What a Dame!
What a Dame!
Updated 01:05am (Mla time) Nov 27, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHEN she was named to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in 1988, thereby earning for herself the title of "Dame," The Body Shop founder and chair Anita Roddick says, it provoked not respect and honor from her family, but endless jokes and ribbing. Even her friends got into the picture, she complains, calling her up and singing to her: "There ain't nothing like a daaamme..."
"I don't get any respect from them," she exclaims, laughing.
Since letting go of hands-on management of The Body Shop, Dame Anita has spent much of her time traveling around the world and espousing a wide range of causes from fair trade to environmental protection, from the politics of water to the ideology driving wars, writing and editing a number of books as well as creating content for two websites devoted to her personal causes.
Asked if her husband Gordon and their two daughters don't mind the time and energy she devotes to global politics, she smiles and shakes her head vigorously. "They're exactly like me," she says, from which one can infer that they are as direct and blunt as she, with an instinctive sense of activism that tells her she must do "something" wherever she may encounter human suffering and injustice.
Her recent talk before the British Chamber of Commerce was entitled "Business as Unusual," promising her audience, "I will entertain you." More than that, she may have also discomfited them. "Rarely has business been celebrated and lauded as it is today," she began. "It's the creator of jobs, technological innovation and wealth. It is more creative and 'can turn on a dime' quicker than any other institution. It's no longer seen as the load-bearer of an oppressive capitalism -- it's the embodiment of all progress."
And yet, as can be expected from this maverick of a "Dame," there were more caveats than kudos to business.
* * *
"EVERYONE agrees on one important thing: business is now entering centre stage," she said later on in her presentation. "It is faster, more creative and wealthier than governments -- particularly the governments in developing nations who depend upon their expertise-but if it comes with no moral sympathy, or honourable code of behaviour, God help us all."
A hallmark of the way The Body Shop does business is its ability to draw customers into the various causes that the firm has supported, from the prevention of domestic violence to a ban on animal testing. As Roddick puts it: "Campaigning is our point of difference and separates The Body Shop from most other companies."
But no other issue draws as much outrage from the public, notes Roddick, than child labor, which she bluntly calls slavery. "How are we all contributing to this?" she asks her business audience. "It is our insistence on price competition. This competition makes everyone look at ways of cutting costs, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to use child labor."
* * *
DAME Anita has little patience for cynics who claim her and The Body Shop's activism is little more than a marketing tool. "Human rights and poverty aren't trendy at all," she scoffs. "If campaigning on these issues really gave us a marketing edge, then why don't they copy it?"
At a time when The Body Shop was outgrowing its beginnings as a small chain of neighborhood stores and expanding across the globe, Roddick forsook the advice of experts and ramped-up the company's espousal of controversial causes.
These days, her critique extends beyond unethical corporate practices to questioning the very system that breeds such unethical behavior. "Business must show more developed emotions than fear and greed," she insists.
In her talk, Roddick urged companies to go beyond the comfort provided by talk of "corporate social responsibility." "All too often," she said, corporate social responsibility "has been seen as a way of preserving the status quo -- to lend a brand the aura of morality -- rather than re-think how the company exists in the wider community." But the problem with looking at a firm's social responsibility merely as an institutionalized form of charity, is that it "doesn't seem to be able to stand up against the demands of the markets. Or the main measure of success for CEOs, which is usually now share price."
* * *
DECLARES Dame Anita: "Corporate social responsibility is simply not going to develop into anything worthwhile unless there is some reform of the financial system. So that bold ethical experiments do not actually make things worse for the companies trying them out."
Will this woman, with her wild hair and plainspoken manner, with her wide embrace for the world's downtrodden, finally succeed in overturning the way capitalism works? The odds don't seem to be in her favor, for how can she succeed where socialism and communism have not, and where social reformers through the decades have been met only with cynicism and pity?
Then again, who would have thought a young housewife, desperate for a way to support herself and her children while her husband spent two years living out a dream to ride on horseback through South America, would emerge as a businesswoman of uncanny vision who virtually created her own market? Who would have thought The Body Shop would become the global brand it is today?
Asked about any dreams she may still harbor, Dame Anita mentions her 90-year-old mother who is terminally ill and has her funeral all planned, including having her ashes go up in smoke as fireworks. "She wants us to remember her life as one filled with color and festivity," Roddick explains.
And is she looking forward to "going" in the same way? "Oh, my plans are even more fun and funnier!" And somehow, one knows this Dame will pull it off.
Updated 01:05am (Mla time) Nov 27, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHEN she was named to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in 1988, thereby earning for herself the title of "Dame," The Body Shop founder and chair Anita Roddick says, it provoked not respect and honor from her family, but endless jokes and ribbing. Even her friends got into the picture, she complains, calling her up and singing to her: "There ain't nothing like a daaamme..."
"I don't get any respect from them," she exclaims, laughing.
Since letting go of hands-on management of The Body Shop, Dame Anita has spent much of her time traveling around the world and espousing a wide range of causes from fair trade to environmental protection, from the politics of water to the ideology driving wars, writing and editing a number of books as well as creating content for two websites devoted to her personal causes.
Asked if her husband Gordon and their two daughters don't mind the time and energy she devotes to global politics, she smiles and shakes her head vigorously. "They're exactly like me," she says, from which one can infer that they are as direct and blunt as she, with an instinctive sense of activism that tells her she must do "something" wherever she may encounter human suffering and injustice.
Her recent talk before the British Chamber of Commerce was entitled "Business as Unusual," promising her audience, "I will entertain you." More than that, she may have also discomfited them. "Rarely has business been celebrated and lauded as it is today," she began. "It's the creator of jobs, technological innovation and wealth. It is more creative and 'can turn on a dime' quicker than any other institution. It's no longer seen as the load-bearer of an oppressive capitalism -- it's the embodiment of all progress."
And yet, as can be expected from this maverick of a "Dame," there were more caveats than kudos to business.
* * *
"EVERYONE agrees on one important thing: business is now entering centre stage," she said later on in her presentation. "It is faster, more creative and wealthier than governments -- particularly the governments in developing nations who depend upon their expertise-but if it comes with no moral sympathy, or honourable code of behaviour, God help us all."
A hallmark of the way The Body Shop does business is its ability to draw customers into the various causes that the firm has supported, from the prevention of domestic violence to a ban on animal testing. As Roddick puts it: "Campaigning is our point of difference and separates The Body Shop from most other companies."
But no other issue draws as much outrage from the public, notes Roddick, than child labor, which she bluntly calls slavery. "How are we all contributing to this?" she asks her business audience. "It is our insistence on price competition. This competition makes everyone look at ways of cutting costs, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to use child labor."
* * *
DAME Anita has little patience for cynics who claim her and The Body Shop's activism is little more than a marketing tool. "Human rights and poverty aren't trendy at all," she scoffs. "If campaigning on these issues really gave us a marketing edge, then why don't they copy it?"
At a time when The Body Shop was outgrowing its beginnings as a small chain of neighborhood stores and expanding across the globe, Roddick forsook the advice of experts and ramped-up the company's espousal of controversial causes.
These days, her critique extends beyond unethical corporate practices to questioning the very system that breeds such unethical behavior. "Business must show more developed emotions than fear and greed," she insists.
In her talk, Roddick urged companies to go beyond the comfort provided by talk of "corporate social responsibility." "All too often," she said, corporate social responsibility "has been seen as a way of preserving the status quo -- to lend a brand the aura of morality -- rather than re-think how the company exists in the wider community." But the problem with looking at a firm's social responsibility merely as an institutionalized form of charity, is that it "doesn't seem to be able to stand up against the demands of the markets. Or the main measure of success for CEOs, which is usually now share price."
* * *
DECLARES Dame Anita: "Corporate social responsibility is simply not going to develop into anything worthwhile unless there is some reform of the financial system. So that bold ethical experiments do not actually make things worse for the companies trying them out."
Will this woman, with her wild hair and plainspoken manner, with her wide embrace for the world's downtrodden, finally succeed in overturning the way capitalism works? The odds don't seem to be in her favor, for how can she succeed where socialism and communism have not, and where social reformers through the decades have been met only with cynicism and pity?
Then again, who would have thought a young housewife, desperate for a way to support herself and her children while her husband spent two years living out a dream to ride on horseback through South America, would emerge as a businesswoman of uncanny vision who virtually created her own market? Who would have thought The Body Shop would become the global brand it is today?
Asked about any dreams she may still harbor, Dame Anita mentions her 90-year-old mother who is terminally ill and has her funeral all planned, including having her ashes go up in smoke as fireworks. "She wants us to remember her life as one filled with color and festivity," Roddick explains.
And is she looking forward to "going" in the same way? "Oh, my plans are even more fun and funnier!" And somehow, one knows this Dame will pull it off.
posted by Dante at 1:05 AM
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