CEO, Timberland
- Doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive.
- Philanthropy seems contradictory to profit, but doing good, just like R&D, can translate to value added to the company. You sell people things they never knew they wanted.
- Changes happen at small retail moments -- a consumer at a point of sale, a voter at a ballot, etc.
- Create a hierarchy of your goals. "And" becomes a laundry list -- you don't have to eliminate the rest, but you must prioritize. (Remember that crisis is a great editor -- it makes people overcome differences to solve the imminent problem.)
- You must frame the conversation in an outcome worth fighting for.
- Everyone agrees with your cause intellectually, but how do you make people actually care about it? You need to get people to witness it personally (tipping point theory: you just need 5 people to come).
- One cannot create sustainable change unless one reaches across artificial barriers (e.g. public vs. private sectors).
- Make community service fun -- people have a desire to feel good, feel purposeful. Community service sometimes get a bad connotation (e.g. a judge sentences you to community service).
- The government needs to challenge more and dictate less.
