The Social Business Company ®
If you want to be a partner with society, you have to engage in solving the underlying problems. As a company we have to point out - even though we don't make money on this with our current products - that prevention, naturally, is the ideal solution to diabetes, indeed that society's solution to chronic diseases overall is to change our lifestyles.
I'm not in business to make clothes. I'm not in the business to make more money for myself... I'm in business to try to clean up our own act, and try to influence other companies to do the right thing.
We're not retailers who have a mission - we're missionaries who retail... we put our customers and team members before our shareholders. We deliver results by being a mission-driven mission.
We operate on the core theory, on the belief that doing well and doing good are not separate ideas: they are inseparable ideas. That, in fact, they are inextricably linked and that everything we do, every business decision we make, every strategy we promulgate, every speech we make, or every pair of boots or shoes that we ship, have to be the embodiment of commerce and justice, and that's a different model.
In the early '90s, we came under intense scrutiny for labor conditions in our supply chain... Today, we're evolving beyond the words corporate responsibility... We see sustainability, both social and environmental, as a powerful path to innovation, and crucial to our growth strategies... There is now only one path and it leads to greater sustainability, equity, growth and prosperity.
It is a widespread myth that you need to choose between the environment and profits. That is wrong. Our expenses are lower than ever. Our products are better than ever. Our sustainability mission has led us to a source of innovation. We develop products that we would never have thought of earlier on.
Our growth is faster than foreseen; we continue to thrive despite the financial crisis, and have no shortfall of capital. This year we have grown faster than ever before... If nothing else, the financial crisis has taught us that it pays to choose sustainable.
Doing good is linked to our brand equity, to our R&D, to basically everything in the company. So when times get tough, we can never cut away the humanitarian purpose as other companies with CSR programmes may have to do. If we chip away at our 'profit for a purpose' approach, we chip away at our future.