At Libra, we seek to turn family values into guiding business principles. One core value is a strong sense of respect and trust in the individual. Another is a sense of community – recognizing that together we can be more. While a business is a community it must also acknowledge its responsibilities to the wider world, the global community.

Investing in the community is not just a matter of ‘paying back’ with the fruits of commerce; it is good business in its own right. Because a community with hope and opportunity is one better equipped to contribute in tomorrow’s world.

The general principle of alleviating struggle by facilitating self-sufficiency has a long history. The 12th-century philosopher Maimonides in his writing regarding the duty of charity, he wrote about the need to prevent poverty, not merely to alleviate it: ‘assist the disadvantaged by a gift or loan of money, or by teaching him a trade, or by putting him in the way of business, so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding up his hand for charity.’

This is translated into popular philosophy in the adage: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” And it reverberates in much of what the Libra Group does today.