I can't agree with this. The aim of the Innocent drinks company is to make money. They might do this by promoting a healthy lifestyle (and perhaps tap into the health craze / public conscious), via smoothies (5 a day and all that); however the number 1 aim is to make money. Why on earth do you think the founders asked they're first customers whether they should give up their day jobs for making smoothies??? If making money was some kind of secondary deliverable after other peoples health, surely they would have jacked in their jobs and gone and the rock n roll if they couldn't make ends meet. Oh, they only give back to charity 10% of the profits, leaving ummm 90% for themselves (well it's more than that really cos, giving to charity is frikkin tax efficient).This has certainly been moving since I last checked it!
@stongle Of course, a good level of research and planning would be required to assess the business before hand. I would not start the business because I have no background in organising events like this and in general I work with B2B businesses. However I stand by the fact that a business should be based around a goal that is not focused on money. Of course you get lots of public companies, in particular, driven by this mostly due to the quarterly figures they publish. Or investor groups, who could not give a monkeys about anything else. But any business will stand a much greater chance of success with good focus rather than having "Make money" as number 1 on their objectives list. For example Innocent drinks, had a specific focus, which gave them a product line and even though they are not the cheapest, they have gained loyal customers who agree with the ethos and focus of Innocent and continue to buy their products. Loyal customers are worth their weight in gold!
Making money and being an ethical company, providing good customer service etc are not mutually exclusive; but these are not all goals. Making money is the goal, ethical products and customer services are just tools to deliver or facilitate revenue. Yeah you can build it into you company constitution, whatever; but these are seperate concepts.
Hell, you might have the most ethical and benelovent busniess in the World (selling I dunno eddible sandals to 3rd world countries), but if you don't generate revenue and cashflow in the short term you are going to go bust, in an epic fashion.
Just out of interest, does the business advice you give involve staring at goats? There's some "First Earth" thinking in your business ethics.