving PwC.  Instead, I want to create a profitable business which will transform the inefficiencies which so many leaders have recognized in this market.

I certainly intend to earn a good living while doing this work, and employ others who will also be well compensated for their work, and I will work very hard to that end, but the point is that the vision behind this venture is not limited to my personal gain.  There is a much bigger picture here.  Profits are what make it all possible, but there are larger goals.

If others join this effort as expected, I intend to reinvest in the growth of the knowledge base and capabilities of this business to support the creation of a far more efficient market, such as by hiring the best team of professionals we can attract to support our work.  That obviously isn't cheap, which is why the services are not free to everyone, nor priced like lower-value services in this market.  Valuable work requires resources.  Once again, this business is not being run as an association or a non-profit through memberships or donations.  It is a business.  Without the necessary profits, it will not continue to operate.

We intend, however, to support good work by others through a wider vision of actions we can all take to improve our world, starting with what we can affect directly and significantly through our work close at home.  That includes examples such as the Fox River Country Day School in our area, as explained in the column at right.  It illustrates my thinking.

I hope others will join us in that vision as well, by looking at what they can do in their own communities, or by joining our efforts elsewhere, wherever we find a cause which clearly needs some support to "get the ball rolling" and change old assumptions about what is possible to improve our world.  That isn't just a matter of giving away money.  It can also involve bringing the right expertise to the table to accomplish what others thought to be impossible.

In short, we see that as what some today call "venture philanthropy" - taking a very businesslike approach to the challenge of addressing social issues, and using focused efforts to apply not merely our own limited resources, but also the financial resources and expertise of others who share similar objectives, to make a real difference soon. 

We aren't looking to give profits away.  This is a for profit business.  We are unapologetic about that.  We expect to deliver high value to participants in our services, and be well rewarded for doing it.  This isn't, however, a "get rich quick" scheme to pick the pockets of  development agencies.  Our focus is to do work which delivers far higher value than the cost.

We are looking at that bigger social picture, seeking ways to use our resources and the talents we have, or know where to find, to have a meaningful and lasting impact on the communities in which we all live.

We will elaborate on that vision in the future, and specific things which can be done to make a difference as we identify good opportunities.

For now, there is work to be done to make this business a success, and change the flow of direct investment around the world into a more efficient process so that it can have a greater impact on the lives of everyone involved.

As the old joke goes, "this isn't a non-profit organization, it just turned out that way so far".

That is going to change.  The necessary pieces should fall into place rapidly now.  As we succeed, we will move forward to accomplish even more than is expected of us today, because a networked world can be a foundation for great developments.  The key isn't what Global Direct Investment Solutions can do alone, but rather what the three networks of contacts can do together with our help.

The marketing people at PricewaterhouseCoopers came up with a clever tagline for their advertising in recent years - "Join Us - Together We Can Change The World".  Unfortunately, that vision was too limited, because the focus was really on what PwC professionals could do, at the expense of their clients, to work together to change the world.  

There is incredible talent within the global PwC organization, but there is also incredible talent at other professional services firms, including many which don't really compete directly, and could usefully collaborate to achieve better outcomes for their clients and society as a whole.  It was very sad, in this regard, to watch Arthur Andersen be destroyed last year, since that global organization had much to offer, despite obvious flaws.

That talent has now been scattered throughout other organizations.  The same is true of other talented people, both in business and the public service, who have had their careers disrupted unexpectedly.  The knowledge to improve our world is constantly being rearranged by the forces of the market as well as government intervention in the market.

The opportunity we see is for many professionals, across organizational and national boundaries, to work together with executives in all industries and countries, as well as economic development professionals in the public or private sector, to transform the world in which we live into a better one, recognizing that people in different cultures have different expectations and definitions of progress or priorities than ourselves.

As these professionals pursue their self-interests, they can literally change the world, as the PwC marketers perceived in their brand campaign a few years ago "Join Us - Together We Can Change The World".  Clever brand campaigns come and go, but the challenge of actually improving the world around us goes on, with many ways to contribute to it.

If you found this message and have read this far, thank you, and please remember that you are now just a few clicks away from some of the most talented and dedicated corporate and economic development professionals around the world, each committed to improving their local communities and the companies they serve through actions to make the flow of direct investment projects faster and more successful than ever.

That is just for starters.  We actually can change our world together, and I look forward to working with leading professionals to make it happen.

Bruce Donnelly

December 10, 2004

Fox River Country Day School

Elgin IL  (see Photo)

formerly known as :

Chicago Junior School

www.frcds.org

See also : Philanthropy section for other ideas

Ninety years ago, a successful immigrant businessman from Germany who worked in the Chicago Board of Trade met an early environmentalist and traveling philosopher.   Both shared faith-based values, and saw the need to create a better elementary education environment for the urban Chicago children of their time.   With few resources, they set out to do something practical together about it, bringing their interests and expertise together.

Despite challenges which included the school burning down completely, by 1923 they acquired a beautiful site in the Fox River Valley outside of Chicago, much of which is privately protected as a Natural Heritage Landmark because of a rare forest microenvironment of white cedars.

They went on to develop a remarkable school which has nearly 300 students today from pre-school through eighth grade.  Thousands of alumni can be grateful for the vision and commitment behind this school, and the dedicated people who do more than just work there.  They have created an environment in which children love to go to school, and receive more than just an education.  It isn't just another private school.

The basic mission statement is "... to educate the whole child through a values-based curriculum conducted in a home-like environment combining academic excellence with individual character development".

That simple statement hardly tells the story behind this unique school, and why we support it's good work.

Imagine what Chicago was like in the era of the Stockyards, the infamous race riots of 1919, the "Roaring Twenties", and the obvious plague of both gangsters and ethnic intolerance following World War I, plus the many challenges soon posed by the Great Depression and subsequent events.  As mentioned above, the school even burned down, but that still didn't stop the founders.

Fifteen years after the school was founded, and in spite of such an environment, the main school building was designed and finished during the height of the Great Depression in a very radical design for that time.  While Jane Addams earned a Nobel Prize in 1931 for her social work at Hull House in the Chicago of that era, this school quietly worked with people like her to make a difference in the lives of children who weren't destitute enough for the other organized charities, but still needed help. 

(Refer to the photo of the main school building)

John S. Van Bergen, an early admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright's work who had worked briefly in his Oak Park office, designed the school according to the ideas of the "Prairie School" movement.  He applied many design elements which are reminiscent of Wright's famous Taliesin home and studio, or the Robie House in Chicago and others built in the same era.  Seventy years later, the school building they created is still quite remarkable, even though this building and some less inspired ones obviously need changes. 

Indeed, the entire campus is remarkable as a reflection of the Prairie School movement, since John Van Bergen led the design of the campus into the 1950's.  He worked closely with environmental leaders such as landscape designer Jens Jensen, who helped create the Cook County Forest Preserve system and some of the designs of Chicago parks, reflecting a different vision of urban development in harmony with the natural environment so that more people would learn to value and preserve that natural heritage through constant exposure to it in their urban lives.  For more on Jens Jensen, look at www.jensjensen.org .  At Fox River Country Day School, the beautiful campus landscape did not happen by accident - it was an integral part of the vision for education of urban children in a homelike, natural setting.

Wright was not regarded favorably in the late 1920's in Chicago because of personal scandals and critics who thought his best work was behind him.  He had left his Oak Park practice and returned to set up at Taliesin.  It is therefore not surprising that there was no involvement in the design of this faith-based school by Wright.

It is remarkable, however, that the leaders of this small new school with limited resources would have recognized the vision behind the "organic" Prairie School approach to architecture and the integration of the natural environment with the built environment, and selected one of the more humble and talented leaders of that movement to design the school. 

Wright soon went on to prove his critics wrong through famous works such as Fallingwater and the S.C. Johnson & Sons office, and later the Guggenheim Museum, but those were all after this school was built.  While Wright went on to develop his personal fame, the school and John Van Bergen worked together quietly for almost 30 years to create a fairly remarkable legacy which benefited thousands of children.

At the time, other more "classical" architectural styles were popular, and the "modernist" movement for which the Chicago School of architects also became famous.  The founders demonstrated a remarkably foresighted vision of a completely different environment in which to educate children.  They challenged the conventional thinking of their time.  Their selection of the campus and the design choice reflected an attempt to integrate environmental sensitivity with elementary education and a commitment to preservation of our natural heritage long before it became fashionable.

Implementing a vision, one day at a time, despite the challenges

Think about the above in the context of this business.  How many corporations today, with vastly greater resources available for their projects, develop their own "built environment" and landscape with this sort of enduring vision?

Now imagine doing it during the Great Depression.  Bad timing after a boom?  No.  Dedicated people came together to accomplish something enduring, with creativity and resourcefulness, despite many unforeseen challenges.  Their dedication and commitment had a great impact.

They didn't just pick any adequate site in Chicago for their immediate needs, nor build just another private school.  They did it with vision.  They challenged the world of their time with a completely different concept of what an elementary education should be.  They found a way to make a real difference in many lives, and they did it.

It is a great example of what we would call "venture philanthropy" today, as business leaders apply great knowledge and thought to leverage a little money into a much better solution than simply throwing money at problems. It is also a good example of location selection and project design.  Ordinary people with limited resources came together as a team and made a remarkable difference.

Their focus on the needs of urban children, including the problems of ethnic and racial intolerance, preceded the efforts of larger charitable organizations by decades.  Starting with what they could affect directly, which initially involved only a handful of children, they steadily built the school into what is now a very successful little school attracting not only Chicago students, but also children from countries such as Korea. 

The student population is diverse, typically with 10 or more of the world's great religions represented among them, rather than just one.  The school attracts little attention or publicity, but has quietly gone about the business of trying to do the right thing for children for 90 years.

That is the sort of vision which we seek to support in our own area at the personal level, and also reflects the sort of creative approach to solving social needs which will drive any future philanthropic actions on our part.

We hope that participants in our work will be similarly supportive of creative solutions to the social needs which are found in their own communities.

Please consider support of Fox River Country Day School

The world needs institutions like this, which don't accept that the problems we see around us are inevitable and insoluble, or beyond our influence.  The daily challenges we face can be overcome.

Where others see only problems beyond our control, they see challenges and opportunities for everyone to demonstrate how basic values can be applied by ordinary people on a daily basis to have a positive impact not merely on their own lives, but on the lives of many others for generations.  Even on a small scale, when the school was first started with few students and very limited resources, the founders and subsequent leaders tried to have an impact on urban problems which could more easily have been dismissed as somebody else's problem.

This isn't just another little private school in the suburbs which could use some more money to fund overdue improvements to their own "built environment" and other aspects of the school.  Tucked away in the forest, they are quietly changing our world, one child at a time, every day.  Thousands of people drive past the school every day, and never even notice it is there.  They don't seek publicity for what they do.  They just quietly go about the task of trying to do the right thing each day.

Local knowledge exposes capabilities for good within any community which are otherwise easily overlooked by busy executives every day.  That is the business we are all in.  We find opportunities for progress, and ways to solve the challenges.  Direct investment projects transform local communities through the impact of the knowledge, resources, and actions among the three networks of professionals we serve.  If we help bring these three groups together more effectively to create successful projects, then the local community impact can be felt all over the world, as well as in the financial performance of the companies involved.

Since the school has many needs, we would encourage anyone who shares our interest in their work to contact the Headmaster, Development Office, or the Chairman of the Board as appropriate and consider financial or other contributions to the success of this unique school as it adapts to meet the challenges ahead in this century.

The fundamental values behind the school

Many people may find the "character building" qualities which the school promotes at all grade levels to be an interesting insight not only into the school, but in the enduring values behind it, regardless of faith or culture:

Charity - We care, we help others.

Cooperation - We work together to support each other.

Courtesy - We use good manners.

Creativity - We have our own ideas.

Good Judgment - We think before we act.

Gratitude - We appreciate.  We are thankful.

Honesty - We always tell the truth.

Humility - We are patient with others and ourselves.  We are gentle.

Reliability - We are dependable.  We are punctual.

Resourcefulness - We care for our natural world.  We solve problems.

Respect - We are kind, considerate, and thoughtful to ourselves and others.

Self-Control - We do what is right.  We choose to behave.