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The Andros Project - and why the island will host the inaugural Regen Retreat
“If you want to bring about a fundamental change in people’s beliefs and behaviour, a change that would persist and serve as an example to others, you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs could be practiced and exercised and nurtured.” The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell
Introduction
Andros is an island of the Cyclades Complex in the center of the Aegean Sea. Αn Island is defined as a land mass surrounded by water, a protected area, and a refuge, an oasis in the middle of a stormy sea. A place where one can create and build a life. The destination of one’s journey, one’s Odyssey. Ithaca.
Andros is a virgin land, where all the elements, Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, are alive. A place of rich natural, historical, spiritual and architectural beauties. An island from an older time, preserved by what once made her great, the wealth accumulated from her people’s largest industry, shipping. That industry has left the island, and with that the people. What has remained are the buildings, the monuments, the stories, the culture. A glimpse of that glorious past can be seen only in big holidays and during the summer. However, year after year that fades as well. Although initially the society was based on agriculture, the growth of trade and development of seaborne transportation became the detriment to change the culture and shipping became the core that all other activities were built around. Andros was one of the pioneer communities in the adaptation of the steam engines as a mean of propulsion for cargo ships and for that they share part of the success of the modern Greek Shipping Miracle.
The island, which is particularly viewed in the town of Chora, is a model of shipping corporate social responsibility and innovation in the early 20th century. Long before Corporate Social Responsibility (C.S.R.) became a corporate marketing tool, and corporations became socially conscious, the familial proximity and interdependence of the shipowner to the seafarer and vice versa demanded reciprocity. That feeling of obliged reciprocity is deeply embedded in the Greek culture and tradition, which is described by the word “philotimo”, literary translated as “Love for Honor”, is the true reason for the Greek Shipping Miracle.
For Greeks, and particularly from shipping islands, “philotimo” and international shipping became very good friends and allies. The Greek Honor Code with the first truly globalized, free market, and governmentally boundless industry of the international seaborne transportation was the recipe for success. Currently many of the successful Greek people in Greece and abroad had probably family involved in the shipping industry in one way or another.
When looking at and analyzing small societies, like islands, one can understand greater societal patterns. The promotion of urbanization in the 20th century, urban infrastructural investments, opportunities and better quality of life, attracted populations from the rural and island regions to big cities. The wealthier, better educated, competent, ambitious part of the population lead the urban migration. That movement caused a societal void that condemned the rural and island regions to stagnation.
Andros was such an example. While Andros had a developed middle class in the early 20th Century, by the 1970’s and the decades that followed, Andros became a ghost of her glorious past. Due to the shipping and seafaring wealth, culture and tradition, the island did not want to develop a tourism industry, which as a seasonal professional activity was the reason for the development of many other locations. That could be seen as a curse, but in the longer term, coming to the present, could actually be seen a blessing.
The present situation
The sustained economic recession in Greece, has taken a huge toil in stripping the country from her most dynamic part of the society, the competent, able bodied, educated and full of dreams youth. The migration to other countries has reached, since already some years ago, the level of the hundreds of thousands, hindering the country’s capability to social and economic recovery. This brain drain follows a similar pattern to the urban migration of the 20th century, but this time outside the borders, creating a further distance from the motherlands.
Observing the families of the urban migration of the 20th century, and for this particular case, the families from Andros who migrated to Athens, London, New York, etc., one can see that as long as the ties with the Island and close members of the family were still active and present in the island, the bond, even in an ideological level, remained. The visits, the contribution to the society and the economy, the assistance, even the philanthropy, endured. As the ties are being broken, the motherland assumes a mythological role, “The Old Country”. The consequences of this is that in the hearts and the minds of the people who left, the motherland leaves the physical world and goes to the dream world, the unrealizable, the lost.
The current situation on the Island of Andros is that the local economy is based on an annual average, on government sourced income of around 70%. The population has been decreasing since 5 years ago more rapidly than ever before. Social cohesion is being endangered. Important skills are being lost. The presence of cultural foundations is being threatened. The Andriot seasonal residents, visitors and vacationers have less motivation to visit. The migrated financially strong, who have always been the source for any infrastructural, cultural and developmental project, are losing their ties with the island and their successors, are feeling more distant. The island that was once thought of as a place of relaxation, rejuvenation, inspiration and enjoyment, is now thought of as a place of burden, pain, and disappointment.
This situation can easily be envisioned as a pragmatic and probable future national reality, having experienced as a country the largest international immigration of human capital, talent and workforce since the 1950’s. Small societies are the indicators of future developments, as a micrograph of the largest picture. The present situation is unsustainable in a local and national level.
On a national and global scale, there is a growing part of the population that feel, and lately that is becoming more and more evident, that the way our society has evolved with the urbanization and the strictly competitive, impersonal, technocratic and financially profitably oriented corporate environment is also unsustainable. The way our businesses and government perform strip the individual from basic and humane values and ethics, such as unity, connectivity, trust, compassion, collectivity, teamwork, contact with nature, respect for the environment, meritocracy, solidarity, fairness, love and respect for one another, decency, and even the ancient “philotimo”. More and more around the world we hear expressions such as “Back to Basics”, “Pursuit of Happiness”, “Slow Living”, “Organic Food Sourcing”, “Spirituality”, “Co-Working Spaces”, “Regenerative Agriculture”, “Sustainability”, “Social Innovation”, “Impact Investment”, “Value Based Management”, “Fair Trade”, “Freedom”, “Accountability”, “Transparency”, “Giving Back to Society”. Our present way of living and operating is unsustainable in a national and global level.
It is clear and evident that we need a new paradigm, a new operating system.
The solution: Islands of Social Innovation
Pockets of social innovation are emerging in many cities of the world. These pockets are big or small companies with an expanded social innovation or environmental agenda, startups, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), social enterprises or individuals that either work independently or create
communities in collaborative co-working environments. These pockets of innovation are the drivers of the development of a new paradigm. The next step is these pockets to become islands, whole communities, of social innovation. Some already exist, however more are needed to effect change.
These Islands of Social Innovation could actually be islands or rural areas with a degree of disconnection from the larger city centers, where likeminded individuals could assemble in order to innovate and test ideas outside the box of conventional thought and solve societal issues with a fresh outlook. Locations that would be ideal are areas that had culture, history or infrastructure of some segment of an industry that was neglected and abandoned due to the economic and business trends of the industrialization and urbanization of the 20th century. That existing foundation should be the core of the focus for development of the areas, since it is part of its identity. Around that focus other ideas can develop as well as other industries, developing and providing innovative ideas and best management practices, creating a spill off effect to neighboring regions. Such a development allows for an expansion of the economy in rural and island regions, improvement of the infrastructure, promoting decentralization of the population, growth of living standards of local populations, slow down and reverse the national brain drain, and potentially attract international talent.
The island of Andros can become one of these Islands of Social Innovation. A pioneer...
The Case for Andros Island
Andros is an island that has a lot of attributes making her a strong candidate in being developed as an Island of Social Innovation. Her strongest attribute, which can be the pillar of her economic growth and social contribution, is her foundation and footing in the shipping industry.
The shipping industry is an international industry managing, serving and manning ships. Those assets and the people that serve them, spread in every latitude and longitude of the planet’s oceans, come in contact with people all over the world and do not depend on a local client and consumer base in order to thrive. The global seaborne transportation, covers more than 90% of transported goods, having a long reach able to promote change in a global scale.
The nature of the industry allows her to operate from anywhere deemed that is value creating. Following current trends and the developments in telecommunications, the return of shipping operations in Andros, is again possible and value creating. Shipping companies always had the luxury of mobility; already around the world we see a move from their traditional home ports and the creation of hubs at peripheral areas for improved quality of life and working conditions for their people.
For Andros, the proximity to Athens and her international airport, is an advantage that few islands share. This advantage expands further on the trend of leaving large cities for improved quality of life and working conditions, allows for innovative thinking and assists in the management of change. Living, working and creating in Andros, like other islands and rural areas, strengthens the feeling of community, collaboration and cooperation, creating a stronger team working for a common goal. Such a move would be a step towards going back to basics, towards merging the old with the new ways, restoring the cohesion within the society, reinstating the ties across the different levels of operation and addressing challenges in a holistic and all-inclusive way. The unaltered and preserved natural environment, architecture, historical, cosmopolitan and cultural heritage are additional assets for any societal development project.
The people of Andros have a long tradition and culture of philanthropy and giving back to society. Philanthropy, converted to strategic impact investments can be the backbone to developing a business economy and creating social benefit.
Andros has a very fertile land that is largely on fallow for many years and her produce is underutilized. Also, she is very rich in water resources from natural springs, strong wind and sun. Some successful efforts in agricultural production have come into fruition in recent years, creating opportunities for further development.
From a touristic point of view, Andros is developed very mildly and has a short tourist season. However, due to the recent development and restoration of her traditional mountain trails she is becoming attractive as an alternative tourist destination for the northern European hiking enthusiasts. This in conjunction with the proposed return of shipping operations in the island, allows for the development of other alternative and business tourism initiatives advocating an improvement on utilization, infrastructure, and quality of services of the existing hotels and other hospitality establishments, as well as attracting new investments.
All the above comprise the identity of the Island, that needs to be branded, promoted and eventually further developed.
Shipping and Andros as an Island of Social Innovation
Urbanization created a distance and broke social ties between people, while industrialization considered people as expensive, inefficient expendable means replaceable eventually by technologically advanced equipment. Leading, managing, educating and training people assumed a secondary role and focus was given on the technological, financial and commercial aspect in every industry.
The last decades of the 20th century were signified with developments and advancements in technology and financial engineering. In the shipping industry the focus shifted away from the shipboard operations and the crew, to the office, the financial and commercial management. It is a shift from the physical to the virtual. That fundamental and sustained shift of focus is presently the reason for the challenges shipping is facing.
The ship and the people operating it are the ones producing the work, the product of transportation of goods by sea, and the office is a support platform of that operation, not the other way around as it is currently understood or acted upon.
A shift of intention, consciousness and focus is demanded. The importance of people in the industry needs to be addressed. The familial bond between the ship and the office is lost, the restoration of communication is the key. The increased workload on board due to regulatory requirements needs to be resolved. The training and education level of the crew onboard needs to be enriched for them to be brought up to speed with the demands of the industry, as well as an organic development of executives from the bottom up needs to be planned. The focus of the industry has shifted towards safety leadership and management, which is a change of culture that needs to be cultivated from an early stage. The increased regulatory demands on the industry has made ship management more demanding, while the limited investment in the human element and in improvements in operations is currently increasing the risk level. This risk is derived from the increased time allocation on paperwork and the reduction on onboard basic seamanship training, traditional safe working practices, and experience on shipboard operations and maintenance.
Organizationally and structurally shipping companies have reached a peak, improvements can still be made but the structure is so rigid and the distance in communication between the office and the ship so large, that would not allow them to evolve much further. In the late 19th and early 20th century the industry perfected wind powered sailing, but the steam engine was adopted as the means of propulsion of ships, and sail cargo became obsolete. The Andros shipping community was then one of the pioneers of the time.
The Greek Shipping Miracle was founded in two pillars, quality crews and efficient operations. We must invest in people. The interests of the office personnel should be aligned with the ship’s personnel. In going back to basics, we need to connect the old with the new. We must create a connection with the community again, to revive the obliged reciprocity, in giving back to the society, of the early 20th Century. To move further, we ought to go back to where we started to restore our values.
The shipping community that left the island shall now return from her valuable adventures around the world, and by innovating using modern tools and traditional ways, shall show the direction for change, developing Andros into an Island of Social Innovation.
Dimitrios Kokkinis, CEO and FounderProteus Social Innovation & Development www.proteusinnovation.com
Andros, January 2017