POSITION OUTLINE_THE BODY SHOP

DAN VELAZQUEZ

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop (TBS), was an eccentric business leader and advocate of participating in moral leadership at the corporate level. Roddick not only established a lasting set of core values for TBS, but also helped set a precedent for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) i initiatives now widely practiced by many international corporations. Bartlett and Ghoshal succinctly summarize the philosophy that Roddick embedded within TBS ii. In more broadly describing the need to go ‘beyond strategy to purpose’, Bartlett and Ghoshal go on to write that “contractually based relationships do not inspire the extraordinary effort and sustained commitment required to deliver consistently superior performance.” In a similar manner, Kouzes and Posner write that “the key task for leaders is inspiring a shared vision, not selling their own idiosyncratic view of the world. What this requires is finding common ground among those people who have to implement the vision.” Roddick was successful at establishing a shared vision at TBS that others not only found common ground in, but were also inspired by. In my mind, the aforementioned concept of inspiration parallels the Golden Circle iii that Sinek describes in his TED talk. Out of all of the material we reviewed this week, Sinek’s video resonated with me the most. It also helped me to tie all of the readings together, including the Core Ideology iv that Collins and Porras describe as an organization’s “consistent identity”, or the Why in Sinek’s Golden Circle. Roddick defined the Why / the consistent identity, early in TBS’ history, and that lasting core set of values was appealing to both customers and employees. So much so, in fact, that it created loyalty and inspiration in TBS that were undoubtedly an integral part of the company’s success.

POSITION OUTLINE_THE BODY SHOP

DAN VELAZQUEZ

ENDNOTES

i

The Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (CSRI) at the Harvard Kennedy School defines corporate social responsibility “strategically”. The following is taken from their website: Corporate social responsibility encompasses not only what companies do with their profits, but also how they make them. It goes beyond philanthropy and compliance and addresses how companies manage their economic, social, and environmental impacts, as well as their relationships in all key spheres of influence: the workplace, the marketplace, the supply chain, the community, and the public policy realm. The term "corporate social responsibility" is often used interchangeably with corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, social enterprise, sustainability, sustainable development, triple-bottom line, corporate ethics, and in some cases corporate governance. Though these terms are different, they all point in the same direction: throughout the industrialized world and in many developing countries there has been a sharp escalation in the social roles corporations are expected to play. Companies are facing new demands to engage in public-private partnerships and are under growing pressure to be accountable not only to shareholders, but also to stakeholders such as employees, consumers, suppliers, local communities, policymakers, and society-at-large. Laggard firms and governments can sometimes use the existence of corporate social responsibility programs to shirk their roles. Government ultimately bears the responsibility for leveling the playing field and ensuring public welfare. In order for corporate social responsibility programs to work, government and the private sector must construct a new understanding of the balance of public and private responsibility and develop new governance and business models for creating social value. In “Changing the Role of Top Management: Beyond Strategy to Purpose”, Christopher Barlett and Sumantra Ghosal write that “Anita Roddick has articulated a strong, clear business philosophy” at the Body Shop. They go on to describe Roddick’s set of values, which “have attracted a group of employees (and a following of customers) who identify with the organization’s commitment to environmental causes and with a belief that companies can be agents of social change.” iii ii

In his TED talk, Simon Sinek defines the Golden Circle as a bull’s eye of Why, How, What; with Why occupying the center of the circle. Sinek argues that not enough organizations understand or define Why. He goes on to state that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

iv

In “Building Your Company’s Vision”, James Collins and Jerry Porras describe Core Ideology as defining “the enduring character of an organization – a consistent identity that transcends product or market life cycles, technological breakthroughs, management fads, and individual leaders.” They go on to add that core ideology consists of core purpose and core values.