purchasing power), businesses need to spread some
of that growth to the wider world around them, for
the sake of the planet – but also for themselves.
When Zeitz was encouraging Levatich to think
about sustainability, for example, he focused not
just on the moral justification for electric engines,
but on the needs of Harley-Davidson customers to
have healthy natural landscapes in which to ride.
Levatich remembers talking about “what every
rider loves about the ride – it’s the environment
they’re riding in, isn’t it? After that, it was easy
to get brand alignment, and then you’re right into
using that argument to support [sustainability]
as part of the brand.” Eventually, Harley-Davidson
devised a new mission, turning the brand’s historic
celebration of freedom into a desire “to preserve
and renew the freedom to ride”.
Zeitz manages to convince business leaders
to embrace his vision because he himself has
repeatedly led by example. At Puma, he increased
the company’s share price by 4,000 per cent while
also introducing two procedures that have since
influenced businesses across the world. In 2008, he
created PUMAVision, an ethical code of behaviour
that applied to the company’s staff, its business
dealings and its relationships with external organi-
sations. Three years later, he developed the environ-
mental profit and loss account, which set a monetary
value on the natural resources that were used by
Puma across its supply chain. (Zeitz could even tell
you about the environmental impact of the aglets- the little plastic tips on the shoelaces of Puma’s
trainers.) This meant that “natural services”, as
they were called by academics at the time, could
be brought into accounting spreadsheets.
At Kering, Zeitz introduced environmental profit
and loss accounting to all companies, including
Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, McQueen and Balen-
ciaga; and at the same time he pushed through
sustainability standards in supply chains that set
the group apart from its competitors. While he was
with the company, its share price rose 150 per cent.
At The B Team his advisers include Salesforce
co-CEO Marc Benioff, former PepsiCo CEO and chairIndra Nooyi, and Danone CEO Emmanuel
Faber. They are pushing the idea of
“business as a force for good” – the
group was thanked by then British Prime
Minister David Cameron for pressing the
2015 Paris climate conference to adopt
the first ever legally binding climate
change deal, under which 196 countries
signed up to a commitment to limit the
increase in global average temperatures
to 1.5°C. The B Team is now bringing
together businesses and organisations
with the aim of eradicating anonymous
shell companies and associated
corruption (which it estimates costs $2.6
trillion, or over two per cent of global
GDP, annually). Two hundred companies
are working with The B Team, and some,
including Unilever and Brazil’s Natura,
have opened up their ownership struc-
tures as a result of the campaign.
Levatich characterises Zeitz as both
inspirational and practical. When Zeitz
introduced his environmental profit
and loss accounting concept to Harley-
Davidson, he says, it was a crucial
moment. “That’s the tool that we use to
ensure that we do the right thing and the
best things we can do,” Levatich says.
“It’s important to point out that this
didn’t cost us money – it saved money.”Zeitz was born in Mannheim, Germany,
in 1963, to a gynaecologist father and
dentist mother. His parents had strong
values: he remembers his father almost
being fired when he insisted on intro-
ducing mammography at his hospital
when the Christian medical authorities
objected. Zeitz grew up at a time when
the Green and anti- nuclear movements
were enjoying strong support, and that,
together with the family lodge in the
Odenwald forest, planted the seed of
his environmentalism. He says he was
a “pretty regular” kid, though, into
American football and westerns, and
interested in becoming a doctor. It was
only when he enrolled on a business
course before medical school that he
developed an interest in commerce.
After a job with Colgate-Palmolive,
he was headhunted to work on Puma’s
marketing. “The company was a total
mess, basically,” he says. “It had made
no money since going public in 1988. I
worked with three CEOs in two and a
half years, and there was no marketing
department. I had to build it up, and
when I produced a plan they looked at
me as if I was from another planet.”
Zeitz has been characterised as
impatient and demanding unrealisticJochen Zeitz with an electric Harley-Davidson LiveWire motorcycle11-19-FTJochen.indd 145 17/09/2019 13:25