Because Without Me You Can Do Nothing

Imagine a branch cut off from the vine. It has no future, no hope; it is unproductive and there is nothing for it to do but dry up and be burned.

Think of the spiritual death we are destined for as Christians if we do not stay united to Christ. It is a frightening thought! It is complete sterility even if we work hard from morning till night, even if we think we are doing good things for humanity, even if our friends applaud us, even if our earthly goods increase, even if we make considerable sacrifices. All this may mean something to us here on earth, but it has no meaning for Christ and for eternity, and that is the life that really matters.

How can we remain in Christ and Christ remain in us? How can we be green and vigorous branches that are fully united to the vine? We should, first of all, believe in Christ. But that is not enough. Our faith should influence how we live our lives. We should, in other words, live in conformity with this faith by putting the words of Jesus into practice.

Thus we cannot neglect the divine means (such as the sacraments) that Christ has left us, the means that make it possible for us to reach unity with him, and to regain it if we have lost it.

Moreover, Christ will not feel that we are solidly united to Him unless we make the effort to be part of our ecclesial community, our local church.

“Whoever remains in me and I in him…”

Do you see how Jesus speaks not only of our unity with Him but also of His unity with us? If you are united to Him, He is in you. He is present in the innermost part of your heart. And from this comes a rapport, a dialogue of mutual love, a relationship of cooperation between Jesus and you, His disciple. And this is the result: you will bear much fruit, just as the branch that is solidly united to the vine bears grapes in abundance.

“… will bear much fruit” means that your life will be a fruitful witness to others. You will be blessed with the ability to open the eyes of many to the unique, revolutionary words of Christ, and to give them the strength to follow these words. It also means that in accordance with the gifts God has given you, you will be able to foster and even initiate projects to alleviate some of the sufferings of humanity.

“… will bear much fruit” means fruit in abundance, and this could mean that you will be able to create among those around you an atmosphere of goodness, of mutual love, of true communion.

But to “bear much fruit” does not only mean the spiritual and material well-being of others, but your own as well. Your spiritual growth, as well as your personal sanctification depend on your being united to Christ.

Sanctification? Perhaps, in these times of ours, to speak of sanctification may seem anachronistic, pointless, utopian. But it is not. These present times will pass and, with them, all such short-sighted and erroneous views. What will remain is the truth. Two thousand years ago, Paul the Apostle said clearly that sanctification is God’s will for all Christians. Teresa of Avila, a doctor of the Church, was certain that everyone can reach the highest contemplation. And the Second Vatican Council declared that all the faithful are called to holiness.

These are reliable voices. Work then so that you, too, may gather the “fruit” of holiness that you can do only if you are united to Christ.

Have you noticed how Jesus is not concerned with the fruit directly, but looks at it only as a result of our remaining united to Him?

It might be that some fall into the error of many Christians who believe only in activism and more activism, projects and more projects for the good of others, without taking the time to ask themselves whether they are fully united to Christ. This is a mistake. They think they are bearing fruit, but it is far less than what Christ in them and with them could bear.

If we want to bear fruit that will last and that will have the mark of something divine, we must remain united to Christ; and the more we remain united to Christ, the more fruit we will bear.

The very verb “remains” used in this sentence gives you an idea that this bearing fruit, is not a momentary but rather a permanent condition.

If you know people who lives this way, you will see, in fact, how even a smile, a word, a simple everyday gesture, an attitude in a given situation enables them to touch other people’s hearts even to the point of leading them back to God.

This is the way it was with the saints. But even if we are not saints, we should not get discouraged. All Christians are capable of bearing fruit. Let me tell you a story.

You know that students today can be so highly politized that little room is left for those who would like to be useful to humanity, but for other reasons.

It happened that way in Portugal. Maria do Socorro had just started college in a very tense environment. Many of the other students were involved in political disputes, each according to his or her own ideology, each trying to win over the students who had not joined any group yet.

Maria knew what she wanted to do, even though it was not easy to explain her whole strategy to her friends. She wanted to follow Christ and to remain united to Him. Her companions, however, who knew nothing of her ideas, labeled her wishy-washy, a girl without ideals. At times she felt awkward when they saw her to go to church, but she went just the same because she felt she had to remain united to Jesus.

As Christmas approached, Maria learned that some of the students could not go home because they lived too far away. She suggested that the other students get together and give them presents. To her great surprise all the students agreed right away.

Later, when there were school elections, another big surprise awaited her: she was elected as representative of her class. Her amazement was even greater, however, when her friends told her that it was only logical that she should have been elected, since she was the only one who followed a precise line of conduct. “You know what you want,” they said, “and how to go aboutaccomplishing it.” Now some of them want to find out more about the ideal of her life and to live it with her.

This is the fruit of Maria do Socorro’s peresevarence in remaining united to Jesus.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

By: Chiara Lubich

The Word of Life, a sentence of Scripture, is offered monthly as a guide and inspiration for daily life. Its translation into 90 different languages and dialects reaches several million people worldwide, through print, radio, TV and the internet. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each “Word of Life,” and after her death on March 14, 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to primarily Catholic audience, was originally published in January 1979.

If you would like to read experiences of life related to this or to past “Word of Life,” they can be found in Living City, the monthly magazine for the Focolare Movement (in print or online) or in books published by New City Press. Visit the website: www.livingcitymagazine.com; www.newcitypress.com. Visit the international website: www.focolare.org. You can subscribe to Living City magazine by writing to: Focolare Movement, P.O. Box 69523, 5845 Yonge St., Willowdale, ON M2M 4K3.

Being Resilient Will Get Us Through

The source of the following writing is from Dr. Joseph Levy at Therapeutic Recreation Department and Centre for Health and Community Networks of Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia.

We have been reading, listening, and experiencing either directly or indirectly the global and local impact of the recent financial crisis.

However, while trillions of dollars are being lost, moved around, hidden, and re-invested, there is also a human side to this financial crisis.

One of the national newspapers stated that a 45-year-old VP from a major US corporation lost over 75% of his lifetime investments and savings. He had to give up his membership at the local country club and sell his yacht. His condos in Mexico, the Barbados, and Switzerland were repossessed. He, his wife, and his three college-enrolled children had to move from their mansion into a more modest 4-bedroom home without “servant’s quarters.” They had to give up their 25% ownership in a private plane they used for business and pleasure. I could carry on and on about the financial setbacks experienced by this family, but the real tragedy is yet to come.

While the VP’s salary and annual bonuses were slashed, he did not lose his job; he still had a house to return at night; his family was still able to live comfortably, albeit more modestly. Millions of people around the world have lost everything as a result of this global financial crisis and are far worse off than the VP in this story.

One week after the VP and his family moved into their modest home, the 45-year-old father of three children, married for 20 years to a very supportive wife, was found dead from a self-inflicted gun shot to the head while his family was out shopping.

A suicide note left by the distraught man explained that his financial loss made him feel like a “loser” whose self-identity, self-respect and self-image had been destroyed by his poor financial investments. What can we learn from this tragedy and the decisions made by other people also faced with similar if not worse personal crises?

Obviously, there are millions of people around the globe who have not committed suicide or resorted to other drastic self-destructive behaviours. What leads one person in a crisis to commit suicide and another to persevere and move on with life? In the health business it’s called RESILIENCE. What is resilience? What are the characteristics of resilient people? Over the past 40 years, as a teacher, therapist, researcher, and health planning consultant Dr. Joseph Levy has studied the characteristics of resilient people in order to help other develop resilient values, beliefs, and skills. You can learn to be more resilient, but many people need professional help.

What is Resilience?

The way we experience human life – bad or good – is fundamentally shaped by what happens in the inner sanctum or “core beliefs” (core muscles!). When events become overwhelming, when you want to throw in the towel, when adrenalin surges and you want to destroy the opponent or yourself, when things that should go right go wrong, when life keeps handing you lemons and losers, RESILIENCE emerges.

For many people through the centuries, the capacity to find the wherewithal, determination, and reason to cope despite the odds and more often than not, to find ways to see the light at the end of the tunnel, is something that has now been clinically and scientifically validated. For these resilient people, as the song from Annie goes, “The sun will come out tomorrow!”

Here is a short list of the qualities of the attitudes of resilient people:

1. Raison d’etre (Reason for living)

Resilient people have developed over the years a “purpose for living.” As they say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” This purpose can be to care for your family, make the world a safer place, or keep your community clean and safe. This purpose has to be of a “higher order” other than to make yourself happy. This purpose has to be “outer” directed and aimed at serving a larger good in life. Religious people who have a sense of purpose tied to a higher cause in life have the lowest suicide rates across all income, cultural, and social classes.

2. Positive and Negative Mental Attitude

Resilient people are “approach oriented.” Life, including crises and problems are seen as opportunities. When life hands you lemons, learn to make lemon smoothies. Resilient people have a very wide comfort zone for interpreting life as a problem. Less resilient people quickly find problems in life, whereas more resilient people have a way of not seeing crises as overwhelming problems.

3. Incremental Success

Resilient people don’t use a highway truck scale to weigh a baby. They recognize and build from small successes while learning from setbacks. Instant success does not give you the good foundation to build on your resilience.

4. New Goal Setting After Failure

“If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.” Resilient people believe that, “failure teaches you how not to do things.” Resilient people accept that they cannot always change the world but that they can always change themselves and that will be the beginning of change in the world.

5. Faith – The Gaia Principle

The natural order of the world is made up of love, peace, harmony, structure, predictability, and certainty. When we affirm our personal worth through these naturally occurring phenomena, then we can confirm our universal existence. Highly resilient people have always felt a sense of connection to the world. Their self-worth, self-identity, and meaning in life can never be taken from them since they are connected to the higher powers in the universe. The same powers that make the sun rise and set and also give us birth, death, and the seasons.

As long as you can feel connected to Mother Earth and all the other mysteries of life, you will never feel disconnected and lonely, no matter how much money you have lost on the stock market or in real estate.

Dr. Victor E. Frankl, the concentration camp survivor who wrote the book Man’s Search for Meaning, stated his resilient philosophy that kept him alive. The criminals running the camps could physically torture him, but they could never take away his human dignity, self-respect, and hope for the future. Frankl poignantly wrote, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember that men and women who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man or a woman, but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way… Fundamentally, therefore, any man, even under such circumstances, decides what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.”

It is never too early or too late to become a more resilient person. I witness that the older people get, the more they rely on their resilience to get them through the crises of life. And at the end of each crisis, they move to a higher plateau of coping, resilience, and mental health. We all need to see a crisis as an “opportunity” to make ourselves better and to improve the world.

Give the Gift You Have Received as a Gift

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10)

Edith, a young woman from Sardinia who has been blind from birth, lives in an institution for the blind. One day, the chaplain became paralyzed and could no longer celebrate Mass. Because of this, it was decided that the Eucharist could no longer be kept in the chapel. When Edith heard about this, she asked the bishop to let them keep the Eucharist, for it was the only light in their dark world. He granted her request and also gave her permission to distribute communion to the chaplain and the other residents.

In her desire to help others, Edith also took on the responsibility of preparing a radio program that is broadcast a few hours every week. She uses this program to share the best that she has to offer; advice, sound thinking and the explanation of moral issues to those who are suffering in order to give them strength. And there is much more that could be said about Edith. Although she is blind, her suffering has given her light.

I could give you other examples as well. There is goodness in the world that often goes unnoticed. Edith lives out her Christianity: she knows that each of us has received gifts from God and she has put hers at the service of others.

Yes, because the word “gift,” or “charism,” does not refer only to those graces that God gives to those who govern His Church. Nor does it refer only to those extraordinary gifts that God gives directly to individual Christians for the good of all when they are needed to solve a particular problem in the Church, or in times of serious danger when the existing institutions are not sufficient. Such gifts include wisdom, knowledge, the power to work miracles, the gift of tongues, the charism to generate a new spirituality in the Church, and so on.

These, moreover, are not the only gifts or cahrisms. There are other, more ordinary ones that many people possess and that are noticeable because of the good they bring about. The Holy Spirit is always at work. Furthermore, natural talents can also be considered as gifts or charisms. Everyone, therefore, is gifted. You, too.

How should you use your gifts? Try to make them bear fruit. They were not given to you for your own benefit alone but, rather, for the good of all.

There is a great variety of gifts. Since each person has his or her own gifts, each one also has a specific role to fulfill in the community.

Tell me, what gifts do you have? Do you have a degree? Did you ever think, for instance, of setting aside a few hours each week to teach those who need help, those who cannot afford to pay for their studies?

Are you a generous person? Did you ever think of getting together with other people of good will in order to help the poor and the outcasts of society? By doing this, you could restore a true sense of human dignity to many hearts…

Are you able to comfort others? Are you good at housekeeping, cooking, sewing or crafts? Look around to see who might need your help.

It’s painful to see how many people are bored because they don’t know what to do with their free time. We Christians do not have free time not as long as on this earth there are the sick, the hungry, the imprisoned, the ignorant, the uncertain, the unhappy, the addicted, the physically challenged, the orphaned, the widowed.

And think of prayer. It is such a powerful gift that we can use at any time, since in every moment we can turn to God who is present everywhere.

Can you imagine what the Church would be like if all Christians, children as well as adults, shared with others the graces they have received? Their mutual love would become so real, so abundant and so striking that non-Christians would be able to recognize them as true disciples of Christ.

For an outcome such as that, don’t you think you ought to do all you can to bring it about?

By: Chiara Lubich

The Word of Life, a sentence of Scripture, is offered monthly as a guide and inspiration for daily life. Its translation into 90 different languages and dialects reaches several million people worldwide, through print, radio, TV and the internet. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each “Word of Life,” and after her death on March 14, 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to primarily Catholic audience, was originally published in January 1979.

If you would like to read experiences of life related to this or to past “Word of Life,” they can be found in Living City, the monthly magazine for the Focolare Movement (in print or online) or in books published by New City Press. Visit the website: www.livingcitymagazine.com; www.newcitypress.com. Visit the international website: www.focolare.org.  You can subscribe to Living City magazine by writing to: Focolare Movement, P.O. Box 69523, 5845 Yonge St., Willowdale, ON M2M 4K3.

Therefore, Stay Awake!

Have you noticed how often your life just drags on because you are not living it fully but are waiting for “tomorrow,” hoping it will bring something “beautiful?”

There is, indeed, a “beautiful tomorrow” in store for you, but it is not the one you expect. A God-given instinct leads you to look forward to something or someone that will be able to satisfy you. You look forward to a holiday celebration, a vacation, or some special encounter, but then when everything is over you are not satisfied, or not fully satisfied and you start the routine of your life again without conviction, always looking forward to something else.

The truth is that among the many realities of life there is one that no one, including you, can escape: the face-to-face meeting with the Lord who is coming. This is the “beautiful tomorrow” you are unconsciously looking for, because you are made for happiness, and only He can give you complete happiness.

Jesus knows how you and I search for happiness blindly, that is why He warns us: “Therefore stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

Be vigilant. Be alert. Stay awake. For although there are many things that you can have doubts on earth, there is one thing that is certain: some day you will die. For a Christian, this means to meet Christ who is coming.

Perhaps, like many others, you try to forget about death. You fear that moment and lives as if it was never going to come. Rooting yourself more and more in this earthly life, you say, “Death frightens me; therefore it doesn’t exist.” Yet that moment will come because Christ will certainly come.

“Therefore stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

With these words, Jesus is speaking of his coming on the last day. Just as He was lifted up into heaven from among the apostles, so will He return.

But these words also refer to the coming of the Lord at the end of each person’s life. After all, when a person dies, for him or her it is the end of the world.

Since you don’t know if Christ will come today, tomorrow, or in years, you have to be vigilant. You have to be like those who keep watch because they know a thief is coming but don’t know the hour.

If Jesus is coming, then this life is a passing thing. But that does not mean that you should undervalue it. On the contrary, you should give it the highest importance. You should prepare yourself for that encounter with Him by living a worthy life.

You certainly have to be vigilant. Your life is not merely a peaceful chain of events; it is also a struggle. And a wide variety of temptations, such as those regarding sexuality, vanity, attachment to money, and violence, are your main enemies. If you are always vigilant you won’t be taken by surprise.

Those who love are always vigilant. Vigilance is a characteristic of love.

When you love someone you are constantly watching and waiting for him or her to come. Every moment away from the one you love is spent with him or her in mind.

For instance, a wife whose husband is away thinks of him as she goes about her work or as she prepares something for him. Everything is done with him in mind. Consequently, when he arrives at the end of the day she is overjoyed to see him.

Similarly, when a mother is caring for a sick child her thoughts are with him even as she rests.

In the same way, a person who loves Jesus does everything with Him in mind, encountering Him in the simple expressions of His will in every moment, and preparing for that solemn encounter with Him on the day when He comes.

Consider what happened on November 3, 1974. At Santa Maria in southern Brazil a religious convention for 250 young people had just ended. Most of them had come from the city of Pelotas.

The first chartered bus left with forty-five people who were joyfully singing. As they were travelling, some of the girls started to pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, asking Our Lady to help them to be faithful to God to the end of their lives.

A short time later, the brakes failed and the bus went out of control around a curve, turning over three times as it fell a hundred and fifty feet. Six girls died. One who survived said, “I saw death but I was not afraid because God was there.” Another one said, “When I realized I could move, I knelt in the midst of the debris among the bodies of my friends, and I looked at the starry sky and prayed. God was there with us.” The father of Carmen Regina, one of the girls who died, said that she used to say: “Dying is a beautiful thing, Papa, because you go to be with Jesus.”

“Therefore stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42)

The girls from Pelotas were watching because they were loving, and when the Lord came, they went to meet Him with joy.

By: Chiara Lubich

The Word of Life, a sentence of Scripture, is offered monthly as a guide and inspiration for daily life. Its translation into 90 different languages and dialects reaches several million people worldwide, through print, radio, TV and the internet. From the Focolare’s beginnings, Chiara Lubich wrote her commentaries on each “Word of Life,” and after her death on March 14, 2008, her early writings are now being featured once again. This commentary, addressed to primarily Catholic audience, was originally published in January 1979.

If you would like to read experiences of life related to this or to past “Word of Life,” they can be found in Living City, the monthly magazine for the Focolare Movement (in print or online) or in books published by New City Press. Visit the website: www.livingcitymagazine.com; www.newcitypress.com. Visit the international website: www.focolare.org.  You can subscribe to Living City magazine by writing to: Focolare Movement, P.O. Box 69523, 5845 Yonge St., Willowdale, ON M2M 4K3.

 

Difference in Perception

I got this story from a friend – to illustrate about how things turn out because of difference in perception.

On his death bed a father gave his last message to his wife for his two sons:

• First: don’t ever press for payment of someone’s debt to you
• Second: don’t let the sunray shines upon your face when you go to work

The time has passed by… Couple years after their father died, the eldest has gotten richer but the youngest has gotten poorer.

One day the mother asked about this to the sons.

The poor youngest son said:

”It happened because I did what father asked me to do. Father ordered me not to collect the debt from those that owed me money. It reduced my capital because the people who owed me money didn’t pay their debt to me and I can’t press them for payments.”

“He also ordered me not to let the sun shines upon me every time I go to or return from work to my house. So, I have to take becak or andong whereas in fact I can walk. Then just because I want to follow my father’s last message my expense for this has eaten my saving too.“

The mother also asked the eldest the same question.

The rich eldest son said:

”It all happened because I have followed my father’s last message. Father ordered me not to collect the debt from those that owed my money, so I never lend my money, and it doesn’t reduce my capital.”

”My father also ordered me not to let the sunray shines upon me whenever I go to or return from work. Everyday I go to my shop before the sun rises and go home after the sun sets. So, my shop becomes the only shop that opens before all other shops in the neighborhood open and closes after all other shops in the neighborhood have closed.”

”Due to this routine, people know that my shop operates longer than any shops in the neighborhood and it makes my shop very popular and boost my sales.”

The moral of the story:

An order or command can be perceived differently. If we have positive attitude we tend to look through things positively, open-mindedly – we can see that any obstacles are actually a path that leads to our success. Yet,.. we can wander aimlessly if we just follow order or command without using our own reasonable judgment – things that may lead to failure. The choice is yours.

Try to do ordinary things extraordinary well.

Saat Topan Badai Menerjang

Resesi merupakan hal yang banyak menghancurkan perusahaan. Namun ada hal yang disadari oleh sedikit orang, yakni bahwa terkadang resesi menawarkan kesempatan langka untuk meningkatkan kinerjanya – kita dapat mendulang emas saat topan resesi menyerang.

Sebuah contoh kasus: Jaringan toko obat Walgreens. Di tengah resesi, perusahaan tersebut berfokus pada pengembangan bisnis obat generik. Pendapatan dan penjualan dalam kuartal ke-4 di tahun 2001 meningkat sebanyak 10,7% jika dibandingan dengan kinerja di kuartal yang sama pada tahun sebelumnya. Walgreens tidak hanya merebut pangsa pasar dari kompetitornya, namun mereka juga berhasil membuka lebih dari 400 gerai baru.

Sebuah studi yang dilakukan oleh Bain & Company mendapati bahwa jumlah perusahaan yang berkembang dari posisi belakang hingga berada dalam posisi memimpin adalah dua kali lebih banyak di masa resesi ketimbang pada situasi ekonomi yang tenang. Hasil dari studi ini, yang menganalisa lebih dari 700 perusahaan dalam periode enam tahun, memberikan wawasan mengenai bagaimana perusahaan dapat mengambil manfaat dari kemunduran yang terjadi. Pertama-tama, mari kita lihat dampak strategis dari sebuah resesi.

Resesi ‘Menggoncangkan’ Lebih Dari Bom Waktu

Studi yang dilakukan Bain mendapati lebih dari sepertiga perusahaan yang tadinya berada dalam posisi terbawah melompat ke posisi-posisi teratas. Sementara itu, lebih dari seperlima dari keseluruhan leading organizations – mereka yang menduduki posisi atas ditinjau dari segi finansial dalm industri tersebut – merosot ke peringkat terbawah. Hanya ada setengah dari sekian banyak perusahaan yang mengalami peningkatan atau penurunan dramatis seperti itu pada masa-masa sebelum atau setelah resesi.

Arrow Electronics yang berpusat di Melville, New York, memberikan contoh langkah menyolok yang mereka ambil dalam masa-masa yang berat. Selama masa resesi pada akhir tahun 1980-an, distributor komponen elektronik dan produk-produk komputer yang mengalami masalah finansial tersebut meluncurkan sejumlah langkah cerdik dan berani yang memungkinkan mereka meningkatkan penjualan hingga lebih dari 500%, yang membuat mereka melampaui pemimpin pasar di industri tersebut, Avnet, yang berpusat di Phoenix, Arizona, yang dulunya merupakan perusahaan yang dua kali lebih besar ketimbang Arrow.

Peningkatan atau Penurunan yang Diperoleh Selama Masa Resesi Cenderung Bertahan

Dari sekian banyak firma yang menghasilkan revenue atau laba besar sepanjang resesi di tahun 1990 hingga 1991, lebih dari 70% perusahaan tersebut tetap mendapat laba yang tinggi di masa-masa selanjutnya. Di sisi lain, hanya ada kurang dari 30% perusahaan yang mengalami kemunduran di masa tersebut yang berhasil mengembalikan posisinya ke level semula.

Penemuan ini menunjukkan bahwa resesi bukanlah ”pelambat” semata karena mereka merupakan salah satu kesempatan untuk menempa kinerja perusahaan. Saat-saat yang berat akan membuka kekuatan dan kelemahan kita, dan sejumlah kesempatan strategis untuk melakukan kesepakatan atau untuk mengambil keuntungan dari para pemain yang lebih lemah atau lebih lambat dalam melakukan peningkatan di masa-masa resesi tersebut.

Ketahuilah Titik Awal Anda

Kesalahan terbesar pada masa resesi terakhir dilakukan oleh beberapa perusahaan yang tidak memahami titik awal mereka dan melakukan investasi yang tidak seharusnya mereka lakukan. Contohnya: Borden Milk Products (Dallas), yang melakukan diversifikasi dari industri utama mereka di bidang produk-produk susu sehingga mengakibatkan mereka tidak lagi menguasai pasaran tersebut.

Perusahaan-perusahaan yang berhasil akan melakukan beberapa diagnosa internal maupun eksternal dengan hati-hati saat kemerosotan mulai menghadang. Mereka melakukan identifikasi kekuatan kunci dan kelemahan mereka, sekaligus mengembangkan definisi dasar akan strategi dan bisnis utama mereka. Hal ini akan memberikan ukuran yang dapat diandalkan untuk menciptakan berbagai pilihan strategi baru di masa mendatang.

Jagalah Disiplin Strategis

Apabila data mengatakan bahwa bisnis dasar Anda masih lemah, jangan mencoba berinvestasi selama kemunduran hingga Anda berhasil menyelesaikan masalah tersebut. Selama masa resesi terakhir, Mattel tetap memegang sebuah gambar yang jelas mengenai apa yang dibutuhkan oleh bisnis mereka. Dari situlah Mattel dapat mengurangi kapasitas, biaya dan memfokus-ulangkan sumber daya manajemen dan produksi ke dalam dua brand utama mereka: Barbie dan Hot Wheels. Merekapun ”menguji” kerjasama strategis yang mereka lakukan dengan Disney.

Dengan memperhatikan bisnis inti mereka, Mattel tetap berkembang sekalipun banyak pergolakan yang terjadi. Faktanya, penjualan mereka meningkat hingga mereka melipat-gandakan ”digit” penjualan yang dilakukan selama masa keberhasilan setelah resesi tersebut.

Segera Perbaiki Apa yang Salah

Perusahaan-perusahaan yang mengalami penurunan pendapatan selama masa resesi tahun 1990 hingga 1991 menunjukkan respons yang umum: reaksi yang berlebihan, yang diikuti dengan ”jalan di tempat” bahkan ketika tantangan yang lebih hebat menghadang.

Apa yang dapat kita pelajari disini? Jika strategi Anda tidak menunjukkan hasil, Anda harus meninjau kembali strategi tersebut. Jangan berharap strategi tersebut akan menghasilkan dividen hanya karena ekonomi kembali pulih.

Oleh: Sarabjit Singh Baveja, Steve Ellis, Darrell K. Rigby (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2008)

Best wishes from the President of Rights & Democracy

On December 10, the world celebrated the 60^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The landmark anniversary of this historic document gave us all cause for reflection; despite the significant advances in human rights over the last half century, violations continue to occur on a large scale.

Rights & Democracy also celebrated its 20^th anniversary on December 10^th by awarding its annual John Humphrey Freedom Award in honour of the Canadian jurist who wrote the first draft of the Declaration. This year, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights were honoured for their courageous efforts to bring about justice and democracy in their troubled land.

I invite you to visit the 20^th anniversary brochure which presents our successes and continuing efforts in countries such as Zimbabwe and over 30 others around the world, including a number of special initiatives we have led since our establishment in 1988.

Our struggle for democracy and human rights will continue as Rights & Democracy embarks on a new chapter in its history of promoting the universal values of human rights and democracy on behalf of Canadians.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our dedicated employees and Board members in Canada and overseas, our partners in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia, as well as all our supporters and collaborators at home.

Best wishes to all for the holiday season, and we look forward to continuing our work together in 2009 and beyond.

Rémy M. Beauregard