Disillusioned capitalist

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

[There's a lot to pick on Roddick for, but does she have a point?]


Published on Sunday, August 26, 2001 in the Sunday Herald (Scotland)

We Should All Feel Roddick's Disillusionment
Editorial

SO was Anita Roddick right? Twenty years ago, she was the bright-eyed
entrepreneur who was as famous as Sir Richard Branson. She wanted to
save the planet and give jobs to coffee farmers. Did she do a Gerald
Ratner on her own creation when she spoke at the Edinburgh
International Book Festival last Friday?

The Body Shop founder said her ethical cosmetics chain has lost its
way since being floated on the stock market and has no place as a mere
cog in the international financial system she despises.

In what will become a quote for our time, she said: 'The Body Shop is
now really a dysfunctional coffin.' She added: 'I wanted every shop to
challenge the World Trade Organization, to ask every Member of
Parliament, and they won't do that.'

How many other entrepreneurs who sell out their ideals to bigger
companies end up in the same disillusioned state at Roddick? There are
probably quite a few in Scotland these days after the demise of the
technology companies.

Roddick has been a great supporter of Third World trading cooperatives
and has called on those opposing aspects of economic globalization to
bypass governments and go straight to the corporations. But have her
1700 shops in 46 countries really worked? Has she changed the world?

Questioning Body Shop's future as a publicly quoted company, she said
the relentless drive to maximize profits for investors was killing the
25-year-old company's spirit. 'Did flotation work? Yes, it did. It
gave us money to build manufacturing plants. Does it work now? I don't
think so,' she told the audience in one of the Charlotte Square tents.

Body Shop's corporate machinery moved swiftly to do some damage
limitation. Listing on the stock exchange had benefited Body Shop
greatly in helping it see the difference between itself and giant
corporations, which 'are simply interested in maximizing profits
whatever the cost for planet or people.'

There had already been two attempts to take the company she founded in
her kitchen private again, where it could avoid the harsh light of
investor scrutiny and the pressure of market forces, Roddick said.
'The market controls everything, but the market has no heart.'

While promoting her book, Business As Unusual, Roddick came under a
scathing attack from a former employee in the audience. The
ex-employee said she had been callously laid off in contravention of
Body Shop's own employee-friendly practices.

But Roddick said that since handing over the reins to the new chief
executive, Patrick Gournay, she had no say in the day-to-day running
of the company once touted as the model of an ethical business.

'I can't interfere. I'm not allowed to interfere,' she said. Roddick
was a tireless environmental campaigner, who joined anti-capitalist
groups protesting at the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, Washington. But
she said that demonstrations that were aimed only at governments, like
those at the recent G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, were pointless.

'You will not see another Genoa. You will not see another Seattle,
because it's a waste of time,' she said.

Roddick, now in her 50s, has said she is getting ever more radical as
she gets older and wants to take the fight for her causes straight to
the boardroom.

'The protests are going nowhere. We should be directly pointing the
finger at businesses, not even bothering with the governments.'

Somewhere along the line it has all turned sour for Roddick and this
is more than just a personal blip. Roddick did a huge amount to
stimulate the kind of lifestyle entrepreneurs who have given the UK
such a wonderful diversity of exotic fruit bars, organic bistros and
quirky bookshops.

Roddick's growing disillusionment with global business is a serious
blow to those who believe the enterprise economy can deliver wealth
and self-esteem more equitably.

© 2001 smg sunday newspapers ltd