There is a lot that can be said with regards to what motivated me to create the ROUNDMAP™ and I will share some personal details in my first book. But for now, just know that my inspiration came, while being treated in hospital in 2012, from a brief encounter with a 68-year old man who died three weeks later. This changed my perception of what care for one another means, even amongst total strangers.

Struggled as a Salesman

Prior to being a longtime entrepreneur, I was in sales for 10 years and often struggled to sell to customers. Deep down I knew the products I sold weren’t particularly flawless, service wasn’t always great and thus value for money was often far-fetched. When I was running my own business, I was completely in control of quality, service and felt comfortable with the value I was offering. I cherish each and every expression of gratitude we received from customers over the years and regard it as a testimony to that effect.

Care and Respect

Then I realized: I can only perform (sell) as long as I’m convinced that I’m indeed serving and respecting the needs of my fellow human being. What I offer has to be EQuitable, it has to be fair and just to the other. The word equitability means justness or fairness (as explained in the image below). I write EQuitability with two capitals because it requires emotional intelligence (EQ).

Then I asked myself the question: Is EQ something we can expect from corporations?

Corporations, as stated in the documentary The Corporations, show the traits of a psychopath: [1] Callous unconcern for the feelings of others, [2] Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, [3] Reckless disregard for the safety of others, [4] Deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit, and [5] Incapacity to experience guilt.

So, if corporations typically act as a mentally disturbed ‘legal person’, will I ever be able to work for them? Should you? I’ll try and give you an honest answer in my first book.

Sustainability

There was a second issue that had started to bother me, which has to do with how we treat nature. Could I come up with something that would make transactions more EQuitable and products more sustainable? Well, I can share with you that I have. But I also know that every business model, even those that are circular by nature, can and will be exploited. All hope is not lost, we just have to be aware of it.

Roundmap

I started to read as much as I could about marketing, sales, customer service, and customer loyalty. In essence about all customer-facing processes, i.e., the Customer Dynamics™. In 4 years time, I created, what is now called the ROUNDMAP™. An early version was picked up by the largest social media blog, Social Media Examiner, and it had spread like wildfire.

The ROUNDMAP offers so much value. It isn’t just a mapping of the customer lifecycle, but it also describes the correlations between the four stages and strategic positioning, types of differentiation, various marketing strategies, value disciplines, market dynamics, business models and supply dynamics. And thankfully, the missing business models that could lead to a more sustainable and EQuitable business emerged.

Accountability

I also began to realize that the pathway to EQuitable commerce and a Healthy planet starts by realizing that we are accountable for each purchase we make. If we choose to buy products that are produced by preying on the weaknesses of others or by destroying our earth, we are not just contributing to that practice but help to sustain it.

If we want a better world, we can only achieve it by choosing trustworthy suppliers and sustainable products over those that couldn’t care less about your welfare, nature or the air we breathe.

Sparkles

Six years after a brief moment in 2012 with Bart, I’m sensing a similar kind of passion that I had noticed in his eyes. This passion, considering the awareness of individual accountability, the right to EQuitability, and our social and moral responsibility through each purchase we make, towards each other and to nature, is what drives me to write.

In the first image, we are all treated equal, while our needs differ. Equity is about giving people equal opportunities while considering their differences. Reality points to the injustice caused by exclusivity.