Towards the end of the day, so the story goes, Wren
chanced upon a man with a broom. Smiling, as the rich and
the powerful tend to do when meeting those so obviously
less rich and powerful than themselves, Wren asked the
man, “Good fellow, what are you doing here today?”
The man with the broom looked up at the man with the
vision and gave this simple, and simply delightful answer:
“I'm building a Cathedral”.
Bernice's chosen poison was a similar story about JFK.
As the story goes America's most revered modern
president was touring NASA's Cape Canaveral complex,
where his vision of 'landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the Earth' was being steadily
realised.
The details are familiar, now, right?
but shares a dream with the most powerful man in the
world.
Can you see why we love this story? Can you see why we –
the dreamers, the idealists and the optimists at CSR might
hope that this is a story on endless repeat throughout
history? Bernice can.
Bernice shares our passion for engagement and our belief
that – even in the most competitive, corporate and
capitalist world - there is space for people who realise that
what they are doing, and their ability to contribute to that
doing, is far greater than any speci?c act.
No matter how humble our place in the world, no matter how
small a cog we are in the machine we can all help to build
Cathedrals, put men on the moon and change the world.
Bernice calls it The Halo Effect …
He meets with scientists, engineers and Astronauts – they
show him the million different complexities that are entailed
in meeting his 'within the decade' deadline. But it is when he
meets and speaks to a humble janitor that he receives the
now familiar and inspiring reply that we love so much:
“So, what are you doing here, fella?” (we imagine a
Massachusetts Democrat and graduate of Harvard might
say.)
When our publisher received what she considered to be
exceptional service from FNB at a particularly trying time,
she did what few of us ever remember to do. She reached
out to FNB to say thank you. She told them how impressed
she was, why she was impressed and why she believed the
people involved deserved acknowledgement.
FNB's reply was almost as impressive as the initial service
she received. She was surprised and impressed too ?nd
herself talking directly to the Chief Marketing Of?cer of the
whole bank, re-telling the story and to an interested and
Photo: Chris Krichhoff
“I'm putting a man on the moon, sir.” Comes the reply from
the man who, this being the South, is probably poor and
black and (this being the early 60's) all but disenfranchised,
First, a story:
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CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW