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In The News |
| Heart & Soul Five ethical, do-good businesses achieve financial success, charitable wealth By Robert L. Shook Today’s business world is driven on a dog-eat-dog mentality, but with the collapse of the financial industry, we’re seeing that the most cutthroat way isn’t the best way. Robert L. Shook, veteran business journalist, shows how the business world and corporate culture can undergo a significant transformation in thinking where the first priority is people. In Heart & Soul, Shook profiles five companies that have reached the highest level of success by treating employees and customers with respect. The companies include cosmetics giant Mary KayInc.; hearing aid manufacturer Starkey Laboratories; InRETURN, a company that assists those with brain injuries find work; dialysis company DaVita Inc.; and IT and supply chain solutions company World Wide Technology Inc. Starkey Bill Austin is passionate about people’s hearing. As the CEO of Starkey Laboratories, the world’s largest manufacturer of custom hearing aids, and inventor of the first in-the-ear hearing aid, Austin’s personal mission is to help as many people with hearing loss as possible. He sees the resistance of many people to admit hearing loss as a challenge and used his natural talents to grow his business into a $700 million company. Austin also founded the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which gives away roughly $50 million and 100,000 hearing aids each year to the underprivileged around the world. He personally spends four months each year assisting the hearing-impaired in poor countries. He also heads up a hearing conservation program called Sound Matters. Austin is the only CEO of the six major hearing aid manufacturers who treats patients daily. He feels his true calling is to help people and "live a purpose-driven life." World Wide Technology World Wide Technology Inc. was founded in 1990 on the principles its founder David Stewart lives by: serve others and follow the Golden Rule. Stewart relied on a strong work ethic and faith to get through his childhood as a black in the 1960s. Now he runs the largest majority African-American–owned company in the U.S. He believes treating people with respect creates loyalty, and loyal employees bring in more customers. The option to wear flip-flops is one way the company culture creates a friendly work environment for the dedicated employees of what is now a $3 billion company, and customers reap the benefits of that. Stewart maintains that the better the employees are treated, the better they will serve customers. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, a customer ordered an emergency shipment of laptops sent to the Pentagon. Employees, even those not in shipping, worked late to ensure the shipment got off, and some workers have even turned down better-paying jobs to stay at the company they love. InRETURN InRETURN is the brainchild of Rob Groeschen, whose role model and older brother, Tom, suffered a brain injury following a car accident in his late teens. After the accident, the only job Tom could find was cleaning bathrooms and soon found himself unemployed. Knowing his brother lacked fulfillment, Groeschen created InRETURN to help his brother and others with brain injuries. An environmentally focused company, InRETURN creates "socks" meant to absorb oil and other wastes from manufacturing plants for recycling. The company uses an assembly-line system, and each production associate, all workers with brain injuries, has a specific task to do. InRETURN, which gives the workers rides to and from work, strives to give people with these impediments a feeling that, like anyone else, they can be productive members of society. As Groeschen hoped, caregivers report that their loved ones have higher self-esteem and sense of achievement after working at InRETURN. The higher-ups encourage and listen to feedback from the associates on how to improve the company. Shaun Shipp, one of Groeschen’s customers, said, "[I]t’s good to know that we’re doing business with an individual who has such compassion and truly cares about other people." Mary Kay After being dissatisfied with customer and employee treatment—especially that of women at companies she had worked for, Mary Kay Ash made a list of what she liked and didn’t like about the companies. Mary Kay’s mother told her from a young age that she could do whatever she wanted to as long as she was driven enough. Kay thought, "Wouldn’t be wonderful if somebody started a company like this, instead of just talking about it." Mary Kay did just that. At age 45, with a savings of $5,000, Ash started Dallas-based Mary Kay Inc. in 1963. With the Golden Rule as her basis, Ash and her company would treat the employees and customers with the utmost respect and provide women with opportunities they never had before. Her philosophy was simple and had no hidden agenda: The more you worked, the more money you made. The salespeople were trained on how to use the products and answer questions from customers—something Ash felt was lacking in the sales industry. She knew that the sales force was the backbone of her company so even at the Dallas headquarters treated them like queens whenever they visited. In a company where Ash insisted that everyone be on a first-name basis, she valued her employees—whether someone was just starting out or had earned a trademark pink Cadillac, one of the many rewards offered as an incentive to sell more. She always took time to meet with employees, respected their opinions and made them feel important. "I never cease to be amazed at how positively people react when they’re made to feel important," Ash said. One of the reasons the Mary Kay Seminar (convention) attracts 50,000 people per year was Ash’s gift of working large crowds, but yet making each person feel as though she was speaking to them individually. Even now, the videos of Ash played at Seminar induce huge reactions. DaVita DaVita Inc., which means "giving life" in Italian, is the leading dialysis company in the United States. Dialysis serves as the main treatment for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), also known as chronic kidney disease. DaVita is responsible for 25 percent of the 450,000 Americans who use dialysis treatments. DaVita, Inc. is the only company in this book that, although a giant, almost lost everything due to overexpansion. In October 1999, while on the rocks, the company hired a new CEO, Kent Thiry, in an attempt to go in a different direction. Thiry brought in people he had known previously, including some who had to be convinced DaVita Inc. was changing its way before he accepted the job. The new focus was quality care rather than just bringing in money. Knowing change was needed but that people are wary of it, Thiry organized an executive retreat for people to meet him and boost company morale. Thiry started communicating serious messages in light-hearted ways. "We could conduct big teleconferences, and we could give serious sermons about the mission and values we advocated," Thiry said. "But that put people to sleep. Instead, we needed to tell real stories about real DaVita people." He also encouraged employees to vote on the new values of service, excellence, accountability, integrity, team, continuous improvement and fulfillment. *** All of these companies were created or are run by someone who saw true value in serving others. With that philosophy and the resulting customer and employee loyalty, the profits have more than come. These companies are not only successful, but lead their fields, with and integrity as cornerstones of their business practices. A little heart and soul goes a long way. |
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