by Arnaud Segla | Feb 24, 2018 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
Africa today has one billion people. The growth rate of many countries remains high or is improving to a point where it attracts many investors. The population is young and has more and more access to education and information. The threshold paradox of poverty which is currently rampant due to the long tradition of inequality divided within the distribution of the outcomes of countries’ economies which shows the impact of the political priorities on global strategies on development and change. Despite these contrasting indicators, Africa remains a region where the business potential is invaluable both by the quality and the number of initiatives to seize.
The continent has longed been finger pointed because of the lack of rigorous management notably the number of fund detours and other abuse. However, the continent is experiencing a new guided renaissance by a generation of people which the reality and the competencies offer the possibility for improvement and the reduction of waste in the political, economical and social structure.
Several tools from learning beyond limits can be revealed for the implementation of strategies of affirmation as it seems that in a liberalized market, the development is not enough. We have to be efficient, effective and competitive no matter its resources and capital. Among its tools, low cost companies and crowdfunding (financing realized by a number of small investors who are participative actors) adapted and associated to domestic practices which can give birth to hybrid and competitive entities. Being open minded is more than recommended. Here again, rather than planned development, the agile philosophie used by ‘dynamic strategies’, to create the useful applications for the African renaissance. Remember, the statement goes further than the simple catch-up of underdevelopment. We have to define also or to highlight the ‘Lean intention’ that should accompany any company that is part of the nascent movement that must be printed in the minds of the new players on the continent. The effort of change and affirmation is substantial out of conditioning of dependence and condescension that have long been an obstacle to the natural growth of a rich civilization.
The first mechanism that can be leveraged is the formation of low-cost companies that respects our economic level. After the splendor of national companies of the post-independence era of the formerly colonized countries, it is time for the simplicity and the efficiency of the structures which are concerned with the profitability for a large mass of individuals in place of the interests barely veiled of a wealthy minority. Financed by popular and community savings under the crowdfunding model, they find a fresh source of useful capital where assets can be converted into tangible ownings for investors or in the form of loans repayable at the end of a cycle of economic initiative (by project or other) to create wealth. It is not a retirement savings but a regular investment in an economic initiative. Alternative to the direct bank credit reserved for elaborate projects and the micro credit at high interest rate, this common investment fund united by popular savings can be put directly at the disposal to entrepreneurs also gathered in community for a use of having right proportional to the participatory amount subscribed on the model this time of the “tontine”, commonly practiced on the continent. The asset capital of these popular savings funds, based on safe stocks (real estate, business share of the classical economy, metal prices, etc.) collected by integrated communities, can also be used as classical bank loans which depending on the projects are cyclical (as a function of the projects) to members of the entrepreneurial community with banks, and this leverage could help to give life to an ethical credit system where interest would not be inevitably practiced and the entrepreneurs would be responsible for their loans. The investor community acting as guarantors and not co-borrower with banking institutions. These new low cost African companies founded by poor assets or assets that are poor (depending) owned by small carriers in crowdfunding financing via reliable and honest operators defined within the framework of new economic structures would serve as an example for others structures around the world to replace publicly traded pension funds that are the source of many crises. This tangible investment is the investment of a community that constitutes a common heritage: assets for all.
The agile development of software or innovative products requires a necessary exit from the traditional framework of thought, a synergy between the actors and the mastery of a process based on several iterations and increments. Without changing the word, but from a socio-economic optic, the continent’s agile development could go through these parameters and trace new and unknown stages in the planning and predictions of the major financial institutions, the World Bank and the IMF. Agility in state management would allow for more flexibility in the allocation of resources to create wealth more effectively by selecting a portfolio of economic initiatives and then sharing revenue from these resources equitably to develop infrastructure (road network, energy, water etc.) and improve society (health, education, poverty). The political leader becomes the leader of a large company that wishes to release, in an efficient and enlightened manner, a product maximized each fiscal year. The point is to keep in mind the perpetual adaptation to the changing environments of the economy, the contexts of human consciousness and an evolving internal reference guide baptized at this level of evolution of “lean intention” or simple faith (in the sense of a simple attitude).
The “Lean intention” is the simple fact, lean intention, or fat-free intention of systematic, systemic thinking and theories and practices to produce quality. It is a pragmatism and an effective self-realization driven to a high level of accomplishment. It is a mix of truth of the ground (adaptation), lived experience (competence) and preparation for the unknown (contingency). A continuous conciliation of multiple spatial dimensions (length, width, height), temporal (past, future, present) human (body, mind, soul) and spiritual (haqq, sharia, taslim) combined. The lean intention is to get rid of its comforts of design and conditioned automatism to be able to react at all times to the environment (economic) while respecting one’s deep conviction (destiny of the company or even the country). It’s an agile vision of lean and a lean application of agility.
As we can see, the new challenges posed by the economy to the regions of the world and especially Africa call for a constant adaptation of tools, methods and know-how for a greater resonance with the evolution of consciousness and even more of the Creation.
by Arnaud Segla | Feb 24, 2018 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
The Ka Method is an informal alternative to the management of entrepreneurial projects through the structuring in composite administrative and economic units of revenue acquisition for the frequenting of the community. These units are called Ka. It uses the realism of intention vis-a-vis time through Lean, informal learning of the financial environment, and through the agility and adaptation to the market through Strategy. All of these contribute to enrich the results of intercultural management.
*The community economy maintains exchanges with the market economy through quality (zone of moderation)
by Arnaud Segla | Feb 24, 2018 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
It is not easy to exit marked paths of the economy and to bring to it a complementary spiritual reality in accordance with certain peoples living through faith and the informal. The circle of entrepreneurs are a lot more inclined to secularism that veils the differences. We believe that the positions taken towards a real spiritual tolerance on the grounds of business exercise are a distraction as they exit the comfort of established norms but we must however recognize that there is a well-founded aspect and need of this new attitude. What is appreciative is that this offers a unique alternative to the continent and its diaspora. A hope to see it one day affirm itself in the face of the power of large economic leading nation and their institutional dictates. Faith and the informal are the major human assets of the continent but we must discipline them to make good usage of them, to gain profit from their potential. It is precisely there, to affirm with intrinsic characteristics, on the global market.
We have been created with a natural propensity to faith. It inhabits us and we live it. It must have nobody but God as its unique recipient. But in what do we invest ourselves through this gift? For which cult, which idols to we make use of? This type of argument remains a thorn for economic sciences and management.
We must transcend our habits and rituals, and our cults and traditional rites, and put them in the service of the economy. We pass the light of our time to pray for prosperity in our lives and divine protection. We forget too often to associate them with frank and persevering efforts to obtain what we want. The prayer of our era is the daily effort to dominate in our sectors of activity. God needs faithful and performant servants to relay the action of its omnipotent hand in submitted intermediaries. The miracle cannot be a viable mode of construction for a civilization of Black blood and skin. That of the economically oppressed that want to once again be the master of their destiny in harmony with natural laws, cosmic and divine will.
The use of animist science is too often led to idolatry, towards false entities that give an ephemeral goodness and conditions always assorted of an insatiable and unstable counterpart. Those that dedicate this cult must go farther than the crazy simple magic practices for the community. Animist belief is rich and profound. It must permit us to rise again and work for our growth. The only cult that is worth the pain is the one addressed to God, unique in a sincere submission. Animist belief and traditional practices must be transmuted towards a profane referential to help the masses and to leave the esoteric context to only the voluntary insiders. We have a mine of natural growth in us and throughout our culture. It has been often condemned as it has been misunderstood. It is time to give it a last chance to prove to the world its capacity to generate riches in a profane way and without evil spells and obscure practices.
The basic principle is simple: in an analogy between economy and animism, the prayer of the believing economic actor, represented by its efforts, accompanies the ritual sacrifice of its offering, that is the completed project, to obtain from the secondary gods or the genie, what constitutes the client that we link through a contract, liberation in exchange for the useful vital force of the believing economic actor, symbolized by monetary value (money), and to therefore maintain cosmic equilibrium, which represent liberalized exchanges. It is important to make efforts in the community as a prayer of an economic rite.
It is therefore through profane use of our occult sciences for our economic growth. This permits us to have not only a knowledge of our proper theories through the advantage of conceptual proximity, but to also have the opportunity to be able to release the continent and the diaspora of its slump through our own efforts and prayers.
by Arnaud Segla | Feb 24, 2018 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
It is easy to joke with the disagreements of the Revelation and of speculations. We cannot reduce ourselves so much to the idea of illegitimately investing in its belief in the redemption of a people through inadequate theories. The subject can upset us but we must decide and make a clear and limpid idea that can reinforce faith and call to adhesion. Tolerance and truth must take precedence. It is a simple opening exercise of spirit and it is set in motion by the force of action of a continent.
This form of economy linked to spirituality seems out of place to be displayed in cities but it is the cement of societal success in countries in the process of emergence and affirmation. The faith of believers does not have any compelling indicators to put in the bulletin board to evaluate the economic performance of states. However, it resembles the useful motor of new economies that will choose to redefine their perspectives and to reposition themselves with regards to the classic economy.
In the embassies of cities, a lot of entrepreneurs of the continent come begging for the right to spend their money in the time of a short professional stay and to help turn the numbers of business tourism. Given that they pay dearly by getting up early to take their spot in line in the service of visas, in line in the service of the powerful nation that do not waste themselves to enumerate a list of restrictive documents. Liberalisation goes in one direction and few states have the courage to impose reciprocity as long as their economy needs the presence of investors on their soil. Whether they are like at home or even more: that the states themselves do not feel like they are at home anymore.
The Index of Human Development, Gross Domestic Product and several other indicators have long been taken into account to rank global economies. Faith and its link to tradition do not reflect themselves. However, a people that recognizes itself in its culture and traditions do not need to be under the influence or domination of other civilizations. This cultural satisfaction is to be maintained and its degradation shows the evil identity of the aforementioned people being extended as long as the people mutually influence themselves. However, the degree of borrowing to other cultures seems weak when the feeling of national pride and cultural belonging is profound and sincere. An index of eco-human consistency, to be defined, can show the respect of the human with regards to earth. This would also indicate the effective endogenous sovereignty of the people and not their economic dependency due to different historical conditions. The impact of this index on the economy will be to not link economic success to the simple production of goods and services but also to the maintenance of cultural and traditional identities, the preservation of nature (ecology and biodiversity) and of human heritage, as well as the efforts for the development of durable solutions in the creation of riches. One such ranking would upset a little bit the well-established pyramid by placing « emerging » countries and countries in affirmation in the lead peloton of the preservation of human and terrestrial heritage.
by Arnaud Segla | Feb 24, 2018 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
« Capitalism is an economic, social and political concept all at once that characterizes a system relying on the private property of means of production. Its definition gives place to variations in space and time, and in the function of political sensitivities of the people that employ the term. Elsewhere, one of its foundations is the accumulation of working capital through realizing profit. »
This consensual and illuminated definition from Wikipedia introduces us completely to formal logic, cold and quasi-deterministic that prevails in the means of mediation that represents the market. However, it does not come to mind to question a system that proves itself, nor to frontally oppose us to the principles that underlie its theories. Our purpose is to orient more towards the recall of drifts issued from the absence of the alternative model to the liberal economy. I say it often, the latter jumps alone since the disappearing of the Soviet bloc and knew to impose the globalization of exchanges, and now a form of economic oppression dictated from all angles by the imperatives of the stock market finance. Our way of life, that of the economic Man, neatly suffers the influence of the tenets of the System so that it does not leave any lives to burn missing. Therefore, without remitting too much the paradigms and stereotypes involved, we engage ourselves in a « rat race » towards a social influence made from an access to the property of goods and services through pre-traced and predefined paths. This double possession of the object by man, and also of man by the object, inexorably causes alienation when it is just not possible to opt for another source of satisfaction.
Fortunately, with the informal, it is the human being that is remitted to the centre of economic preoccupation. Not only through the strong link between the rituals of life and revenue levels, but also by the respect of the identity through pride and effort engaged in the production of goods and useful services. Here, the Attitude is the referential of mediation, exchange, and especially sharing. A mode that calls nothing more than to define real theory but also philosophies, taking into account the human nature that is put into context and evolving in generally critical environments. With the succession of financial crises, it is without a doubt towards tangible and stable values of the informal that the most audacious economists or friends of the Attitude Man give back to. It is not for nothing that the informal economy has known to guarantee at all times a social net to the lower classes in third-world countries as long as the governance of states remains tangled in the seated supreme imperialists. The answer to the Ka Method is this essential definition and initial to the community economy on the aforementioned model:
« Eco-animism is a philosophical, ideological and economic approach all at once that underlies an Attitude valuing the postage of material constraints to favor an identity and community accomplishment. Its application calls for adaptations according to diasporas and lower classes, or the identified utilities. The spearheads are the forms of simple, ethnic and informal entrepreneurship that assures generations of humans a satisfaction of a financial power transmissible through capital, capacities and qualities.»
by Arnaud Segla | Sep 28, 2017 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
The faith is the converging point of a work of reflection and economic conceptualization completed for a few years by a project team in Montreal. The goal is, not only, to permit “Believers” to open their horizons towards personal philosophy and God’s intimate adoration in accordance with their degree of spiritual elevation and also to permit “Profanes” (that we avoid to call “Atheists”) to rejoin them in the adoration of God through somewhat overused terms but less charged in pure religious connotations that tended to cool down some through excessive ostentation or sometimes bigotry (John 4:23). This upgrade at an equitable level of the “Believer” and the “Profane” can constitute a contribution to humanity since, without sweetening the rites and cults, it permits to simplify the proximity to God throughout the apprehension of manifestations of the Vital Force (energy of life) according to the knowledge of those that manipulate them best, that is, the Animists. The economy offers a new dimension for the introduction of a relationship to God, permitting to break the problem of poverty in the long term by therefore breaking, through philosophy, the dogmatic cross that separates the four elected spiritual families of God (Qur’an III, 33-34). It is therefore a step forward in the implementation of the eschatological table where the most knowledgeable prepare themselves. The nuances brought and the changes of operated perspectives by the project led by this team do not aim to only re-establish God’s adoration in His immanence and transcendence, to unveil the permanence of the Vital Force and to better be aware of the world’s impermanence. One of the most ambitious aspects is to experiment a mode of enrichment (which has become essential in our contemporary as an arms of affirmation in the worldwide, national or local concert) to the diasporas (ethnic entrepreneurship) and the “People of Endeavour”(informal entrepreneurship) regrouped in the category of economic migrants (in the framework of what we now call “the community economy”) to permit them to be respected in their identifying sensitivity and their choice of life ritual.
This project is an approach of informal management that, we have said, is a modeling attempt of an ensemble of practices coming from an economic attitude called “Correction” of target groups. The theoretical and doctrinal aspects come from an intense observational, meditational, analytical and dialectic effort relying on a spiritual framework. The practical aspects are subject to the trial and error of the team actual members of that will also call those of potential contributors to this approach. This, at the same time to aim for enrichment by winning markets but also by applying the Agile and Lean management rules to better justify that these models be maintained in the Think Tank. The results of this project therefore seek their welcoming public even if they nominally destine themselves to local, immigrant and informal workforces. Humbly, we do not lose hope that there will be a place for this job and that God in his Wisdom will guide us towards those who will see a solution to their economic problems, notably, critical financial situations. We do not believe in a System to battle another System. This transforms itself quickly into a chess match. The advantage of this project is that it plays on the economic attitude and returns the human to the centre of an economy exacerbated by the insatiable appetite of the homo oeconomicus. This therefore asks for a lot of learning for the contemporary human prototype, the homo animus, to also stop reacting in a way conditioned to the solicitations of the worldly environment. For example, the model of para-entrepreneurship that we propose and that we advocate, at large, a partial job, to pay the fixed charges of life all while developing an economic activity in parallel, to gain one’s financial independence, will permit to limit entrepreneurial risk and to assure a human accomplishment through promotional pride of a personal business project to those that are more and more smothered by the constraints of the professional world.
For us there are two pillars or legislations in the adoration of God on Earth and those are animism, that reviews towards the immanence of God (John 13:34) and Islam that accentuates the Transcendence of God (Qur’an CXII). That said, the premise of departure of the entirety of this project put under the form of several books of foundations and practical guides is that what unites “The Man of Dark Uniform and Blood”, needy and showing proof of denial, is its natural and spontaneous relationship with the divine. It is the reason of the presence of faith in our economic approach that aims to found the favorable and inevitable conditions of the return to equity in the division of riches where the corollaries are the disappearing of the perceptions of precariousness and poverty. This spiritual renewal must permit “Believers” and “Profanes” to use their identifying heart to elaborate commercial strategies close to the divine (eco logic?) through philosophy which takes into account the current maturity of humanity. Like every (re)discovery in a domain this sensitive, it is good to keep an open mind on theoretical statements, practical aspects and every constructive critic. This project that we wish to progressively present to you is called the Ka Method. It proposes to open the way to an informal economic trend: Eco animism. Stay tuned!
« Correction, Simplicity, Courage, Moderation. »
by Arnaud Segla | Sep 28, 2017 | Arnaud Segla Consultant, Economy, Management, Text
Since the more than symbolic loss of the twin towers and the subsequent crises, we have entered into a new phase of globalization. In an evolving cycle, we moved from a market economy to an economy of communities (including ethnic, regional, temporal, virtual …) with the specificity that they are more interconnected than in the past of concentrations. The current economic challenge of maintaining a minimum level of growth and ensuring a suitable rate of employment has required redefinition of alternative solutions for segments of the population with insufficient income; not necessarily low income. This nuance makes the difference! Indeed, this segment can be integrated into the economy. Through various initiatives and business projects geared towards ethnic groups, the relevance of this segment has been highlighted and must be part of the GDP. This information can lead many to wonder how it might impact them and how much interest they ought to be taking.
This alternative dynamic targets diaspora members living outside their birth countries particularly those in economically developed countries and native members of these countries wishing to initiate an informal way of doing business. Quebec is, as such, one of the largest ethnic communities (“nation”) in Canada and with the “visible minorities” (especially Black communities), it faces the same daunting challenge of economic claim based on my analysis. Aboriginal communities themselves being more inclined towards issues of sharing revenues from the exploitation of their lands or estates. Becoming an ethnic entrepreneur is a question of one’s financial environment or circumstances such as barriers to employment. Due to increasing migration for economic reasons, many are driven to follow this path.
The principle of solidarity between entrepreneurs can create a greater impact than the traditional view of competition in the community. Pairing economic structures is an attempt at regulating the imbalances brought about by globalization. With time we will see how to address interactions with those living in their native lands and who are more heavily involved in the informal economy.
Here is a simple example of a situation that will give you an idea of the relevance of this alternative dynamic with respect to your situation. You receive social assistance that is insufficient and face employment barriers perhaps due to an unsuitable professional profile. Aspiring for financial independence, you need time to consolidate your path of integration or social wellness. You have regular work, are temporarily constrained to your home or are looking to improve your income but taking on a second job is not possible. For some time you’ve asked yourself if you should not begin a simple business based on your strengths or a choice made with your heart and to pursue your regular activities at a later date if things should work out well for you. We must associate with this desire a realistic and professional approach to ensure the chances to thrive. Several tools are available to you even if we know that the important thing is rather mastering the elements of its business on the fingertips to reassure or convince a potential investor than to be always able to write a good business plan. Also, the informal economy is not the underground economy; you need to make a tax election at the end of this process by seeking advice from your accountant before you embark on ethnic entrepreneurship. Perhaps just start now!
