By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
It’s not surprising that Millennials like beer. Everyone likes beer. Okay, maybe not everyone, but many, many people enjoy a cold brew. Through their core business values, profit model, and internal organization, one company is drawing Millennials left and right: New Belgium Brewery.
Through a series of “happy accidents” Katie Wallace found herself at New Belgium. The employee-owned business embodies happiness itself. I had a chance to chat with Wallace about her work, and why the company operates the way it does. All quotations are from Ms. Wallace.
Being human. Jordan’s background in social work and marketing has brought a human touch to a business that is all about people. For starters, she insisted on New Belgium being employee-owned, with an open-book management policy.
“Honoring our humanness – we’re not machines – unlocks this amazing power in the business, making us more profitable and successful in the long run.”
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
Sodexo is a global quality of life services company, reaching 75 million people on a daily basis. In spite of its size, Sodexo is committed to the local communities it touches and keeping its nearly half a million employees engaged in its mission and values..
Through an interview with Neil Barrett, Sodexo’s Group VP of Sustainable Development, I was able to learn more about how such a big company can be so personal. All italicized text is that of Mr. Barrett’s.
On being a local, global company:
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
When announcing the program back in 2009, CEO Andrew Witty remarked, “There will be a real opportunity … for those people who really feel they want to give something back to society to do that. It is a great chance for our company and the individual to add tremendous value which otherwise cannot be bought.” He elaborates on PULSE and its benefits here.
I had the opportunity to learn more about the program from GSK Investigator and PULSE volunteer, Nick Falco. For six months, he worked alone at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Abuja, Nigeria. Check out our conversation below, and Falco’s cool Tumblr cataloguing the experience here.
Through micro-donations, B1G1 business members support 600 projects in over 30 countries—seeking to create giving communities all over the globe—sparking a happier, connected world.
To learn more about the social-good company, we had the pleasure of speaking with B1G1’s chairman (and avid CompaniesforGood.org reader!) Paul Dunn*.
You’ve stated your interest in creating giving nations powered by giving communities. How do you do that?
Top down it looks like this: [Giving communities] are powered not by individuals as such but by businesses — specifically small to medium scale businesses..[T]hose businesses [spread philanthropy] to their customers and suppliers, so that the giving spreads as virally as possible. [E]ventually you have giving 'communities', which lead to giving nations, which lead to a giving world.
New York Life wants everyone to know they take 'good' seriously. From their #KeepGoodGoing Shorty Award to their overall brand promise, the insurance company is dedicated to maintaining 'good' in every way they operate.
I had a chance to chat with New York Life's Liz McCarthy, senior VP of corporate communications, who gave me the scoop on why good is central to the New York Life brand. All italicized text is from Ms. McCarthy.
We want people to know that New York Life is here “for good” in all senses of the phrase.
Washington, DC has multiple personalities. You may be surprised to learn that the District is more than just a government town—Network for Good’s headquarters are here!—although that overshadows most perceptions around the city.
And as everything in this city is inherently political, people vote with their pocketbooks. One way they do that is through supporting local businesses.
By Allison McGuire & Kate Olsen
OfficeMax and Adopt-A-Classroom have joined forces to erase (pun intended) these teacher-funded classrooms.
We talked with Bill Bonner, principal, bonnerIMPR, who was formerly the Senior Director of External Relations for OfficeMax to get the scoop on how employee engagement and digital transparency are key to this partnership's success.
Check out our full 5 takeaways here.
While we’ve featured IBM many times, we’re in employee engagement mode (our new eGuide is proof of that), and thought their international Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program was worth mentioning again.
We had a chance to chat with Tom Vines, VP of Business and Technical Leadership, who is behind much of the CSC design and implementation. Here are 3 takeaways from our conversation:
By Allison McGuire & Kate Olsen
Did you know U.S. teachers are funding their own classrooms? On average, each teacher spends $1,000 on school supplies. Total cost? $4 billion annually.
Each year the company and its nonprofit partner team up for A Day Made Better, an annual, one-day-only event that awards over 1,000 teachers more than $1,000 each in school supplies. Talk about an authentic cause connection!
We talked with Bill Bonner, principal, bonnerIMPR, who was formerly the Senior Director of External Relations for OfficeMax to get the scoop on his work on this partnership.**
Check out our conversation with Bonner here.
This is the third post in a series around social good, start-up companies to watch. Be sure to check them all out!
Founder Sibté Hassan created a triangle formation where consumer, vendor, and charities create deals of their own. I chatted with Hassan about his business model, and how he'll deal with karmio's business model being likened to those group discount sites.
