PAAES 2009-2012 2ª ETAPA
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GOOD BUSINESS
Is it possible to do good and do well? Businesspeople
with a goal to better society – known as social entrepreneurs
– think so. Unlike traditional non profits, these do-gooder
companies turn a buck while pushing for environmental and
social goals, like helping people out of poverty or reducing
the use of harmful pesticides. And the idea seems to have
caught on; the sector is currently pumping out millions of
dollars in revenue each year. So how can aspiring social
entrepreneurs get in on the success? Newsweek spoke to
Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, a company that
gives away a pair for every pair it sells, and to George Siemon,
a founding farmer of Organic Valley, a dairy co-op, to find
out. Their advice:
Build Around the Problem
You don't need a perfect
solution to offer long-term help.
Mycoskie was in Argentina
when he first noticed rural
children running around
barefoot. Volunteers donated
shoes, but kids didn't always
get the right size. To provide
the correct sizes, over time, he
created a constant revenue stream, making sure each
donated pair was backed with a purchase.
Start Small
"People get scared [about starting a business] because they
think they need a giant loan, but you can start on a very
small scale," Mycoskie says. He began with 250 pairs of
shoes. A small leap lets you test the product so you can
work out kinks. You can also be creative about marketing,
which TOMS still does largely through word of mouth.
Help Your Customer Help You
Customers like to get behind a product they love. That's why
Mycoskie kept the focus of his company simple – so
customers knew what they were doing with every purchase.
"Because we incorporated giving [into our mission],
customers helped spread the word, [that] got media attention,
and retailers even helped market us," he says.
Don't Change What Works
Mycoskie made a near-fatal error by pushing to sell his shoes
in small linen bags instead of boxes. At Nordstrom, the bags
tangled badly, causing the retailer to cancel most of its orders.
"This almost put us out of business," Mycoskie recalls. TOMS
switched to boxes, and Nordstrom is now a big customer.
The lesson: don't reinvent everything.
Cut out the middlemen
George Siemon and other
farmers realized that allowing
the middlemen who sold their
milk to determine prices left
many farmers broke. So they cut
them out, and went straight to
customers. They found that
consumers who anted organic
milk were willing to pay a fair
price for it and that connection
led to Organic Valley’s success.
Take on partners with power
Partners are a great idea when they bring something specific
to the table. When Siemon banded together with other farmers
to create their organic cooperative farming business, they
shared profits and losses. Working as a group of farmers
also gave Organic Valley more bargaining power and
expanded their reach and influence.
Break parts of the model
If you have a special or unique product, consider coming up
with a new selling model isn’t working. In Organic Valley’s
case, the farmers decided to throw out milk’s old sales model.
They then replaced it with one that set the price based on
what farmers needed to live rather than market demand.
Have a backup plan
You should have a plan to help maintain your product’s worth.
When farmers could not get the price they needed for their
organic milk, they relabeled it regular milk and sold it for
less. That meant less money in the short term, but helped
preserve the value of the organic label, ensuring higher prices
for it in the long term.
De acordo com o texto, marque, para as afirmativas abaixo,
(V) verdadeira, (F) falsa ou (SO) sem opção. No trecho
You can also be creative about marketing, which
TOMS still does largely through word of mouth,
a frase TOMS still does largely through word of mouth pode
ser melhor interpretada como:
1-
(
)
2-
(
)
3-
(
)
4-
(
)
Para começar uma empresa tem que haver forte investimento em marketing.
Não é interessante que o consumidor saiba
como o empresário investe no social.
A empresa TOMS ainda conta com a divulgação de consumidor para consumidor.
O marketing alternativo deve ser utilizado por
empresas com responsabilidade social.
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