Marketing product
It's been a couple of months since my last post, and I'm running out of excuses for not writing more often.
The truth is that between not sleeping much as a parent, and the arduous weeks (or months) that I've been having at work, I rarely have the strength and clarity to write even a few lines.
With Sol, and also with Soledad, and with other people close to me, more than once we have talked about why ComIT never receives an award for their social work, or why we rarely have public recognitions, beyond appearing in the media more and more nowadays. And it's not that we need it, don't get me wrong, but the few times that we applied to one, such as the Sadosky Awards in Argentina, we have never won.
These days I read a story about a project mentioned during Facebook F8. The project trains women in IT, charges them 35,000 pesos for this, and helped 50 women throughout their history to join the IT market. They were named as one of the projects that do the most to integrate women into the IT labor market. ComIT has helped more than 200 women to join the IT labor market throughout its history (more than 600 people in total), without charging them anything.
I hate comparisons, and this analysis is not about competition but about understanding. More than 10 years ago I wrote that a leader receives its power by those he serves, and the manager receives the power from above. And these days we received several comments from people who are attending our programs who told us: "I'm here by recommendation of X. You are well known for the work you do and the results you achieve." That makes us proud and shows us which side we stand on.
Throughout the years, Sole and I made countless mistakes. We probably said the wrong things to the less indicated people. We always have spoken more than we should when we least should. But there is a truth: we have never done it for wrong reasons, but for raising the flag of our values and principles. And that in many occasions has made us be seen as people who work, who make things happen, but not people who are a good marketing product. We don't know how to shine other than by doing what we know how to do. We can not sell ourselves as something more than what we are. I would love to write columns for newspapers based on the values we promote but that does not sell. I mean, it doesn't sell in the media. It sells well to all those who really want to make an effort to change their lives, get a job, and achieve something to be proud of.
We are not good marketers of our work, and we may never be. Or maybe at some point those 600 people getting jobs will become 100,000 and it will be difficult to cover the sun with the finger. I don't know. But we'll always, believe me, be working in line with our values. And if on the road we make a mistake, it will not be to hurt anyone but to continue helping and building.
The truth is that between not sleeping much as a parent, and the arduous weeks (or months) that I've been having at work, I rarely have the strength and clarity to write even a few lines.
With Sol, and also with Soledad, and with other people close to me, more than once we have talked about why ComIT never receives an award for their social work, or why we rarely have public recognitions, beyond appearing in the media more and more nowadays. And it's not that we need it, don't get me wrong, but the few times that we applied to one, such as the Sadosky Awards in Argentina, we have never won.
These days I read a story about a project mentioned during Facebook F8. The project trains women in IT, charges them 35,000 pesos for this, and helped 50 women throughout their history to join the IT market. They were named as one of the projects that do the most to integrate women into the IT labor market. ComIT has helped more than 200 women to join the IT labor market throughout its history (more than 600 people in total), without charging them anything.
I hate comparisons, and this analysis is not about competition but about understanding. More than 10 years ago I wrote that a leader receives its power by those he serves, and the manager receives the power from above. And these days we received several comments from people who are attending our programs who told us: "I'm here by recommendation of X. You are well known for the work you do and the results you achieve." That makes us proud and shows us which side we stand on.
Throughout the years, Sole and I made countless mistakes. We probably said the wrong things to the less indicated people. We always have spoken more than we should when we least should. But there is a truth: we have never done it for wrong reasons, but for raising the flag of our values and principles. And that in many occasions has made us be seen as people who work, who make things happen, but not people who are a good marketing product. We don't know how to shine other than by doing what we know how to do. We can not sell ourselves as something more than what we are. I would love to write columns for newspapers based on the values we promote but that does not sell. I mean, it doesn't sell in the media. It sells well to all those who really want to make an effort to change their lives, get a job, and achieve something to be proud of.
We are not good marketers of our work, and we may never be. Or maybe at some point those 600 people getting jobs will become 100,000 and it will be difficult to cover the sun with the finger. I don't know. But we'll always, believe me, be working in line with our values. And if on the road we make a mistake, it will not be to hurt anyone but to continue helping and building.
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