Today, I decided to be productive and studied for most of the day, but as I am a member of Net Impact, I also attended a speech and Q&A session with Jeff Hollender. Jeff is the founder of Seventh Generation and is the ex-CEO prior to getting fired this past October (yes, he was fired from the company he founded). Jeff started the company in 1988, his third entrepreneurial enterprise, and led it until this past year. Seventh Generation's motto is to ensure that each decision the company makes has considered the impact on the next seven generations; thus, its name. It makes non-toxic products for the household such as baby wipes, detergent, toilet paper and other cleaners and is located in many stores from Target to Walmart so you may have seen the products.
Jeff is a true idealist at heart. He believes that he can change how America is run and has worked on countless councils and boards speaking about sustainability and activism. When my turn came up for a question though, instead of asking the typical questions about greenwashing, sustainability and entrepreneurial "best practices," I was curious about how he positioned himself in reaction to the past several months. He discussed repurposing and repositioning himself. He mentioned not trusting anyone in business and in a matter of words, how when one founds a company, to never let go of the majority stakeholder. He doesn't know where his next move is, but I am sure it won't be a quiet one. It was interesting to see just one more person who has been deceived by shareholders, big business and corporate egos.
Anyways, to see the speech, go to the following website. It isn't up yet, but should be soon. Note that this isn't the talk I went to, but one he gave in the morning to the auditorium.
http://business.nd.edu/news_and_events/speaker_series/ten_years_hence/
No comments:
Post a Comment