ARCHIBUS was founded by visionary Bruce Forbes, but “visionary” hardly sums up his role in the industry that he created, or his impact on anyone who knew him. We could tell you what he did, but we would rather tell you who he was and what he stood for, because those contributions are the spirit of this company – still shaping the world even as you read this.
Bruce rewrote the rules of business. Bruce demonstrated that you could run a business with respect for each individual and in doing so release the creativity of every single person in every single enterprise. He showed that you could move organizations from competition to cooperation and co-opetition, and forge lasting partnerships that were far more successful together than they could possibly be apart.
Bruce believed that technology has a mission—not just to make the world more productive but to make it better. Bruce believed in technology as a democratizing power, one that gave all levels of organizations power to make positive change and to overcome all barriers of budget, governance, and inertia.
Bruce believed he could make positive change go viral; that he could start by changing one person at a time, one team at a time, one city, and then one country at a time. Bruce believed that together we all could make a true difference in the world, make it greener, focus its resources on things that matter to people.
Bruce was not trying to build an empire but a community, a community with a purpose. Bruce looked to mentor heroes who would champion the cause in businesses, cities and communities around the world. Bruce wanted to catalyze a revolution—not just of technological innovation, but one of spirit. Bruce was not trying to do it all himself, but to inspire countless people to build their own businesses and their own careers, and he gave them ARCHIBUS as the platform to build on, as their agent of change, as the means to make their own ideas a reality, thereby creating an industry. He showed them how they could use ARCHIBUS to help themselves, their colleagues, and serve the people around them.
Bruce Succeeded. He created an Industry and Community based on Trust