It’s rare for any of us to really get a chance to revisit our past work, to dig deeply one more time into some long-completed project in search of new insights and old acquaintances. That is, however, exactly the opportunity we were handed when we decided to update Companies With A Conscience for the 21st Century. Originally published in 1992, the book launched us on an odyssey of discovery that wound up introducing us to some very interesting businesses and some truly enlightened business people. Now, a decade later, it has thrust us yet again into this eye-opening and inspiring universe.
As was immediately obvious to both of us, the time was definitely right for an update. Almost from the moment we first sat down together with a dog-eared first edition to discuss the roads that our subjects had traveled, and how the movement they exemplified had evolved over the past ten years, it became apparent that an essentially new book was on the horizon. So many changes had taken place that we decided from the start to retain just eight of the dozen companies we originally profiled, and totally reorganize the way we told their stories. We also decided to replace four of the original company profiles with different corporate examples in order to provide an updated perspective that was more attuned to the start of a new century with new demands and new expectations. However, those parameters took on a vastly different meaning when September 11th forever changed our worldview, and they shifted yet again as fallout from the Enron collapse incontrovertibly changed the way we look at commerce and industry. If ever there was a time for a business story that was truly positive, we felt this was it. And, as we were pleased to discover once our revision had gotten fully underway, true companies with a conscience continued to be the real deal.
To prepare this new edition, we looked into all of the companies as if we were examining them for the first time. We read everything we could get our hands on about the firms that were new to us this time around before setting out to visit their main offices and some of their satellite sites. We discussed the businesses in detail with people on the shop floor, in the CEO’s office, and at many places in between. For the firms that we were retaining, we likewise dove into the printed record of their last ten years while personally going back to the same range of personnel — including founders and current top executives — for the analysis and perspective that only they could provide.
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So what, exactly, did we find? For one thing, we learned that there is a good reason why a popular saying about transformations over time — the more things change, the more they stay the same — has become a well-worn cliche. We soon found, for instance, that two of the firms that had been leading the charge in the past toward corporate responsibility in the public arena (Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia) were still in the forefront and still pushing the envelope. We discovered that two of the companies that generally operated out of the public spotlight (America Works and Greyston Bakery) had continued along essentially the same paths as before but were taking far bigger strides to impact the communities in which they operate. We noted that two companies that had long been cult favorites (Celestial Seasonings and Birkenstock) were now established as major household names. And two companies that catered to highly specialized audiences (Shorebank and Quickie Designs) had become the top players in growing industries that they themselves virtually created.
There have been significant changes, of course. When we prepared the 1992 edition, Shorebank had 350 employees and Patagonia had 525; now, respectively, they employ 525 and 1,000. Two regular guys from Long Island who cranked out the world’s finest premium ice cream, as well as a Buddhist abbot from Yonkers responsible for an array of incredibly popular gourmet desserts, have moved on from the day-to-day operations at Ben & Jerry’s and Greyston Bakery. Celestial Seasonings merged with the former Hain Food Group. The owner of Quickie Designs faced — and then faced down — a major financial scandal at one of its other subsidiaries. Employees at Birkenstock became its owners. Patagonia named a new CEO, marking the first time that anyone other than co-founder Yvon Chouinard has run the entity. James Fletcher, one of the four visionaries behind Shorebank, died in 1998. Jerry Garcia, co-author of the song lyric that begins this introduction and co-founder of the Grateful Dead rock band — one of the four original Companies With A Conscience that do not appear in this edition — died in 1995.
The biggest change, though, is our inclusion of exciting new examples of socially responsible businesses that produce positive bottom-line results in every area that matters. We’re pleased to introduce old and new readers alike to all of them: Stonyfield Farm, a natural yogurt-maker that uses its company to promote environmentalism; the Tattered Cover Book Store, one of the largest independent book retailers in the U.S. and a staunch supporter of first amendment and privacy rights; the Kansas City Chiefs, the professional football team that takes community relations to a new level; and Interface Inc., the largest industrial floor covering company in the world that is trying to mitigate the negative impacts of their industry. Getting to know these businesses and the people behind them has been has been every bit as enjoyable and informative as becoming reacquainted with the eight businesses retained from our first edition.
Now that the re-visitation process is complete, do we feel companies with a conscience offer a socio-economic cure-all for these confusing and turbulent times? Certainly not. But do we believe that they provide a viable alternative for an Enron- and World Com-weary world? Absolutely. When we sat down to analyze this project the first time, we discovered that there are no better corporate models than those firms that can lay claim to impressive records of community contribution along with a consistent history of corporate achievement. Ten years later, our conclusion is the same.
In this third edition, Companies With A Conscience again features in-depth profiles of a dozen of the best of these businesses — of various sizes and types, in assorted industries and geographic locales — to illustrate the diverse possibilities inherent in this way of doing business. We bring them to you once more in a format that allows them to be read consecutively or in any order, and in a way that allows their collective message to come through. Toward that end we’ve also updated a concluding chapter on the universal lessons that these firms hold out to us, and included the original Introduction verbatim because it still provides a perfect description of what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it.
Finally, we still feel — and feel compelled to say once more — that we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have been presented this opportunity to reexamine these provocative and inspiring people and places a full ten years after our first encounter. Perhaps we’ll look into them again in 2012. In the meantime, we have created a Web site to continue the dialogue that we began in 1992. Please join us at companieswithaconscience.com and tell us what you think.
— Howard Rothman and Mary Scott
November 2003
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