"The Long Game” - Building enlightened strategies.

Enlightened strategies produce meaningful and enduring results.

They unleash momentum from a groundswell of ethical, responsible, scalable and sustainable endeavor.

In the current dangerous zeitgeist, it is critical that we support emerging leaders who possess the values, energy, intellect and courage to challenge cruel, moribund and destructive industries.

Apart from giving pro-activists our moral and financial support, our first responsibility is to always give credit where credit is due.

There is nothing we can’t achieve if we don’t care who gets the credit for it.

I have awarded a Grant of $100,000 to “Allied Scholars for Animal Protection” (ASAP).

The organization was founded by Dr. Faraz Harsini, an impressive young man who fled from Iran and has become a respected force in the modern vegan movement.

I first Faraz encountered some years ago under the most unusual of circumstances!

Faraz has an impressive academic background. His Bachelor’s Degree was in Chemical Engineering, his Masters was in Biotech and his Doctorate was in Biomedical Science.

He has the intellectual “horsepower”, the moral character and the energy to be a galvanizing force in “Veganizing the World”

?And he is playing the “Long Game”.

You may remember the movie “The Long Game”, based on a true story.

A group of disadvantaged Mexican-American boys battle prejudice, discrimination and countless obstacles to play golf at a “whites only” country club in Texas.

Their diligent patience pays off. Their “Mustang” team wins the State’s 1957 Championship.

A young Tiger Woods, barely into his teens, endured despicable prejudice in the US during his climb up the sport’s ladder.

While other (white) team members of his squad enjoyed the privilege of entering the clubhouse and locker rooms at Country Clubs, Tiger had to change into his golf spikes in the parking lot.

Ignoring the short-term humiliation, he quietly “invested” his energy and talent in the “Long Game”. Tiger particularly looked forward to competing on golf courses whose name ended with “CC”.

He takes up the story and I quote him verbatim.

“When I arrived at the course I would ask two questions.

“Where is the first tee?” and

“What is the course record?”

It is not complicated”.

Practitioners of the “Long Game” in the “Vegan” space are rare. Rather than seeking immediate results, they build a solid foundation of intelligent, compassionate and motivated future “Thought-leaders” who will, over time, create a paradigm shift in the way society and its institutions think and behave.

In business parlance, playing the “Long Game” is an “Investment” in the future.

It is “Inter-generational”. It is enduring. And it is essential.

In a sense, one might say ASAP’s strategy to build a “Vegan Society”, modeled on the powerful “Federalist Society” of the US.

I don’t need to remind anyone that the Federalist Society, a Conservative organization (founded a mere 40 years ago at Yale Law School), built a pipeline, a funnel in fact, between premier Law Schools and the US judiciary and major US institutions.

Its power is subtle, invisible to the general public, but indescribably potent.

It has “selected” Supreme Court Justices whose decisions affect not just the system of US jurisprudence, but the entire political zeitgeist of the Republic, and as a consequence the direction of a fractured, politicized and dangerous world.

These are not trivial appointments.

Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch (6 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices) consider themselves members or affiliates of the Federalist Society. The Federalist Society was smart. In a facile world of “Shortermism” policy, they played the “Long Game”.

Whilst I disagree with many of their policies, I respect their farsighted strategy.

Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Machiavelli would understand.

The “Long Game” matters.

When the Premier of China, Zhou Enlai was asked (perhaps apocryphally) what he thought were the lasting effects of the French Revolution, he replied:

“It’s too soon to tell.”

N.B: My series of speeches in Manila, Singapore and Bangkok, “Corporate Strategy and the Long Game Horizon” compared companies in the Far East with those in the West.

I describe the necessity of enlightened, patient leadership in formulating “Strategy”, a modern word derived from the ancient Greek word “strategos” - the Art of the (army) General”.

I was particularly critical of Harold Geneen, the doyen on “Shortermism” who famously pontificated “Get the Quarters right and you get your Years right”. Small wonder that his conglomerate ITT became a corporate dumpster fire).

ASAP seeks to enlighten the next generation of thought-leaders on the multi-faceted imperatives and benefits of a Vegan World. Its constituency comprises brilliant young minds in Universities and Colleges around the world.

This is a noble quest.

I have high hopes that ASAP under Faraz’s leadership will contribute to a “New Renaissance” and stimulate a paradigm shift in the mindset, attitude, polity - and conduct.

My wish is that ethical, responsible and enlightened people will support and encourage this young man.

He represents the best in the next generation of activists.

And he is off to a flying start!

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Philip Wollen

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