B2B Solution, Inc. Trust is an opportunity for us to make a meaningful and significant contribution to help address general social issues. We will do so by using the skills and competencies of people in B2B Solution, Inc.. This will create a more fulfilling environment for staff, broaden the base of skills in managers in general business and risk-taking, and attract skills into the company.

B2B Solution, Inc. Trust will work with communities to help build entrepreneurial skills and successful businesses. We will commit Manager and Director time and real money into initiatives, and will move to make the Trust a core part of B2B Solution, Inc. during the next few years.
Fundamental elements are as follows:

n	To create a new future for people who would otherwise end up unemployed
n	To use a partnership approach, working with each initiative to make a joint commitment to success
n	To be run and managed as a business
n	To be self-funding within two to three years, with proposed investment in the first years being one per cent of group revenue

B2B Solution, Inc. Trust is committing to work with communities to help build entrepreneurial skills by using the competencies of people in B2B Solution, Inc. to create new possibilities for people who would otherwise find it difficult to survive or be successful.

The guiding factor in selecting and establishing initiatives will be whether we have a real chance to add value to a person or organization.

The World Today:
The world we live in is confusing and contradictory. Collectively, there is a feeling of powerlessness in the face of the most pressing problems confronting contemporary society. Our world has seen huge wealth created and huge advances made in almost every social and scientific arena. But we have also witnessed a parallel increase in global poverty and its associated conditions: starvation, unemployment and drug addiction.

In addressing these problems on a personal level, most of us are reduced to giving money to the various organizations that are trying to wrestle with the myriad social problems - not because we don't care, but because we experience a sense of futility and powerlessness in the face of what seem to be daunting and unwinable battles. We are faced with problems that appear to have no obvious or simple solution. And, ironically, all this is happening against a backdrop of generally increasing material prosperity.

The Role of Business:
Business is a powerful force for change. It can generate economic prosperity. But this momentum has a dark side. The wealth of western economies is balanced by the poverty of those who live outside the wealth-generation arena. At the periphery of our material society live those who are unemployed or employed in low-paying jobs because of a lack of skills. The long-term prospects for these individuals are bleak, compounded by restrictions on their educational opportunities and a lack of relevant experience, and exacerbated by prejudices against their class.

There is a warped circular logic that underlies this problem: every time a company looks for the best people and raises the baseline entry requirements, it is adding - even if only in a small way - to the problems of those who already have great difficulty in obtaining satisfactory and fulfilling employment.

Our View of the Problem:
Our work has demonstrated to us that it is possible to re-interpret problems in a different way and by doing so enable us to formulate a practical response within the bounds of our capabilities and experience.

We in B2B Solution, Inc. have seen the power of highlighting the Customer/Performer relationship in our internal relationships with team-members and in our external relationships with our clients.

Focusing on this intuitively simple approach has enabled us to significantly improve the effectiveness of individuals. It helps people really understand about customers and not get sidetracked. It also helps focus on the nature of doing business - request and offers, negotiation, commitment, delivery and customer satisfaction. This could be called 'the Trading Instinct' and appears to be the fundamental skill found when people are successful - whatever their background.

Our interpretation of the underlying dynamic of communities with a large number of unemployed is that 'the Trading Instinct' is missing. People have lost (or never had in the first place) the ability to identify customers, make requests and offers that are acted on, and deliver on commitments. Those who develop this capacity become successful and move on. Those who do not become stuck in a community where the social norms make it very difficult to develop these skills.

These conceptually simple skills are not taught anywhere. The general view expressed to date has been that 'you can buy professional skills but people are born with business skills'. Our interpretation is that these skills can be learned with the aid of the appropriate coaching, observation and practice. We believe that the problem confronting unemployment black spots is that there are actually no role models within the community from which to learn.