who make the policy decisions ... must lead with integrity, commitment
and passion, otherwise a cynicism pervades the whole place,’ says
Roddick. ‘Corporate culture is the most important part of a growing
company like The Body Shop – it is the values, the rituals, the goals, the
hero’s characteristic of a company’s style.’
The responsibility of profits
After The Body Shop was launched on the Unlisted Securities Market and
the shops were all proving profitable, Roddick set up an environmental
and communities department to translate her beliefs and concerns into
practical projects. Each franchised outlet is required to take on a commu-
nity project in its area, ‘which is there to give the young women in the
organisation additional status and helps them realise that everyone has the
ability to change the world for the better’. All projects are taken on within
working hours, and franchisees choose what they want to do. There is no
coercion.
This determination to use private profit for public good is now reaching
out to some of the remotest parts of the Third World, where one of the
latest projects is setting up a paper-making plant in a Tibetan refugee
camp. The paper is processed from pineapple and banana leaves and will
be used for wrapping Body Shop products.
In Southern India, The Body Shop has set up a boys’ town for destitute
youngsters. The boys are taught rural crafts and to make Christmas cards,
and the money from the sales is put into trust funds. When the youngsters
leave at the age of 16 they have the means to purchase a herd of sheep or a
horse and cart, giving them a vital start. So far, over 3000 jobs have been
created and the scheme has made about £100,000 profit, and supplies The
Body Shop with soap bags and wooden foot massagers.
The whole process is seen to be self-perpetuating, with ingredients
obtained from the Third World, providing work and sustenance for under-
privileged societies, making products that are sold to the more fortunate,
the profits of which are ploughed back into an educational programme
which aims to make people more aware of the critical social issues of our
time.
The plight of the inhabitants of the Amazon rain forest has been the
subject of a worldwide campaign by the company, which has raised
£250,000 for their defence. It has mobilized employees for petition drives
and fund-raising campaigns, carried out through the shops and in
company time. It has produced window displays, T-shirts, brochures and
videotapes to educate people about the issues, and has even printed
appeals on the side of its delivery trucks.
The Body Shop was the first company in Britain to use jojoba oil in cos-
The referral and influence market domains 295