Barry Nalebuff and Seth Goldman

Normal
0

false
false
false

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

In 2008 Coke paid $43 million for a 40% stake in Honest Tea and acquired the other 60% in 2011 for an undisclosed amount. The founders are still running the company and (so far) it’s stayed true to its mission.

But that’s not what today is about.

If you aren’t a reader, and even if you are, you’re probably tired of plowing though business books.

Even the good ones are often over-written; publishers want a certain number of pages to warrant the price, so there is often a lot of same thought/different words repetition, while customers’ assume there’s a direct correlation between length/weight and price.

It’s even harder to find business books that provide solid advice for startups that are focused on sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially responsible along with financial success.

Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, founders of Honest Tea, are hoping to fill that gap with a 302 page comic book due out in September.

We’d like to think this isn’t your typical How I Built My Business book. For starters, it looks like a comic book. We designed the book this way because we wanted the story to come alive. You get to share in our journey, meet some colorful characters, and not take us too seriously.

That’s right, comic book style; here’s a preview of the first chapter.

Different company, different business advice, different marketing.

The pair, with a budget they did not disclose, are focusing on online and social media efforts, and have created a Web site, missioninabottle.net, where, for $25, a customer can buy a book, a signed bookplate and a T-shirt.

I haven’t read the book, but the first chapter (all of four pages) makes at least three important points painlessly in very few words. (My kind of writing!)

And skipping a few trips to Starbucks will pay for the signed book and T-shirt.

Such a deal!

Flickr image credit: Mission in a Bottle

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Many of the people who start companies are focused on getting rich—period.

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life as most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t. –Anon

But there are many others—more now than ever before and growing—who start companies with a different focus.

They aim to do good by doing well and make the world a better place.

Both would like the tiny bit of immortality that comes with real innovation.

The one thing they all agree on is that whatever it is needs to be done now, because there may not be a ‘later’.

Of course, that goes for everything in life, not just being an entrepreneur.

The most elegant phrasing of ‘why now’ was in a short essay I read recently.

You are older at this moment than you’ve ever been before, and it’s the youngest you’re ever going to get. The mortality rate is holding at a scandalous 100 percent.

That pretty much says it all, so whatever you’ve been “thinking about doing” or “planning” STOP.

Make the future your now and just do it.

Image credit: HikingArtist

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Do you recommend sharing entrepreneurial skills and experience with others?

Are you willing to put you’re money and time where your mouth is?

Creativity, innovation, focus and execution are as much key factors in crimes as diverse as financial scams and drug dealing as they are in entrepreneurism.

Defy Ventures is the name of a non-profit in New York.

Defy (v.): To challenge or dare a person to do something deemed impossible.

Defy Ventures shows felons how to pivot and put their entrepreneurial skills to work legitimately.

Today, whether you are an entrepreneur or investor, I defy you to start a similar effort wherever you live.

And if you choose to accept the challenge, please let me know and share your experiences here.

Option Sanity™ defies conventional ISO allocation.

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Writing as a guest at HBR Lara Galinsky, senior vice president of Echoing Green, a non-profit that funds social entrepreneurs globally, uses the story of a woman she mentored years ago to demonstrate that being a social entrepreneur doesn’t always mean starting a company.

Galinsky says that if every person who wanted to change the world did so by starting a company there would be no one to work at or support those companies.

She argues that social entrepreneurship is just as much a way to live your life as to build a company.

I agree with everything she says except…

Galinsky constantly refers to young people just starting out and the need to encourage and support their efforts.

I think her message applies to people of all ages.

I do not believe that only the young can effect change.

In fact, change is driven faster when people of all ages embrace and actively encourage the change as opposed to dragging their feet or actively fighting a reactionary battle.

I really don’t believe that Mahatma Gandhi had a specific age in mind when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

You can be a social entrepreneur at any age, whether you do it by starting a company or living a socially responsible life, just do it.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY
Be the Thursday feature – Entrepreneurs: [your company name]
Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
Questions? Email or call me at 360.335.8054 Pacific time.

Flickr image credit: Care2

A McKinsey study on the value of corporate social responsibility found “…highly innovative Fortune 1000 companies derive greater financial returns from their corporate-responsibility activities than their less innovative counterparts do,” and suggested three actions to improve CSR ROI,

• Don’t hide market motives.
• Serve stakeholders’ true needs
• Test your progress.

DuPont’s success suggests a more far-reaching approach, i.e., embed sustainability deep within your corporate culture and that an “energy culture” is a great place to start.

“Upwards of 40 percent of industry’s energy efficiency improvement opportunities can be realized through low or no-cost projects rooted in corporate culture change”

They must know something since dollar savings to date are not millions, or even hundreds of millions, but billions.

“The key to this model is the formation of multi-disciplinary, cross-functional site teams, with insight from operators, maintenance, mechanics, core process experts, energy experts, engineers and management.”

These are initial steps that follow Richard Branson’s “doing well by doing good” approach.

Two of the biggest stumbling blocks on this path are Wall Street, with its short-term, i.e., quarterly, focus and the current definition of “stakeholder.”

Typically, stakeholders are viewed as investors, management, customers and workers; progressive companies have added the local communities where they do business and a few have tiptoed further.

Whereas Richard Branson points out in Screw Business As Usual every living thing and the planet itself are stakeholders.

Sadly, rather than being in the lead, the majority of US corporations are staying focused on short-term results and narrow definition of stakeholder.

But the winners in the future will be those companies, large or small, whose thinking is longest and definition is broadest.

I hope you are one of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kung Hei Fat Choy
(Wishing you an abundance of wealth and prosperity!)
Happy Year of the Dragon

Flickr image credit: Bengt Nyman

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

I met an interesting guy over the holiday.

“Chris” has a small startup in the financial services sector and is starting to gain traction.

He said it’s been an uphill battle and that he wishes he had spent the same energy doing something “socially responsible,” because it would be a lot more satisfying.

I’ve heard similar comments from other entrepreneurs and small biz owners.

Happily, this is one of those times it is possible to “have it all,” because all it takes is changing the way you look at the world.

Having a socially responsible business doesn’t require a focus on solving social ills and it certainly doesn’t mean forgoing profit—without profit your business won’t be around.

It does mean running your business in a responsible manner

• pricing fairly, passing on savings whenever possible and never gouging
• fair wages and other compensation
• fair employee treatment (not playing favorites, etc.)
• reducing your carbon footprint
• community involvement and contributing whenever possible; and
• believing that it’s not all about you.

None of this is rocket science and all of it makes good, profitable, business sense.

In fact, Chris and others who feel the pull to help fix the world would do well to read Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual to see how others are ‘doing well by doing good’.

Note: the unseen pause is between ‘screw’ and ‘business’, not between ‘business’ and ‘as’,

Option Sanity™ is socially responsible

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process—so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.

Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Corporate social responsibility, know as CSR, is fast becoming a significant part of an attractive corporate culture.

Granted, the definitions of CSR are all over the place, but it’s generally agreed that building a positive CSR reputation is necessary to attract, motivate and retain today’s workforce, especially the Millennials.

But how important is it now that all hell’s broken out?

“…corporate social responsibility is no longer a luxury; it is an essential component of a thoughtful business strategy. At a time when customers and investors will be demanding increasing transparency and responsibility from corporations… These efforts must include a commitment to good governance and financial transparency, a commitment to protect and educate their work forces, a commitment to protect the environment, and a commitment to strengthen the communities in which they work… And by engaging staff, businesses can ensure that corporate social responsibility becomes a part of their corporate culture, rather than just a token gesture… In order to survive a sustained recession, companies, communities and the government must work together. Although companies may not be able to sustain the same levels of corporate social responsibility spending in an economic downturn, it is critical for them to retain a healthy commitment to a corporate social responsibility strategy that includes community engagement.”

A lot of CSR isn’t about spending money, it’s an attitude. An attitude that requires honesty, authenticity, transparency and reliability—all of which we seem to be in short supply these days.

Attitude is the ‘a’ in MAP and it’s MAP that has to change. It’s MAP that, at all levels, needs to bring its ego under control and recognize that the world that emerges from the current mess will be different and that CSR is here to stay.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

By the way, the above quote wasn’t written by anyone in the US, it’s from Kiev, Ukraine. Looks like CSR has gone global, too.

Image credit

Image credit: duchesssa

Check out my other WW: innovate and soar