Business Un-Usual

Pushed by a global economic crisis and what many consider straightforward environmental plundering, we are all being challenged into building a new economic paradigm and redefining the concept of wealth.

Business as usual is now very unusual.

In crowded marketplaces we strive for uniqueness. Becoming one of a kind and practising a perspective that is broader and longer than our own immediate, short-term profits is the challenge we are facing both as individuals and as organizations.

According to the Stiglitz Report (2009) Gross National Income no longer weighs up the ability of a society to develop, we need to find a way to measure happiness.

Wealth therefore mutates. It is no longer defined by an abundance of assets and an accumulation of materials, labour, lands and technology to acquire economic growth. The 21^st Century concept of wealth has been enriched with the need to nurture human development and well-being.

A quest of the many, a privilege for the very few, luxury is still defined by the conquest of the unattainable, the permanent pursuit of beauty and preciousness. Nonetheless, it is challenging new horizons to seek renovated significance.

Objects no longer embody it. As the new paradigm is revealed, luxury ceases to be represented by having, or acquiring. The new luxury is built into the pleasure of experiencing, a fascination for living creatively and the privilege of knowing who you are and what you stand for.

Zest for life, creativity and ethics are, therefore, the formula to becoming one of a kind and a strategy towards building long-term brand loyalty.

Lilly Roth

Journalist and Strategic Communicator specializing in paradigm shift, Sustainable Strategic Management, Conflict and Crisis Management. She was Executive Director of Fundación Argentina Ciudadana, and Strategic Communications Manager for AVINA Foundation in Latin America. Previously she worked for Edelman PR Worldwide and has been contributing as a journalist for several Argentine magazines.

For the last decade she has been collaborating with non-profit organizations all over Latin America in building bridges with both the private and the public sector and developing together sustainable communications strategies.

Lilly Roth was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1961.