While he was in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting his daughter at college, business and leadership blogger Dan Oswald saw a local newspaper with the headline “Live Generously: How three Gardendale teenagers hope to change lives with new business.”
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Oswald, CEO of BLR, shared his thoughts about the article in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter:
The article caught my attention for a number of reasons. I love the “Live Generously” lead. I just think it’s a great concept. Add to it the teen and business angles, and I was hooked. The article is about three high-school girls who have plans to start a T-shirt business and donate 100 percent of the profits to charities. A pretty neat concept for these three teenagers to come up with.
While the concept of companies giving back isn’t new, there’s been a distinct trend toward the mixing of business and philanthropy. Take TOMS, for instance. The shoe company’s website proclaims, “We’re in business to help change lives.” TOMS is involved in two forms of giving. First, since the company started in 2006, it has given away a pair of new shoes to a child in need every time a customer buys a pair of shoes. And now that it sells eyewear as well, it helps restore the sight of someone in need every time someone purchases a pair of eyeglasses. TOMS even has a “Giving Report” on its website that explains its programs and reports on what the company has done with its charitable efforts.
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And it’s not just TOMS that is mixing business with giving back. In addition to the traditional charitable organizations, there are now “for benefit” organizations, B corporations, and low-profit limited-liability corporations—a new twist on the traditional business model we have accepted for so long. It’s a different way of thinking about how businesses operate within our society and the positive impact they can have in ways other than just providing a product or service to their customers and a paycheck to their employees.
If you’re a regular reader, you may recall the “MBA Oath” I wrote about a while back. Created by a group of Harvard MBA students, the oath states business grads will pursue more than just the bottom line. It begins, “As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone.” Don’t you think the managers at TOMS have done this? Don’t you think those three Alabama girls are beginning a trek to do the same?
It never hurts to think about the various ways we can give back, whether it be personally or through our work. When you have a trio of teenagers thinking about how they can mix their career interests with charity, it shows that there is a different way to think about philanthropy and business. I’d encourage you to think about what you can do, what your team can do, and what your company can do to make a difference in the world beyond just providing a product or service to your customers. How can you help change lives?
Good advise. Many unions make valuable contributions to their communities by sponsoring food banks, building homes, donating to domestic violence shelters, and the list goes on and on. When corporate America gives back (or even paying it forward) in those represented companies, it is often the rank-n-file workforce that actually does the manual labor and sometimes heavy lifting. A partnership model could be better. Either way, whether it comes from the bottom up or the top down, this is good information.
Thank you so much for sharing such inspirational information. I use the HR Daily Advisor to help me manage a mid-size non-profit. I am grateful to be reminded that there is altruism in the business community. The scale of the philanthropy in the article is very encouraging!