Tag Archives: Nike

Why Your Company Should Have A Social Mission

Why integrate a social mission into your business? You’re an entrepreneur with an idea and maybe a business plan, a small-business owner or the head of mid-sized company.  To expect you to add social purpose to your business just because it’s a good thing to do, is foolish.  You have a bottom-line and other obligations […]

To Tap Cause Marketing’s Huge Potential, Do Less Of It

This piece was originally written for and published on Reach Students. If 94% of Millennials condone cause marketing why do only 53% report buying a product that benefits a cause in the past year?  The first finding is compelling, the second certainly is not, particularly given that in many stores you’d have to struggle not to buy […]

A Zinger: CSR Now Seen As ‘Potentially Dangerous’

I’m stymied by another article from The Wall Street Journal challenging the plausibility and benefit of corporate social responsibility.  In “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility” Aneel Karnani takes the Friedmanite view that companies are primarily responsible for maximizing shareholder profits. To make his point that profit trumps social good, he focuses on the relationship between company […]

How Much Does a Business Need to Believe in Sustainability to Do It Well?

“If you’re pushing sustainability because you think it will enhance the company’s reputation, you’ll have a problem with authenticity, because they’ll be times when your reality doesn’t live up to your rhetoric. But if you’re into sustainability because you think it will drive innovation, then talking about it almost becomes irrelevant.”  –Hannah Joes, Nike’s sustainability […]

3 Things REI Should Do to Turn Its Social Programs Into a Social Mission

Dear REI, Your products are good, but you are missing a bit of edge. With you, I’m getting a durable jacket. With Patagonia, I’m getting a durable jacket and helping to save the planet. That’s how Patagonia makes me feel about their products. Pretty powerful, right?   The thing is, you are doing good work […]

Your Competitive Advantage Lies in Your Social Responsibility–with Seventh Generation’s Jeffrey Hollender

I started Cause Capitalism to convince you that having a social mission will help grow your business and to show you how. I want you (and me) to be able to create a sector-changing business like Jeffrey Hollender did with Seventh Generation. Long before it was fashionable, Jeffrey took toilet paper and dish detergent and […]