Information As An Economic Power

There is a whole lot of talk nowadays about power, who has it, who wants it, who should have it. What you do not hear a lot about is what exactly power is and where it really comes from.

We believe that everybody in a free and capitalistic democracy should have it -- and we believe that one of the surest sources of it is knowledge.

Those who possess crucial information and the knowhow to put that information to use effectively will be heads and shoulders above those who do not -- and not because they are better or more deserving but simply because they have that knowledge.

The fact is that knowledge is and always has been the ultimate equalizer or advantage if you had it and others did not, and the ultimate granter of access to all that you could be. It's why monks slaved by candlelight to find and preserve the words of wisdom from the Greek and Roman empires almost lost forever during the Dark Ages by rewriting every word by hand. It's why the invention of the printing press, radio and TV and, ultimately, the internet on which you are reading this article changed the world.

Conversely, it's the reason why for centuries those who wanted to keep people down and out of power have tried to keep knowledge out of the hands of those they wanted to oppress. In the United States, for instance, during the era of slavery, slave codes actually made it illegal to teach slaves to read or write. Communist and oppressive regimes throughout the twentieth century routinely limited exposure of their citizens to information. And in current day Afghanistan, women are not even allowed to go to school. Obviously, knowledge is a tremendous tool for disempowering people, too.

Therefore, we on the Social Capital team advocate for the proliferation of more knowledge, more education and more voices added to the chorus of human evolution that we are all part of. Even better when you can figure out a way to make that knowledge the basis of your business because if capitalism is truly about helping people by supplying a product that improves their lives, then what better product could there be than knowledge?

So, here's a tip of our hat to all these companies and leaders who give all of us more of a chance to better our own lives and the collective state of our world.

Jon Clifton, Gallup

"Gallup helps the whole world be heard," says Jon Clifton, "so there is no mistake about what is on people's minds."

What a perfect candidate for our feature on knowledge, and what an incredibly noble and humanitarian mission. Most people have undoubtedly heard of the Gallup organization from its many polls that are often cited in news reporting, but the extent to which the organization goes to get that info is incredible, not to mention its intentions in doing so.

"In more than 140 countries, Gallup gives people everywhere a voice on issues such as hunger, work, well-being, financial inclusion, physical health, and personal safety," proudly declares Jon. "We do this because we've been surprised at how often leaders are wrong about what's in the hearts and minds of their constituencies. And when they're wrong--the more they lead, the worse they make the world."

We could not have summed up the reasoning for making companies that promote knowledge a cornerstone annual feature in our Social Capital section, but Clifton elaborates, helping to beautifully spell out Gallup's mission and our ultimate mission at Social Capital as well.

Says Jon, "Gallup exists to inform leaders about what's on the minds of employees, customers, students, and citizens so they can make the world a better place."

Gallup's contribution to the wealth of public knowledge for public good and its intent to constantly improve the state of mankind through the dissemination of knowledge goes even beyond its extraordinary polls and analytics. It uses that knowledge to build an ever-expanding platform of guidance for others in how to run their companies with the same noble and effective strategies.

Or as the company likes to describe itself, "Gallup is a global analytics and advice firm that helps leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems."

As we have written about over and over again in this section, one of those most pressing issues is how companies can take care of their employees. Gallup knows better than anyone how challenging and important that can be. And it pulls out the stops to use its knowledge on that subject to make you and your employees more prosperous and happier.

"We know more about the will of employees, customers, students and citizens than anyone in the world," its website proudly states. "We know what matters most to them at work and in life and how those priorities change over time. And we use that knowledge to create transformation."

Gallup's admirable, and correct, mindset is that "Growing employees are high-performing employees." So the company offers a slew of development, resources, and training for leaders and managers. And its leadership practices what they preach with their own employees as well, working hard to earn Gallup the reputation as one of the most "engaged organizations in the world."

Gallup's desire to recognize and promote Social Capital-friendly companies that promote people first and foremost even led it to creating the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Awards for "recognizing Organizations That Change the Way the World Works," and that "celebrate organizations that are committed to developing human potential."

Thanks, Jon. Sounds like we are kindred souls for sure.

Mikkel Svane, Zendesk

"We don't build software for companies," proudly declares CEO Mikkel. "We build software for users and customers. And it's their experience using our software that we need to think about ...It has to be empowering for them."

Empowering customers is certainly a good start for qualifying as a Social Capital company for us, but it's how the company empowers those customers that helped Zendesk make it into our feature article this month on knowledge. Zendesk builds software that improves the delivery of information to your customers.

"Customers notice when your company gives them conflicting information," explains the company on its website. "A recent study revealed that highly aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than their unaligned competitors. These companies also outpaced the competition in customer retention, customer satisfaction, leadership, and employee engagement."

And what separates these successful businesses from their underperforming counterparts? It is something Zendesk calls "knowledge management." Zendesk describes knowledge management as "collecting, sorting, managing, and distributing your company's information."

Zendesk does all that by thoroughly, effectively, and clearly combining and disseminating all the available knowledge for your business to your employees and then, ultimately, to your customers.

"Knowledge management tools consolidate and align the information all of your employees have access to. Ideally, you want everyone in your company to be working from the same information."

Ultimately, one of the most frustrating experiences for customers and employees is when it's difficult or, in some cases, nearly impossible to find basic information and answers. As journalists, we even have trouble finding much of this information. Details like company history, product and industry research, case studies, fact sheets, KPI reports, handbooks, guides, sales scripts, marketing graphics, etc. can become an overwhelming mishmash of unintelligible, unmanaged and incoherent information if not managed and distributed properly. Creating a well-organized, searchable directory of content about your products and how they are used helps employees and, again ultimately, customers to troubleshoot your software, answer commonly asked questions, and provide your customers with a better experience using your software or product.

Ultimately, that leads your company to be more successful as well, once it realizes the full potential of a fully educated and empowered customer.

"People are finding out that we can't have the front-end people being the ass of the organization," bluntly states Svane. "It simply doesn't work ... Customer service is moving from something you put into a department to being the culture of the organization."

Susanne Evens, AAA Translation

We spotlight this month knowledge as a building block for Social Capital and improving people's lives. But even building blocks have building blocks—so, to speak the possibly obvious, sharing knowledge relies on language. "Sharing knowledge has benefits for everyone involved. It helps create understanding, a feeling of importance and community, and also helps employees grow their leadership skills," says Susanne Evens, founder of a business that is all about language.

In a business setting, Susanne believes the benefits of knowledge sharing include becoming more agile and adaptable and it also helps to develop more effective and streamlined procedures and processes within a company. It also makes a difference in any company's growth, collaboration, brand, and productivity.

One of the best things about knowledge: "Knowledge can be recycled infinitely without much cost!" Susanne says.

Pointing out that businesses based on sharing knowledge with their customers will do better than those that are not, and that businesses which know how to convert information into knowledge will be much more successful, Susanne further notes that, looking at clients as learners and businesses as educators supports the learning experience for profit--and clients will profit from that experience.

Taking it to a global level, Susanne notes that the language industry is found to be critical to successful knowledge transfer. "Translators and interpreters engage in ongoing conversion (translation) of knowledge to convey meaning and cultural information to many different recipients."

Drawing a bead directly on the value of knowledge to the Social Capital movement, Susanne observes, "The growth in international collaborations and the increasing number of diverse teams affect knowledge sharing because individuals engage in daily knowledge activities in a language they are not native speakers of. Encouraging language diversity is an important and influential factor in knowledge sharing in international contexts, teamwork, and organizations."

Susanne believes that spreading valuable knowledge keeps the local and global workforce informed. It also affects the external audience's view of a company and employees, and can therefore give any company a leg-up on competitors.

And she shares a quote from Marsha Blackburn, a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, that further underscores the importance of knowledge to Social Capital: "Everyone has a transferable commodity: knowledge. Sharing your unique expertise and making introductions for someone creates a lasting legacy."

Chuck Cohn, Nerdy

Chuck Cohn had one of the best reasons ever for starting Nerdy in 2007 as an in-home tutoring business--it was after struggling to find a tutor himself while he was at Washington University. If it was a problem for him, it was probably a challenge for so many others--but one he is determined to solve for the good of all.

"For me, the future of online education is personal," explains Cohn. "Technology and the use of artificial intelligence has only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible for live online learning and the level of personalization that is possible thanks to technology. Nerdy's growth is evidence of the power of what a technology-driven approach can create."

Nerdy is the parent company behind Varsity Tutors, which offers learners live experts who deliver high-quality instruction and online learning in more than 3,000 subjects. From kindergarten phonics to high school test prep to collegiate academic, and even professional certifications as well as access to self-study and enrichment programs, the site is truly a one-stop shop for learning. That's a whole lot of knowledge in one place.

Understandably, the company saw demand grow exponentially over the last few years as parents, schools, and students struggled throughout the pandemic and the seemingly endless experience of distance learning.

However, even without the pandemic, there had already been a shift in learning from offline to online throughout society, which Nerdy was already addressing in a powerful customer-centric way that allowed it to "meet its customers -- families and schools -- where they were at and help address the critical learning challenges faced during these unprecedented times."

Though its expert use of AI allows Nerdy to deliver personalized learning at scale, what the company is most proud of is its ability to find top-of-the-line expert teachers through algorithms that match the experts with the learners and a "purpose-built live learning platform, which really goes above and beyond the standard video face-to-face interfaces that exist, like Zoom," according to Nerdy's website. "We curate a select group that is deeply knowledgeable in a particular area, has exceptional communication skills, and is passionate about teaching. AI and process automation enable us to do this consistently and at scale in multiple learning formats throughout the entire learning lifecycle."

Adding to its extensive body of knowledge and experts, Nerdy recently announced adding Codeverse to the Varsity Tutors platform, to deliver high-quality computer science and coding education. This will enable potentially thousands of students to change their careers and their lives.

"Coding is one of the fastest-growing segments in education, yet the tools and resources for students have not kept up with the increasing demand," says Chuck. "As we evolve our business to an all-inclusive learning membership, it's important that we continuously add to what's available on our platform."

Ultimately, Nerdy is about the very essence of this month's feature focus--the ability to deliver the power that knowledge makes possible with a capitalistic solution. It's the perfect Social Capital formula.

"We're at an inflection point, not just at Nerdy but for the entire educational system, and what learning looks like is being redefined and transformed," shares Chuck. "As a country, we're finally grasping the unlimited potential of online learning, and I am excited for the scale of the opportunity we have in both the near, mid and long-term to help shape the industry, help a lot of learners, and take advantage of a massive commercial opportunity."

Harold MacDowell, TDIndustries

"The secret to improving the work environment is to drive out fear. When we get fear out of the environment and get everyone to open up and share their best ideas, we can all find the answers together," TDIndustries CEO Harold MacDowell, whose company is frequently named a "Best Places to Work," once told an interviewer.

Driving out fear is certainly a laudable goal. But this environment also elevates knowledge, as everyone can feel free to share and build upon each other's ideas.

Noting that TDIndustries is an employee-owned company, Harold says, "With that in mind, every employee has a stake in the company's success. Our culture of continuous, aggressive improvement means we listen to one another and share knowledge that helps us serve our customers better."

TD's leaders also collaborate with others in the industry to exchange learnings and find ways to improve. "It's not just about TD," Harold emphasizes. "Our culture of servant leadership means we care about every customer and general contractor we work with, and we gather feedback and share learnings because it improves the work environment for our entire industry and keeps people safe."

One of TD's core values is to passionately pursue excellence. To do that, the company encourages employees to never stop learning. In fact, Harold says, "We innovate and challenge the status quo as we seek and share knowledge within our team and our industry.

"Many companies will say they care about developing their people, but at TDIndustries it isn't lip service," Harold continues. "The core of our mission is to provide outstanding career opportunities. You can't do that without being open and sharing what you know." TD offers more than 1,700 training courses and has a team of people who help all employees develop the latest skills in their profession. Underscoring that commitment, he shares, "We even measure the performance of our leaders based on how well they develop others. It's not uncommon to see team members hosting a 'lunch and learn' or a morning webinar that provides deeper knowledge about our field and the industry."

Harold notes this sharing also applies to the financials, as the company has open-book financials and remains transparent with the team. He believes that, when people understand the financials, they make better decisions in their daily jobs. "That's the power of knowledge sharing: It develops your people and business."

Noting that this kind of knowledge sharing fosters an increase in engagement and retention, Harold observes, "For over 76 years, we've had a knowledgeable team that continues to uphold a standard of excellence. It's all about informing the team so we can achieve more together."

Empowering their employees through belief in their potential greatness rather than motivating them through fear of punishment is one of the greatest proofs of human respect possible.

Christian Ulbrich, JLL

Real estate accounts for nearly 40% of total carbon emissions, so JLL is doing something about it – through the work the company does with its people and its clients, and in its workplaces and communities.

Leading by example in its own facilities is part of JLL's response to what its leadership sees as a critical issue, but the company is in a strong position to do more by sharing its industry knowledge as it works with clients in the construction and management of their real estate properties.

With JLL managing 5 billion square feet of space globally for its clients – approximately one thousand times the square footage the company, itself, occupies –JLL believes its greatest opportunity for impact is with and through its clients.

Leading the way on sustainability is fundamental to JLL's purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world--and, JLL unapologetically admits, to its own future long-term growth strategy. JLL is a founding partner of Bloomberg Green, the first global media brand for the climate-change era. And JLL Global CEO Christian Ulbrich is a member of the World Economic Forum Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, a group of CEOs committed to actively engaging in global efforts to create market opportunities for tackling climate change. And, because knowledge is never static, all of this effort necessitates keeping the company at the cusp of advances in building materials and design.

JLL's corporate sustainability program, Building a Better Tomorrow, focusses on increasing its positive contributions to the environment and society and minimizing the negative effects of its business activities. Say the company's reports, "We do this by embedding sustainability into everything we do through the four pillars of our program – Clients, People, Workplaces and Community – and by living the core values that shape our culture and define who we are: teamwork, ethics and excellence."

For the Clients pillar, JLL partners with its clients to create and implement solutions to achieve their sustainability goals by deploying industry-leading strategies and tools, and by pioneering new ways of using technology.

For the Workplaces pillar, JLL drives down energy and resource use and subsequent carbon emissions from both its offices and travel activities.

Knowledge is the factor this month's Social Capital feature is focused on. And using its position to share knowledge to, as the company says, "shape the future of real estate for a better world" is why we chose JLL to be part of this article. But JLL distinguishes itself as a Social Capital leader in other practices at the heart of this Social Capital movement – in its pillars of People and Communities.

JLL is known for helping people achieve their ambitions by enabling them to explore new opportunities, by investing in their growth and development, providing an inclusive culture and workplaces, and putting their safety first. And, serving both individuals and the community, JLL creates shared value not just by forging global and local charitable partnerships but by giving its employees time to contribute personally to the issues that mean the most to them.

Lisa Marrocchino, Proteus Ocean Group

"As a leader, I like to gather different forms of knowledge from a number of sources, including my team's lived experiences," says Lisa Marrocchino, CEO of Proteus Ocean Group, an ocean-focused social impact organization advancing Fabien Cousteau's Ocean Ventures. It's not just a "nice to do;" Lisa sees that as actually a key element to a successful business like PROTEUS™, the state-of-the-art, modular, sustainable underwater habitat, observatory and research platform for scientists, innovators, and global customers that is being built and operated by Proteus Ocean Group.

Lisa, who brings to her position her expertise in raising capital, business optimization, strategic planning, research and public, private and alternative investments, believes these "different ways of knowing" create a whole that is much greater than the sum of the parts. "At PROTEUS™, we use our team's domain expertise to build, inform and drive business decisions. By aggregating our teams' expert wealth of knowledge, we can best facilitate and execute our business strategy." As CEO of this global startup, she encourages the entire organization to approach problems and solutions from different perspectives and apply their learned experiences.

This philosophy around shared knowledge is central to not only how Lisa runs her business but what her business is all about.

Explaining that PROTEUS™ is currently building a global coalition of expert advisors involving NGOs, government, educators and the private sector to enable data and knowledge sharing, Lisa says, "On a local level, the first step is to gather information by speaking to the local community members who live and understand the pain points and, at the same, time empower these local voices to make them part of the solution to impact change." She notes that in the ocean community particularly -- both locally and globally -- data is often siloed and not easily or frequently shared. "Sharing of data and knowledge is an integral pillar of our business model." The goal is for PROTEUS™ to enable ocean data collection which will benefit decision makers, and it will do this by providing knowledge to people with domain expertise who can drive solutions. "With this knowledge-sharing comes creative storytelling that will facilitate global engagement to help restore and protect our ocean," Lisa says.

Respecting, searching out and spreading the knowledge of all for the betterment of all is the ultimate proof of the value and appreciation of humankind for all the right reasons, and we applaud them for doing so.

Ken Fisher, Fisher Investments

"Keep challenging conventional wisdom by asking unending questions. Most of our conventional wisdom is simply that and often wrong hand-me-downs from the past," Ken has said.

While knowledge is not static, the importance of Ken's observation about it remains strong. That's why we feel knowledge is a critical aspect of Social Capitalism and are thrilled to celebrate those business leaders who call attention to the need to share knowledge to make people's lives better. In fact, he says, "I'm hell on questions and questioning."

In Ken's case, he uses knowledge to help people improve their lives financially. And his company maintains transparency with its clients--which is itself affirmation that knowledge should be shared. As he has said, "You deserve to know what we're doing with your money. That's why we're transparent about the investing decisions we make for your portfolio."

Ken has structured his business to be a fiduciary for each client's interests, differentiating Fisher Investments by not having incentives to sell commission-based financial products or place trades in a client's account when it's not best for that client. His selling point: "Our simple fee structure aligns your interests with our business goals. Simply put, when you do better we do better."

The knowledge commodity Ken derives business from is in capital markets, which are relatively efficient discounters of all widely known information. "Thus, to add value through active management, one must identify information not widely known or interpret widely known information differently--and correctly--from other market participants. Throughout Fisher Investments' history, we have continuously developed ways to look at capital markets differently."

To put that knowledge to work for a client, Ken understands the need for another kind of knowledge. "Before we recommend anything, we get to know you. We ask questions about your goals and needs, your expenses, your health, your family commitments and more—to better understand what you need your money to accomplish."

Additionally, sharing knowledge in a manner that is most effective, Ken is known for writing monthly, native language columns in major outlets that span Western Europe and Asia. This impressive list includes Germany's "Focus Money"; Denmark's leading business newspaper, "Børsen"; the Netherlands' largest newspaper, "De Telegraaf"; Switzerland's leading business paper, "Handelszeitung"; Spain's largest business website and newspaper, "elEconomista"; Italy's third largest newspaper and number one business paper, "Il Sole 24 Ore"; France's "L'Opinion"; Belgium's "La Libre"; Austria's "Trend; Caixin"; the "Hong Kong Economic Journal"; Taiwan's "Business Weekly"; South Korea's largest business paper, "Chosun Mint; Japan's Diamond Weekly"; and Singapore's "The Business Times."

Knowledge, then, is actively sought in order to be effectively used. "Our five-person Investment Policy Committee, supported by a large in-house research staff, analyzes global investing opportunities--narrowing down from country and sector to find securities they think will do well moving forward. This disciplined approach allows us to interpret information differently and find global investing opportunities other money managers may overlook," Fisher's website explains.

One thing Fisher is not overlooking is educating its customers.

Bill Maher, "Real Time with Bill Maher"

"So, you tell me: If a country is only as strong as its people, what can the future possibly hold for a population this moronic?" Maher recently asked on his show "Real Time with Bill Maher," currently in its 19th year on HBO.

"This country simply has no education standards anymore. They will let you out of a public high school and give you a diploma and you don't have to actually know anything, which used to be the mission of schools--knowing things."

Though quite acerbically stated, this was definitely an unabashed nod to our feature focus this month knowledge--and its crucial value.

Bill went on: "I know it's super important to stop the grooming of our kids or, I don't know, to start it, and certainly critical race theory must be stricken from the curriculum or, who knows, maybe included in all of it. But, you know, while we're having those fights, could someone please notice that the kids don't actually know anything?"

The reason we recognized him again this year in this same feature is Bill realizes full stop that you can be successful in the entertainment business (and this is a "business" publication, after all) and make money without compromising the all-important principle of respecting people. That's not so easy to find in the profit-obsessed world of Hollywood, and one of Bill's greatest contributions to that world is not just entertaining them but educating them with information and the knowledge that knowledge is important.

Maher is one of the most well-studied comics in the world, who reminds his audience that his show is comedy, not news; he nonetheless expertly uses the forum to point out what he sees as the absurdities and hypocrisies in the world we live in, giving people a more critical view of the news so they can, ultimately, find the truth for themselves.

Bill begins the weekly hour-long political comedy talk show with a comic opening monologue based upon current events and other topical issues. He proceeds to a one-on-one interview with a guest, either in-studio or via satellite. Following the interview, Maher sits with two or three panelists--usually pundits, authors, activists, actors, politicians and/or journalists--for a discussion of the week's events.

While he is hardly alone in presenting politically based comedy, he makes it clear that his goal is to offer more than entertainment value. As he once explained, in reference to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, "I'm not even sure that they are getting at the truth. I mean, just because you're on the side of the liberals doesn't make it true.

"People are lazy. And I'm talking about media people, too. So, they're very insecure about what's the right answer, and if someone with confidence gives an answer, and it seems right and people are applauding, they all flock to it. It's a sad state of affairs when the people who are supposed to be separating truth from fiction themselves don't know what it is. It's like having a bad teacher in school. If the teacher doesn't know, then the kids can't know. And if the media isn't up to their job in delivering the news, then the people are not going to be well-informed."

To Bill's credit, he continues to promote a far better way of propelling the wisdom and knowledge of humanity forward--by revealing rather than censoring it.

Ryan Roslansky, LinkedIn

"The world has an abundance of talent. What we lack is a way for all that talent, all over the world, to access the tools--the skills and networks and knowledge--that unlock opportunity," stated Ryan, LinkedIn CEO, in a perfect testament to the value and importance of this month's feature focus.

LinkedIn has always been an extraordinary depository and resource for sharing and accessing vast knowledge in the form of business insights and networking connections since its launch in 2002. At the heart of that power is its amazing "knowledge graph" of people, organizations, and groups that allows it to connect everyone working in a field or at an organization or network.

It is built upon a complex combination of the data of members that includes jobs, titles, skills, companies, geographical locations, schools, etc. It then takes all that info and forms a kind of world within the internet based on the complex relationships between all these members and their data to build a unique interactive and fluid body of knowledge that really is unavailable anywhere else, and it's no easy task to accomplish.

"Creating a large knowledge base is a big challenge," the LinkedIn team explains. "Websites like Wikipedia and Freebase primarily rely on direct contributions from human volunteers. Other related work, such as Google's Knowledge Vault and Microsoft's Satori, focuses on automatically extracting facts from the internet for constructing knowledge bases. Different from these efforts, we derive LinkedIn's knowledge graph primarily from a large amount of user-generated content from members, recruiters, advertisers, and company administrators, and supplement it with data extracted from the internet, which is noisy and can have duplicates. The knowledge graph needs to scale as new members register; new jobs are posted; new companies, skills, and titles appear in member profiles and job descriptions; etc."

Sound like a herculean task? Well, the work they do to solve all those problems and deal with those challenges is pretty miraculous, too, as are the results that add up to one of the greatest fonts of professional, practical knowledge and resources the world has ever known.

There are more than 20 million jobs available on LinkedIn, more than 58 million companies listed on the site and 50 million people searching for jobs on LinkedIn each week. One study showed 122 million people received an interview through LinkedIn and 35.5 million were hired by a person they connected with on the site.

Then, through LinkedIn Learning, people can access almost 20,000 courses. You can earn academic credit toward a degree, continue your education to maintain professional licenses and certifications.

And LinkedIn just announced it will offer courses and certifications from major tech companies, including IBM, Meta, and Oracle.

Maintaining all that while handling more than 1 billion interactions every month and 176 million users in the U.S. alone can obviously be a daunting task for employees. Yet, through it all, the company has maintained a Social Capital culture. It was one of the first to encourage employees to spend time investing personally in themselves and their teams during work hours, adding yet another interesting element in support of this month's feature--encouraging employees to increase their own knowledge of themselves.