Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 12:12am
Anita Roddick: The power of a vision
Column: Executive Soul
Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, shared her vision infectiously. Her husband, Gordon, caught her vision early on, and they became partners in operating the first two Body Shops in Brighton and Chichester, England, in 1977, a year after Anita had opened the business. Soon thereafter, friends and customers began asking if they could open Body Shops, and Gordon, who had never heard of franchising, "invented" the concept. Anita interviewed everyone who was interested in opening a shop, asking questions that drilled down to vision and values. Most of the new shops were run by women who caught and contributed to the vision.
Reflecting back on The Body Shop's development, Anita mused: "The Body Shop is not, and nor was it ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values." That's what has given it a campaigning and commercial strength and continues to set it apart from mainstream business. Anita had discovered that the power of a vision increases exponentially when the vision is shared.
Anita Roddick articulated The Body Shop's mission, especially its focus on fair trade and on natural products and the environment, soon after founding the business. Returning to the mission helped Anita assess which products, which suppliers, which employment practices fit with The Body Shop's identity. Especially as the company grew quickly, with many different franchise owners, it would have been easy for Roddick to give into conventional business wisdom and focus only on the bottom line. But she resisted the pressure. She remained committed to leading with soul, and stayed on track by keeping her eye on the mission.
For example, in the areas of product development and choice of suppliers, Roddick created the community trade program to help fulfill the fourth tenet of the mission ("to meaningfully contribute to local, national, and international communities in which we trade"). The community trade program, The Body Shop's approach to fair trade, grew out of Roddick's international travels and the partnerships she formed in the 1980s. As she traveled, she noticed both the crying needs in disadvantaged communities and the rich resources the people had to offer. She offered them economic development opportunities through supplying natural ingredients and accessories to The Body Shop. When Anita Roddick died last week, The Body Shop had been contributing to economic development for people in need for over 20 years, and had grown to include over 35 suppliers from 25 countries. From sesame oil from Nicaragua to marula oil from Namibia, natural ingredients from disadvantaged communities had been mainstreamed into Body Shop products.
Roddick discovered that practicing fair trade had many challenges, and she came to understand why those who had tried it hadn't always stayed the course. For example, the small suppliers were not always able to fulfill large orders consistently. The local organizations didn't always treat the local people with dignity and respect. The Body Shop's environmental standards and standards for animal protection were not always upheld. Not to be dissuaded, in 1994, Roddick and other Body Shop leaders created The Body Shop's Fair Trade Guidelines to choose its suppliers in a manner consistent with the company's mission:
COMMUNITY: We are looking to work with established community organizations which represent the interests of their people.
COMMUNITY IN NEED: We target those groups who are disadvantaged in some way, those whose opportunities are limited.
BENEFITS: We want the primary producers and their wider community to benefit from the trade — socially as well as economically.
COMMERCIAL VIABILITY: It has to make good commercial sense, meaning that price, quality, capacity and availability are carefully considered.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: The trade has to meet The Body Shop standards for environmental and animal protection.
Furthermore the company worked closely with alternative trade organizations, such as Oxfam Trading and Twin Trading, in order to benefit from their fair trade expertise.
Roddick viewed the community trade program as furthering all aspects of The Body Shop's mission. For her, commerce at its best was about much more than money: "Our trade with these communities is not just about creating another product or market for The Body Shop. It is about exchange and value, trade and respect, friendship and trust."
Anita Roddick demonstrated to the world that capitalism could have a soul. Through the phenomenal growth of The Body Shop, she put forth a vision of what business could be, and through her example, challenged others to do the same.
— — —
Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of "Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations," works with leaders in business, healthcare, government and non-profits to help them develop spiritual leadership. Visit her website at www.ExecutiveSoul.com. © Copyright 2007 by Margaret Benefiel.
Reflecting back on The Body Shop's development, Anita mused: "The Body Shop is not, and nor was it ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values." That's what has given it a campaigning and commercial strength and continues to set it apart from mainstream business. Anita had discovered that the power of a vision increases exponentially when the vision is shared.
Anita Roddick articulated The Body Shop's mission, especially its focus on fair trade and on natural products and the environment, soon after founding the business. Returning to the mission helped Anita assess which products, which suppliers, which employment practices fit with The Body Shop's identity. Especially as the company grew quickly, with many different franchise owners, it would have been easy for Roddick to give into conventional business wisdom and focus only on the bottom line. But she resisted the pressure. She remained committed to leading with soul, and stayed on track by keeping her eye on the mission.
For example, in the areas of product development and choice of suppliers, Roddick created the community trade program to help fulfill the fourth tenet of the mission ("to meaningfully contribute to local, national, and international communities in which we trade"). The community trade program, The Body Shop's approach to fair trade, grew out of Roddick's international travels and the partnerships she formed in the 1980s. As she traveled, she noticed both the crying needs in disadvantaged communities and the rich resources the people had to offer. She offered them economic development opportunities through supplying natural ingredients and accessories to The Body Shop. When Anita Roddick died last week, The Body Shop had been contributing to economic development for people in need for over 20 years, and had grown to include over 35 suppliers from 25 countries. From sesame oil from Nicaragua to marula oil from Namibia, natural ingredients from disadvantaged communities had been mainstreamed into Body Shop products.
Roddick discovered that practicing fair trade had many challenges, and she came to understand why those who had tried it hadn't always stayed the course. For example, the small suppliers were not always able to fulfill large orders consistently. The local organizations didn't always treat the local people with dignity and respect. The Body Shop's environmental standards and standards for animal protection were not always upheld. Not to be dissuaded, in 1994, Roddick and other Body Shop leaders created The Body Shop's Fair Trade Guidelines to choose its suppliers in a manner consistent with the company's mission:
COMMUNITY: We are looking to work with established community organizations which represent the interests of their people.
COMMUNITY IN NEED: We target those groups who are disadvantaged in some way, those whose opportunities are limited.
BENEFITS: We want the primary producers and their wider community to benefit from the trade — socially as well as economically.
COMMERCIAL VIABILITY: It has to make good commercial sense, meaning that price, quality, capacity and availability are carefully considered.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: The trade has to meet The Body Shop standards for environmental and animal protection.
Furthermore the company worked closely with alternative trade organizations, such as Oxfam Trading and Twin Trading, in order to benefit from their fair trade expertise.
Roddick viewed the community trade program as furthering all aspects of The Body Shop's mission. For her, commerce at its best was about much more than money: "Our trade with these communities is not just about creating another product or market for The Body Shop. It is about exchange and value, trade and respect, friendship and trust."
Anita Roddick demonstrated to the world that capitalism could have a soul. Through the phenomenal growth of The Body Shop, she put forth a vision of what business could be, and through her example, challenged others to do the same.
— — —
Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of "Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations," works with leaders in business, healthcare, government and non-profits to help them develop spiritual leadership. Visit her website at www.ExecutiveSoul.com. © Copyright 2007 by Margaret Benefiel.