While many assume that American businesses are struggling based on the high unemployment rate, the 18-month long Great Recession officially ended in June. The third quarter of 2010 brought higher profits for American businesses than any other quarter in recorded history. In this perplexing year that was good for business but bad for the American worker, we wanted to highlight five business organizations that have not only had good years financially, but have also made efforts to either take care of their employees, the environment or their local communities.
1. Honest Tea
While HonestTea hit a marketing bonanza in 2009 when President Obama revealed that he was stocking the White House with the brew, it was also going through an internal identity struggle. Coca-Cola had purchased a 40 percent stake in HonestTea early in 2008, and many felt it was a mismatch. After all, HonestTea had positioned itself as the healthy alternative to Coke's high-fructosy offerings. But despite major pressure from the world's No. 1 beverage company, HonestTea has remained true to its roots and rebuffed many of Coke's suggestions. They continue to produce a healthy and tasty drink--but, more importantly, they continue to do it their way, focusing on quality, their people and minimizing their impact on the planet.
While HonestTea hit a marketing bonanza in 2009 when President Obama revealed that he was stocking the White House with the brew, it was also going through an internal identity struggle. Coca-Cola had purchased a 40 percent stake in HonestTea early in 2008, and many felt it was a mismatch. After all, HonestTea had positioned itself as the healthy alternative to Coke's high-fructosy offerings. But despite major pressure from the world's No. 1 beverage company, HonestTea has remained true to its roots and rebuffed many of Coke's suggestions. They continue to produce a healthy and tasty drink--but, more importantly, they continue to do it their way, focusing on quality, their people and minimizing their impact on the planet.
Their efforts have been rewarded, as they've recently been named a finalist in Inc.'s top small workplaces, and have raked in niche awards like Men's Health Best Bottled Tea. While they have an aversion to traditional marketing methods, Honest Tea continues to grow through unique efforts that represent who they are as an organization. (Co-founder Seth Goldman is a panelist for On Leadership, and wrote about rethinking corporate philanthropy here.)
(Sean Goldstein)Honest Tea is awesome. There brand name is very catchy and an original play on words. It is good to see new companies striving ahead with the economy the way it is. Through there green marketing campaign they have gained much support. There are a few beverage companies that have come out that are gaining some consumer loyalty. Zico is one that comes to mind right away. They too are owned party by Coca Cola but have stayed true to their roots. They produce a healthy alternative drink that is coconut water. They have a line of different flavors and the drink is very healthy, loaded with vitamins and minerals needed to support a healthy life style.
ReplyDeleteThese nutritional drinks that have been working there way into the spotlight have had an impact on the beverage world. I would not be surprised to see them gain more market share as time goes on.
Sean - interesting stuff about Zico. It's also a bit sad to know that larger companies like Coca Cola seem to swallow these smaller companies up. And at the same time, their size probably allows the smaller company to expand and reach more consumers very quickly....
ReplyDeleteHonest Tea has the potential to get just as much recognition as Coca-Cola. I'm glad they didn't completely surrender to Coca-Cola's offers. Our economy needs these smaller companies to grow and keep growing to sizes of these other companies(Coca-Cola). With the great products they offer, HonestTea can be the top spot in the beverage industry.
ReplyDeleteOf the companies listed in the article the two that I am most interested in is Honest Tea and Good Business International. It is refreshing to finally hear of some businesses that refuse to be unethical and want to focus on doing what is the best for everything and everyone involved. A company comparable in ethics I believe is Bob Evans. If one were to go to the website, he or she would be able to find the company's code of conduct and easily relate it to their every day lives. I believe to make the general population better, the businesses we deal with must be better. Its comforting to know that there are companys set out to do just that.
ReplyDeleteAll five of these companies show true leadership. The company that stood out the most to me was Honest Tea. It's really hard to stand up and keep to your values and goals especially when a top company in the business owns so much stock. It was definitely not easy to disagree with a company like Coca Cola but was necessary to the integrity of the company. I find it refreshing and impressive that this company stuck to their roots and continued what they started even when pressured. This shows amazing leadership skill to stay true to the founding principles.
ReplyDeleteIt has been hard for small businesses to stay true and not change to conform to the most popular audience. For a leader to be successful, I think that they need to stay true and be confident in whatever it is that they are leading may it be a product, a company, or just a small group of people. If the leader is not confident and if they are constantly changing and conforming to what is “in” then I don’t believe that they will be successful for many reasons: their product may suffer from change and their followers may not be satisfied so in turn they lose the customers that they once had. It show outstanding leadership qualities to be able to stay true to the HonestTea product and keep it a small, but running business.
ReplyDeleteThe impacting thing in this article is the increase in profits of Starbucks and GM. They decided to take a different approach to their markets and made major profits to it. Starbucks is an already unstoppable for and at least 3 million people drink their coffee every. Their waste reduction campaign has further increased their profits because they use recycled cups and less water and electricity. This may cause boycotts to step to the dark side per say. GM decided to make a 180 and choose a more altruistic side of car sales. They made cuts but had no choice to, like every other company. They introduced a electric car and increased profits by 20 million and the care is motor trends car of the year. Very smart and impression business decision.
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