How To Be An Optimist Company

The question has come up- what makes an Optimist Company? With a giant disclaimer that our goal is to be editors of good news about businesses doing more than making money and not any sort of arbiters of whether businesses are good or not, here is the way we see the world.

In our minds there are four echelons of business goodness:

unBad: This was the old standard. The least a business can do is NOT break the law, rip off customers, abuse employees, harm competitors, or support other bad businesses (like third-world sweat shops). My inner marketer reminds me that to be unBad, companies also can’t lie in their ads or practice shady customer service tactics (like not caring about the customer at all. Oops! This would seem to eliminate a bunch of companies. But I’m standing by it.) Finally, unBad companies can not have a bad business model- spam marketers, DVD piraters or companies whose business breaks the law. What about the “sin” industries or even file sharing businesses? We’re not here to make those calls; you be the judge. But at least be unBad.

New Standard: Sadly, as a response to the scandals of all kinds of Bad companies, from those that duped investors or employed sweat shops or other abusive labor practices to those who repackaged and resold moldy green beef, there is a New Standard that requires transparency and ethical management. In an era of hyper media coverage of everything, we have the business media to thank; by uncovering and reporting the crap out of these scandals, they raised the bar of public awareness and expectations and helped usher in new laws and customs in the business world. The public and stakeholders (employees, stockholders, customers) begin to expect a little more and a New Standard is born: Taking responsibility for bad products or services. Honestly reporting financials. Telling the truth in advertising, packaging and in the press. Choosing and disclosing ethical suppliers and vendors. Taking good care of employees. Obviously there’s much more to it, but that’s the New Standard.

Activist/Philanthropist: We definitely need a better name for this standard, but now we get to the fun part: doing good stuff with business success. The simplest is old-fashioned giving away money. Some companies make charitable donations while others set up foundations or non-profit arms, some of which undertake very entrepreneurial approaches to their philanthropy, like Google.org (whose varied projects are quite different than the parent business) or the ultimate philanthropist, Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, whose world healthcare focus is far different from his company’s. There is also Activism, which can take many forms, from sanctioned/paid volunteer opportunities to spearheading entrepreneurial programs with social benefit. Two of my favorites are stunningly effective. Trader Joe’s is a pioneer among a growing crowd of retailers that encourage shoppers to buy a cheap, reusable grocery bag that cuts down paper and plastic waste- a traditional ecological bent. And Eurosport (with Major League Soccer and the USSF) runs a successful program very related to its core business model (selling soccer gear) called Passback, collecting used soccer gear and redistributing it to disadvantaged communities.

And finally...

Business Model Good: The ultimate Optimist Company has the attitude that an entire business can be built around a social need. The approach can be called Profit and Purpose, or the Triple Bottom Line, or whatever else describes the distinction between this type of business and a non-profit (namely, that the business is for profit.) Not only does this type of company embrace the elements of corporate citizenship mentioned above; its very product or service addresses some social issue- healthcare, nutrition or water, education, poverty, urban blight, waste, natural resources and conservation…the list goes on. While the trick to attaining this standard of Optimist enlightenment is to actually be sustainable- in cash flow, that is- the fun part is identifying an area of need and making an impact.

Much, much more to come on unBads (and occasionally, plain old Bads), New Standards, Activists/Philanthropists and Business Model Goods.