Business as Unusual

by Anita Roddick

Book Overview

In terms of power and influence, you can forget the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business, which is why I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed. Anita Roddick

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0722539878
• ISBN13: 9780722539873
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Thorsons Publishers
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Make your business a powerful force for social change

"I am not interested in business as usual. It is business as unusual that excites me", said Anita Roddick, the founder of "Body Shop". Like Prof Michael Porter, Roddick learns how "uniqueness" can be a powerful business tool, a source of "competitive advantage" and how "doing the right thing" can have many long term effects for a company, not only internally but for all its customers and suppliers. Roddick emphasises that her managers must be great "story tellers": The story behind your business and its product will set it apart. Finally, in wanting to use her business as an instrument to change the world, Roddick followed the great Quaker businessmen of the 19th century, for whom wealth was only true wealth when it benefited everyone involved. The best enterprise, this outlook holds, is a purposeful community that also happens to make money.

Building Sustainable Businesses

I first heard about Anita Roddick on NPR this spring during their memorial to her life. She sounded like someone that I could learn from as I develop my new business. I finally bought the book and read it with great interest. It is now dog-eared to mark all the pages where her experience or her philosophy fuel my vision for my business. A great read for these fertile times in which to create businesses that honor humanity and nature to bring about times of beauty and truth.

Make every MBA student read this book!

....This is the story of that woman and the company she founded. Today, with over 1,800 Body Shops worldwide, and many a dissenting corporate CEO cursing at the very mention of her name, she commands an empire that still stands for something of value in this world. Anita is one of the very few people I have read or studied, that truly "walks her walk". The others merely pay lip service to the environment or other cultures less 'civilized' than ours. Like Anita, this book really "tells it like it is." This book should be mandatory reading for every MBA student in the world. Perhaps being exposed to Anita's philosophies, examples and case studies of how to build from a start-up to an international retailing empire, will help save a few of them from the "nothing matters but the quarterly bottom line" syndrome. Anita's book lays out a positive path and a myriad of methods one can use to identify, analyze and address business problems and opportunities in a sane manner. It is a way of doing business that first takes into consideration people, not just profits. It's a company with "attitude".

How businesses can be about public good, not private greed

Anita Roddick is the founder of The Body Shop and is a leading spokesperson for corporate social responsibility who has used her successful business acumen to demonstrate that business decisions based on moral leadership is a sound and profitable model for today's competitive and global marketplace. In Business As Unusual Roddick charts the ups and downs of her business, while sharing her vision of how all businesses can be about public good rather than private greed. Her own company, The Body Shop, is an example of her message concerning corporate responsibility and commitment to human rights and social issues with its 1500 stores serving 86 million customers in 47 markets and 24 languages. Highly recommended reading for MBA students, aspiring entrepreneurs, and corporate managers at all levels of responsibility.

great book to start the year 2001

I picked up the book during my xmas trip to Singapore, and it is a great book. The content is inspiring, with lots of personal view of one of the rare-type captain of industry. Think how bodyshop can be a household name without any advertising, this is a mixture of business, entrepreneurship, and self determination toward the betterment of the world. a crusade from a lady who genuinely love the -world-, an activist legend of her own. The book is full of Anita's journey and experiences (and the growing pains). It maybe just a buzz for bodyshop, it is still an enjoyable reading, and thus worth buying.The way the book is presented is beautiful and enjoyable, one of the business-book-trend that i love, from the tom peters lots of pictures and wordings, to gary hamel new -leading the revolution-, this one comes with lots of -quotes- in GOLD COLOR pages. I beleive a book should have content and CONTEXT, the way the books is read, is now as important as the message. Design now play important roles in business books.Yes, this is still a business book. I do not like the cover though.. ;-)