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The Natural Advantage
After a long career in marketing and management with top U.K. and international companies, Alan Heeks (MBA 1976) turned over a new leaf in 1990. He set up the Wessex Foundation, an educational charity whose centerpiece is Magdalen Farm, which consists of a residential center and 132-acre organic farm in Dorset, England. As he worked the property, Heeks realized that principles of sustainable development and sound organic farming could be applied to the successful management of an organization, according to an article in The Grocer (January 6, 2001), Britain’s leading retail publication.
One result is Heeks’s new book, The Natural Advantage, which lays out seven organic farming-derived principles that visiting executives learn during stays at Magdalen Farm. Lessons include the importance of drawing energy from “clean sources,” such as appreciation and inspiration, rather than from “polluting” pressures such as stress and fear. Problems should be “composted” — by turning negative feelings into constructive output, “waste” becomes a source of future growth.
“It’s already obvious that the natural environment won’t support continued economic growth without radical change in our use of it,” Heeks said, “and the same is true for human resources.”
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