1. XII Ahmed AlNomany
20th
June 2014
Philosophy and Summary
Aponia’s Underlying Philosophy
Aponia is a Greek term for “absence of pain” and this is the ultimate goal of Aponia’s
business group: to eliminate, alleviate and prevent as much suffering as possible through
profitable and unique propositions. It could be a unique product or a unique business model,
the key is to pick what is overlooked.
Besides uniqueness, profitability and “alleviation” value, Aponia enters business lines where its
owners have had firsthand experience of its value, or alternatively, hold subject matter
expertise or any other advantage.
My belief system changes constantly but it currently stands at the conviction that two of the
leading causes of suffering are lack of love and lack of health or physical wellbeing. There are
other root causes, but for the sake of brevity and relevance to this proposal I’ll focus on these
two. The two probably are solved in my opinion by making people healthier and more social.
In the effort to improve people’s physical health and wellbeing I focus currently on
preventive and alternative healthcare forms, as these are the ones I am more exposed to and
have a personal experience with . Conventional medicine is more complex, requires
specialization, but it is not out of bound of Aponia’s future plans, particularly in the area of
biomedical engineering and technology.
We could phrase the mission statement: “To promote and facilitate as healthy a lifestyle as
possible to as many people as possible with all constituents thereof (diet, exercise, therapy,
education ...etc.)”
As for the “making people more social” part of the solution , it is the closet short term I’ve
found to saying “making humanity more loving by making them more personally connected”.
That last term points to real-world, non-virtual, face to face relationships
Humanity can relieve itself of major aches and become more resistant to them in the future
simply by becoming more ‘one’, more ‘united’, and personal socialization has a great role to
play.
2. XIII Ahmed AlNomany
20th
June 2014
Strengthening the fabric of human relationships, interconnections and exchange on the
national, global and organizational level is important, and we have succeeded in doing so
over the last century and reaped the fruits in terms of war aversion, stability , scientific
feats, space exploration, etc. all due to increased collaboration. But one specific form of
human connection has plummeted greatly, the personal face to face type.
Personal, real relationships have deteriorated with family members, relatives, neighbors and
the community, and that is a major concern, along with lack of personal relationships
between people from different cultures of backgrounds. Major value is created when two
opposites interact civilly and converse, and the loss is equally large when that is missed.
If people aren’t loving, connecting and relating on the real, personal level then all higher
hierarchies of relationships are weak, but more importantly, aside from macro-implications
these very individual will suffer the lack of a essential component of genuine happiness.
The mission statement is “To promote and facilitate as personally social a lifestyle as possible,
to as many people as possible, through various innovative approaches (provision of
entertainment alternatives that are more social, providing a platform for exchange between
cultures, etc..)
Several Other Principles
Socioeconomic accessibility: Accessibility to all socio-economic strata of society, thus,
low cost to the consumer is a priority, even at the cost of depressed financial
performance.
Naturalism: Strong bias to what is more natural and away from what is more
artificial.
Time efficiency. We are constantly favoring time saving solutions.
Necessity before luxury: we focus on the needier. So the obese deserves more attention
than the moderately fit even if the latter pays more, and the anti-social is ahead of
the regular.
Smoking, alcohol, sexual licentiousness and junk food are not held in high regard. So is
the overdependence on TV, video games, sugar, and luxury items among others.
Double Bottom Line System. Wherein the business performance is basically measured
by two parameters; profit and social value (in Aponia's case, ‘alleviation’ value)
delivered, social or health.
3. XIV Ahmed AlNomany
20th
June 2014
Consumer-focused; we tend to pick businesses that serve individuals rather than a
business, corporation or any organization.
Global Application; we want to provide products/services as solutions that are
applicable worldwide, while maintaining the flexibility and customization to fit local
needs.
To conclude, the investor has to be aware of these two aforementioned points, which I
reiterate, before embarking
There is no proper five year forecast, expected break even period, clear ROI value of
other regular analyses. The analysis and proposition pushed forth is unique to this case
and aims at surveying the risk, citing it, and planning for an approach that constricts
it.
Such unconventionality only comes to match the sort of this business form and its
underlying philosophy. So the investor may rightfully consider it a high risk investment
with high potential returns.
Reminder:
The target for the 1st year is to return the ‘cash investment’ (minus soluble asset
value). Operation will be discontinued upon failure, the company liquidated and
management loses its shares.
The company is managed in accord with several principles, maximizing profit or
return to shareholders is only one of them. If the investor sees major conflict or
misalignment, he/she is advised not to proceed.