Schools for a Sustainable Future - What I Learned in the Rainforest, Part 3 October 1999

Part 3

True profit comes from design, not matter

In fact, the most important Natural capital is its design. Its relationships. Like those we see in the rainforest, or in our communities, or in our companies.

In Japan, we have two terms to describe this: omote and ura.

Omote is the surface or front of an object, ura is its back or invisible side. Omote and ura . External reality and underlying reality.

When I visited the rainforest, I thought: As business people, we have been looking at the rainforest all wrong.

What is valuable about the rainforest is not omote -- the trees, which we can remove.

What is valuable is ura -- the design, the relationships, from which comes the real value of the forest.

When we take trees from the forest, we ruin its design. But when we take lessons from the forest, we further its purpose. We can develop the human ecosystem into as intricate and creative a system as we find in the rainforest. We can do more with less. Grow without shrinking.

Ura , not omote .

We are beginning to learn the value of this in business. Consider the microchip. A microchip's omote -its physical content -- isn't very valuable. Silica is the cheapest and most abundant raw material on the planet -- sand. But a microchip -- its shape -- is design, its unseen artistry - is extraordinarily valuable. Yet it comes from a source that seems almost unlimited -- the knowledge and inspiration we draw from the human mind and spirit. That is the most valuable resource, and the most abundant.

This becomes the most important question for today's corporate executives to answer:

How can we redesign, reinvent our corporations, so that they fully harness the human mind and spirit? How can we transform our top-down hierarchies, our conformist monocultures, to engage the magical creative qualities we see in the forest?

That brings me to ...

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	Window on the Future... What I Learned in the Rainforest by Tachi Kiuchi
	Part 3 True profit comes from design, not matter In fact, the most important Natural capital is its design. Its relationships. Like those we see in the rainforest, or in our communities, or in our companies. In Japan, we have two terms to describe this: omote and ura. Omote is the surface or front of an object, ura is its back or invisible side. Omote and ura . External reality and underlying reality. When I visited the rainforest, I thought: As business people, we have been looking at the rainforest all wrong. What is valuable about the rainforest is not omote -- the trees, which we can remove. What is valuable is ura -- the design, the relationships, from which comes the real value of the forest. When we take trees from the forest, we ruin its design. But when we take lessons from the forest, we further its purpose. We can develop the human ecosystem into as intricate and creative a system as we find in the rainforest. We can do more with less. Grow without shrinking. Ura , not omote . We are beginning to learn the value of this in business. Consider the microchip. A microchip's omote -its physical content -- isn't very valuable. Silica is the cheapest and most abundant raw material on the planet -- sand. But a microchip -- its shape -- is design, its unseen artistry - is extraordinarily valuable. Yet it comes from a source that seems almost unlimited -- the knowledge and inspiration we draw from the human mind and spirit. That is the most valuable resource, and the most abundant. This becomes the most important question for today's corporate executives to answer: How can we redesign, reinvent our corporations, so that they fully harness the human mind and spirit? How can we transform our top-down hierarchies, our conformist monocultures, to engage the magical creative qualities we see in the forest? That brings me to ... Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 4 Part 5
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