The UN is an invaluable organization that excels at providing aid, preventing conflicts and generally overseeing our world affairs. But it is the very nature of its broad scope in responsibility that disrupts its ability to enact microscopic changes on a local level. The population is far too large for one governing body to be able to effectively address all the issues that aren’t of a global or large-scale impact, but that is, in many instances, where aid is needed and often neglected. The Arc Initiative differentiates itself from the UN in two major ways, it operates on a smaller scale, and it generates opportunities. It’s smaller scale allows it to enact actual changes in local communities that wouldn’t otherwise have been reached by organizations like the UN.

It also is based on the premises of, as I mentioned earlier, generating opportunities. It doesn’t just seek to help those in need; it seeks to empower local individuals to develop the skills to help themselves and their own local communities, thus enacting sustainable change.

Although the model of providing aid is crucial in emergencies, in the long term, it creates dependency and prevents independence. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This is exactly what the Arc Initiative is doing, teaching people how to fish.

When I started reading into Obama Care, all I absorbed was the facts and implementations that it initiated.

But upon reflection, I realize that it’s the perfect representation of how external factors can influence business.

Since Medicare, and Obama care have been implemented it has drastically changed the nature of the way hospitals and doctors operate. The political environment has changed from the implementation of new health care and operation policies. These policies are eliminating the former financial incentives in treating large masses of patients. Now the incentive lies in providing long-term lasting treatment with a stronger emphasis on sustainable prevention. This clearly benefits the patients, and also allows doctors to prioritize their time to treating numerous individual patients, rather than wasting time on re-admitted patients. Socially, the external environment is also moving towards a more lifestyle based, preventive approach in contrast to the previous drug/surgery based treatment. The social conscience of how diet and lifestyle choices impact ones health, also encourages the quality approach instead of the quantity-based model of treatment. Patients and doctors are more aware now, that simply removing a tumour, for example, only treats the symptoms and not the disease itself. This new healthcare policy allows doctors to create shared value economically and socially by accommodating their operating model to the changing external environment.