Since its inception in 1976, the Body Shop has pioneered socially responsive business practices and challenged the nature of the cosmetics industry. Success transformed it into a household name and by 1987, Anita Roddick had accepted the Confederation of British Industry's award for Company of the Year. Naturally, that's when things got tricky--in consultant-speak, the Body Shop reached adolescence. Business as Unusual gives the impression that throughout the 90s, just about everything that could go wrong did. Organisationally, the enterprise had spiralled into a complex and inefficient mess--"a lego set from Hell" in Roddick's words--with a bottom line under pressure from competition happy to mimic the packaging and ethos for their own cut-price ethical chic. Most damaging of all was the spate of negative press the Body Shop received during the mid-90s from commentators queuing up to question their values and practices. By the end of the decade, redundancies and change were high on the corporate agenda as the Body Shop restructured (with "kindness") in an attempt to reinvent the brand for the new millennium.

It all makes for an engrossing business history, but Business as Unusual is not just about the Body Shop. It also serves as a checklist to the major causes and campaigns of the 90s. Much of it is self-evident--"no company can afford to waste valuable brain power simply because it's wearing a bra;" the planet is precious; greed is bad--and the worthiness does occasionally grate, but elsewhere the Body Shop's activism stands out as a shining example of the good that can be achieved through orchestrated pressure. With her unique brand of pumice-stone politics, Anita Roddick has done the unusual and shown that success does not have to come at the expense of a conscience.

Business as Unusual has its faults but it makes a thought-provoking read and shows that Anita Roddick has lost none of her passion for change. Her ethics may stink, but it's of peppermint, tangerine and cocoa butter. --Iain Campbell

Synopsis
"In terms of power and influence, you can forget the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business, which is why I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed." Anita Roddick This account charts the progress of Anita Roddick and her company The Body Shop through the 1990s. It also looks at the parallel growth of vigilante consumerism and predicts how businesses can evolve in the new Millennium. Ranging from personal issues - such as self-esteem - to wider political issues like the human rights abuses associated with globalization, Roddick offers her own vision for dealing with the demands of ethical business.

See all Product Description