November 12, 2003
Net Impact 2003 Wrap-Up: Commitment and Passion Set the Tone
by Kay Randall
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Meandering through a typical gathering of business professionals, you’re likely to overhear a lot about “profits,” “value,” and “assets.” At the 11th Annual National Net Impact Conference, hosted by the McCombs School of Business, the word on virtually all 800 attendees’ lips, however, was “passion.”
Passion was the theme of chapter-building sessions and keynote addresses during the three-day event. It was the mantra as Net Impact members from Michigan, Stanford, Yale and Columbia gathered for networking happy hours and professional development workshops to discuss ethics, alternative energy sources and the environment.
During an intense marathon of back-to-back discussions, debates, lectures and dinners, business students and leaders from 78 schools and six continents convened to exchange views on a question paramount to all of them – how does one use business to make the world a better place?
For most, the answer began and ended with passion and commitment, and it came in the guise of Seth Goldman, a keynote speaker at the conference and the CEO of Honest Tea.
“My one big takeaway from this year’s conference definitely is Seth Goldman’s speech,” said Teresa Whalen LeFevre, Net Impact Advisory Board Member and Minority Supplier Development Manager at Ford Motor Company. “He perfectly articulated the benefits of Net Impact members networking and nourishing one another at events like this.”
Young, energetic, engagingly ingenuous and enthusiastically adherent to Net Impact principles, the social entrepreneur personified in his presentation an ideal many conference attendees hope to realize as they advance into the business world.
Goldman illustrated in his lively hour-long talk almost every theme and concern that the conference addressed, from the importance of making your work your passion to the challenge of “doing the right thing” in a corporate setting when the chips are down.
Launched out of Goldman’s home in February of 1998 with a small group of Net Impact interns and the support of family and friends, Honest Tea is an example of the little company that could.
The business has doubled sales each year since receiving its first order—from Whole Foods for 15,000 bottles of tea—and has captured an over 30% market share in the industry. This year Goldman won of the Visa Business-Inc. Magazine “Dream Big” contest, recognizing him as a role model for small business owners.
Like most of the standing-room only crowd who listened to his talk, Goldman was an MBA student at a prestigious university and knew that after earning his degree he wanted his career to manifest his deepest beliefs, whether he worked for a mutual fund company or started a beverage company.
“The conventional route is always the easiest route,” said Goldman. “But I have so much pride now in creating a meaningful brand that has a socially responsible component. Every bottle of our product that someone drinks is a net good.”
Honest Tea puts a premium on recycled packaging and uses a portion of profits to alleviate poverty in some of the communities where the tea ingredients originate.
High-grade peppermint leaves for the flavor “First Nation,” for example, are obtained from a company called I’tchik, operated by Crow Indians. The Crow supplied the label art for First Nation, helped develop label language and will be a partner in sales initiatives. In exchange for their marketing efforts, the Crow receive royalties based on First Nation’s sales, with seventy-five percent of the royalty going directly to I'tchik. Twenty-five percent of the royalty will go to a non-profit based in Billings, Montana, that addresses the needs of foster and homeless Native American children.
Although Honest Tea’s brief history has been defined by growth and a string of achievements - with one being that it was named one of the top 500 fastest-growing companies by Inc. magazine – the company has experienced setbacks as well. The progress of Goldman’s company and his resolve to make it a success on his own terms illustrate why commitment and passion are crucial, whether one is working at a nonprofit or a mammoth multinational.
“Over the summer we had to implement a national recall because of broken glass found in two of our bottles at Whole Foods,” said Goldman. “It was the most stressful, scary time in Honest Tea’s short life, but I think we handled it well. Our slogan is ‘Real Tea. Real Taste. Honest.’ I want to make sure that we always conduct business in a way that builds trust.”
In choosing to make his family a priority, in giving a portion of profits back to communities and even in the straightforward packaging of his beverage, Goldman was a real-life example of the ideas that conference attendees encountered in sessions and faculty debates.
“Seth is living proof of what we’ve been talking about here at this conference,” said Ben Klasky, Executive Director for Net Impact. “His story’s a case study in why Net Impact exists.”
In addition to Goldman’s inspirational talk, other conference highlights included:
- Keynote addresses by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Reginald Van Lee, a Senior Vice President in the New York office of Booz Allen Hamilton.
- A faculty case competition in which two teams argued an ethics issue and the audience cast a final vote for the winner.
- A debate between representatives from Dupont and Nike over “the business case versus the values case” for corporate sustainability.
- A business expo where attendees could establish contacts with representatives from companies like Herman Miller and ChevronTexaco and drop off resumes.
- A special movie screening with the director of “Velocity,” Michelle Voss, discussing the theme of sustainable development in her film.
For over a decade, Net Impact has been a home for business students who want to use their business acumen to improve society and protect the planet. It has also been a source of information and encouragement for those who become discouraged in the face of public policies and a job market that they consider antithetical to their goals.
Attendees at this year’s national conference left Austin with a renewed commitment to their values, new professional contacts and some sense of what Goldman meant when he said in his address, “I’m tired, but I’m on fire.”
Notable Soundbites:
Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea:
“A lot of people will tell you it can’t be done – that you
can’t balance your family and your work. Tell them to get out of
your way and do it.”
“Coke and Pepsi are 1000 times larger than Honest Tea, and in
running this little company, I can’t be timid. You have to be
relentless. In our company when we’re out trying to sell the
product, we don’t believe anybody says ‘no’ – they just may not
say ‘yes’ the first ten times.”
Marian Wright Edelmen, Founder and President, Children's Defense Fund:
“I want to see a different world, and I hope you’ll be on the front lines, helping build that great world. I want you to be willing to speak up for what’s right in your careers and take the long view.”
Joel Makower, Editor of The Green Businessletter/GreenBiz.com:
“Corporate sustainability efforts are kind of like teenage sex – everybody says they’re doing it, but very few are. And nobody’s doing it well.”
Caitlin Morris, Senior Manager, Global Issues Management, Nike, Inc.:
“Environmental initiatives seem to draw consumers more than social issues like fair wages being paid to foreign workers. People tend to think, ‘You helped the planet, and we all live on the planet.’”
“We’ll have widespread corporate sustainability efforts that include more companies when somebody can show that it’s profitable. It just comes down to that. We won’t have to have every single company have an environmental crisis of their own, for example, and be forced into more responsible practices.”
Reginald Van Lee, a Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton:
“In the 1980s and 90s, corporate social responsibility was viewed as a necessary evil. You made sure stakeholders were aware of all of the good things that your company did so you’d have reputation equity to fall back on when something went wrong. It was a matter of PR. Now we’re seeing how much things have changed with the convergence of social and business interests and with media, regulators and the public demanding something better.”
For more information, contact Misty Alejo, conference co-chair, at 512-471-4867, or Kay Randall, Public Affairs, at 512-232-3910.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
