Considerate Consumer Survey Still Open!

A reminder that our survey on Considerate Consumers is still open and that one lucky respondent to the quick 20 Questions poll on shopping behavior will win a pair of TOMS Shoes (and, as TOMS Shoes does it, that means a pair are sent on your behalf to an impoverished child.)

SURVEY: 2o Questions About Considerate Consumers

Now that the survey has been open for a while, it's our reasonable goal to attain 1000 responses by December 1, at which point we'll award the bounty.

Here's an early anecdote from survey responses that suggests the real opportunity for Optimist companies offering consumers products and services:

To the question, "How much I think about the company whose product or service I am buying depends on..."

...the top response (with nearly 65% of respondents selecting) is "the number of available alternatives to what I'm buying."

If you offer it, they will buy it!

"The Triple Bottom Line," Entrepreneurs and Schools

Newish blog from Andrew Savitz with Karl Weber, authors of The Triple Bottom Line. It's a nice read where sustainability is the focus. Before it goes the way of "at the end of the day" and other poisonous and meaningless business cliches (quick digression: check out this rampantly populated Seth Godin Squidoo lens on powerless business speak) I wanted to mention the first time I heard the phrase Triple Bottom Line, which references People, Planet and Profit (or Profit, People and Purpose, depending on whom you ask).

I was at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management in spring 2006 when, at the finals of our business plan competition, Ann Ollivier and Katherine Yee won first place with Conscious Society, their environmentally-friendly line of premium attire. A great part of their pitch was devoted to the Triple Bottom Line, and as they fended off cynics in the audience who said "What if Banana Republic gets into eco-friendly clothing? You can't compete!" (two obvious rebuttals: there's definitely room for more than one premium fashion label in this market, and Considerate Consumers seek authenticity, so not just any company can play in it eco-friendly clothing market!) it became obvious to me that The Triple Bottom line could be part of a viable business model, even beyond the marketing plan.

Check out the 2006 winners of the Miven Venture Partners / Pepperdine University Business Plan competition. It's no surprise that three of the four top finishers (and arguably all four) are "Triple Bottom Line" -oriented. In the 2007 winner's circle, where a buddy's start-up iRent2U.com brought home the big bacon, Fresh 180 won the first annual "Socially-Minded Entrepreneurs of the Year" award for its healthy fast casual restaurant format. This award was presented by a student organization I helped get started at Pepperdine called The Values-Centered Leadership Lab. Obviously Pepperdine's students aren't the only ones (MBA and otherwise) getting in on the socially-responsible entrepreneurship act, since energetic entrepreneurial students are in maybe the best position to capitalize on a sustainable, green or otherwise Optimist start-up model.

BONUS Education Links:
Bainbridge Graduate Institute, where you can attain an MBA in Sustainable Business
Arizona State University's pioneering School of Sustainability
BYU's Social Innovation and Venture Competition

Survey about You, the Consumer...and, win TOMS Shoes!!

The Optimist Company is trying to learn more about how Consumers (people who buy stuff) think about the companies selling them products or services.

We have, with the help of KillerSurvey.com (it's in beta mode but is offering unlimited surveys!) a quick, 20 question survey about this topic.

Please take the survey here or below. All those who enter their email addresses are eligible for a random drawing to win a pair of TOMS Shoes once we get to a sizable number of responses (and, as TOMS Shoes does it, that means a pair are sent on your behalf to an impoverished child.)

SURVEY: 2o Questions About Considerate Consumers



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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.

Welcome to The Good Business Optimist Company.

The Optimist Company is about an increasingly prevalent approach to business that can be labeled many things: Doing Well By Doing Good. Profit and Purpose. The Triple Bottom Line. As much as we like how those sound, we like The Optimist, too. It suggests an attitude that businesses can contribute to their community, however they define it, while also making money.
Optimists are businesses that are ethical, innovative, socially entrepreneurial. Those that show how to be corporate citizens, activists, philanthropists, and humanitarians. Those that strive beyond short-term financial performance to actually drive change in their neighborhood, industry, country or world. Those whose very business models are entrepreneurial approaches to issues from global health to poverty to education to natural resources.

Since business is about people, Optimists are also people who are conscious of their impact on the world around them- from the environment to their neighbors. They tread lightly. They give back. The teach. They leave the environment as they found it, or better. They Go Green. They Seek Sustainable. They are LOHAS types; Considerate Consumers. A company's Optimists can be its employees, who work hard and often make some sacrifices to represent a company that shares their attitude; its customers, who often think a little more about what they're buying; its leaders, who ultimately determine what priority will go beyond profit.

There's plenty of bad news in business and life, and we can't avoid occasionally shining a little light on the ugly side of commerce. But mostly we're here to to tell the stories of Optimists: the companies, business leaders, start-ups, and entrepreneurs who are doing business in an inspiring new way. Our real goal is to get our hands dirty with several related Optimist projects- but more on that to come.

The Optimist Company believes that there is a big market for good businesses. That by doing good things for a community (however you define it) in addition to just making money, a business is better off. That not only can businesses do good; they should!