Machiavellian experience

You have a mission beyond profit, it’s passionately held by your team, you walk the talk, your idea’s unique and you care. You’re at the vanguard of a new order, now……..

The world looks you squarely in the eye and says “so what”!

Catch your breath.

No apologies will be forthcoming: ~This is the harsh reality you’ll be affronted by……

The world has not realigned its values just because you have. Nor will it!

Sadly this will be true of friends, family and acquaintances. Those you can influence through performance: ~ by being the disciple.

But in the commercial world? How do you succeed against the mantras’ of profit and maximising shareholder value at any cost and a “what’s in it for me mentality”, whilst remaining authentic?

Our experiences are a case in point: ~

Directive95.com was inspired to rage against the enormous waste generated by Junk Mail and revolutionise the UK direct marketing industry.

Producing over 5 billion items & 78,000 tonnes of landfill every year, at a staggering cost of £2.14 billion Junk mail is odious.

You don’t ask for it, you don’t want it and still it keeps coming.

Why? Because UK industry spends over £20billion pounds annually, trying to reach and influence all of us in our buying decisions.

Unfortunately, they don’t know when we’re making them 95% of the time, so they’re trying to “manage a coincidence”, wasting their time & money, the Earth’s resources and annoying us in the process.

So approaching this challenge ethically, our goal was to provide UK industry with an environmentally sound, ethical method of communicating with people when they want a product or service.

Guaranteeing an advertiser 100% of their messages will actually be read, by people that want, need and are considering, their offering now.

Good for the advertiser, good for the individual, saves resources and we have one huge plus point……...

We can raise significant sums for UK charities and good causes at the same time….

Significant, as we donate 50% of the revenue raised from advertisers to charity and 25% to the individual for sharing their information and receiving the message.

Our solution www.directive95.com, a free service, all you do is complete an online “lifestyle” survey indicating the types of products and services you already buy, want, or are thinking about.

Then with your permission and only with your permission we invite selected advertisers to email or text you special offers on the products and services you have indicated you want to hear about.

All communication is routed through Directive95 so we never divulge your contact details to an advertiser.

You don’t have to buy anything to help charity or earn your reward.

Sounds to good to be true: ~ that’s the power of starting from Neil’s six premises of authentic…it provides a template that can revolutionise an industry.

Now you’d think with every supporter recommended by charities and good causes generating cash they would want to promote the service to their subscribers ~ supporters?

Especially when it pays the supporter for helping the charity, cuts down on the Junk mail in their life and gets them very special timely offers…everyone wins Yes?

No, increasingly charities are choosing to sell their subscriber databases to direct marketing agencies for pennies a name instead. So they get less money, annoy their membership and perpetuate Junk Mail!

But its what they’ve always done and all they understand.

The major beneficiaries of our authentic business don’t get it.

Still should we be surprised? After all change is hard, and always has been.

Machiavelli commented in 1513, in The Prince,: ~

“Those trying to create a new system would have the strong opposition of those who stand to loose, but only the luke-warm support of those who stand to benefit”.

So what to do? Remain authentic

We will continue to send donations to our members nominated charities, and trust that we can enlightenment them and elicit their support.

Until they promote us to their supporters we have a major challenge: ~ How do we recruit new members?

We refuse to waste money on traditional advertising and trust our authentic reasoning. So now we want to appeal to you.

Please log onto the site, complete the survey and tell us which charity you want to see benefit. Then please encourage your friends and family to do so also.

That will help us gain traction with the charities quicker and accelerate authentic ethical growth.

So if you’re going to be authentic remember:~ your right to do so, it will be a long time until the rest of the world catches up and you’ll need all the help you can get.

Doug deFreitas Julian Eagles & Tim Harris founders of