toothpaste salesmen.

Where will the highest academic achievers find themselves at the end of their schooling? The supposed crème often find themselves at a prestigious educational institution; in India that may be an IIT or IIM, in the USA it could be a Harvard or Yale - or any other of the 100's of leading institution across the world.

At the conclusion of their college degrees they find themselves being lured by consulting firms, financial brokerages, IT companies, beverage and consumer goods manufacturers. They only hire the brightest and best.

Over the next few years they are worked long hours and their minds are taken full advantage of. They have little reason to complain, as they are adequately reimbursed for the experiments conducted on them!

No, I am not radical socialist, nor am I adverse to ‘the corporation,’ rather I wish to point out a startlingly oversight.

There are another group that need these minds to solve problems that are (dare I say it) more important than increasing toothpaste sales, selling life insurance and adding 'new tastes' to cola drinks. And it's not just the college-leavers I'm talking about - it's everyone with a great mind!

These minds are needed by Government organisations, schools, hospitals, aid and welfare groups and other social service institutions.

There is a brilliant show on TV named HOUSE, about a doctor who treats rare medical conditions. I often joke with my brother (who finished school with a score of 99.25%, and now spends his days making PowerPoint presentations toothpaste factory executives) by saying … “Look at this guy House, he’s solving real life changing problems, what are you management consultants doing!”

His response is always in typical consulting fashion … “I’m a corporate doctor, I make company executive feel better about themselves!"

Now, before I am accused of being a hypocrite – let me say I am not discounting the work corporates do, nor am I judging those who work with them. Rather I am giving credit to these minds - if they can help turn soda and cigarette companies into efficient multi-billion dollar industries - just imagine what they could do for health or education systems across the world.

Unfortunately since social organisations cannot compete with corporate in regards to funding talent, the decision has to be intrinsic. And I believe that if 10% of the best corporate minds, gave a little of their knowledge and expertise to solving social problems, the changes could be enormous.

I will talk further about this issue in future posts. However, if you are reading this and believe you have a brilliant analytical, thinking, decision making minds that isn't being fully utilised to it's fullest, then maybe you need to think about where it should and could be put to best use ...