I am not posting this from ecological concern (although that is an important issue), but because the idea below stopped me in my tracks and made me think “how can I apply that to my business”?

A few weeks ago I heard (on the radio) that in the 1900s a typical gold mine extracted enough gold to make 5 wedding rings (about 50gms) from every one tonne of ore mined.  Today the “easier” higher yielding mines have been exhausted, now miners must work harder (and smarter) for the same result: to obtain the same amount of gold from a typical mine in 2010 you need to extract ten tonnes of ore.

However you can also recover the same amount of gold by recycling just ten kilograms of mobile phones: that’s a yield 1,000 times greater!

As I say this is not a blog about ecology, but rather about approaching issues from a different perspective?  It certainly made me stop and think what I could do differently in my business.

I had already shifted from desktop solutions (such as MYOB and Attache) to online solutions (such as Xero and Paycycle), but now I am considering what additional change I can embrace.  I am not convinced I will find a 1,000 fold increase, but I don't intend to die wondering!

What radical changes could you make to your business?  If you could stop mining and start recycling, and in so doing increase your yield 1,000 times, what is stopping you?