MNGT 828 Snapshots of Great Leadership Anita Roddick – “Spirited Entrepreneur” Source: entrepreneurwiki.com 1. Briefly describe the leader, focusing on what he or she accomplished and any challenges or problems that he or she had to overcome on the road to that accomplishment. If you are able, please locate and add a picture of the leader to attach to your post. Anita Roddick was a British entrepreneur who is famous for founding the global cosmetic company, The Body Shop. Roddick started with one store in Brighton, England and built the company into a multinational corporation with almost 2,000 stores in over 50 countries. Roddick is also well-known for her extreme activism. She was a champion of many causes including human rights, the prevention of animal cruelty, and environmental protection. Howell describes her as being “committed to leading an environmentally and socially responsible company that represented her values and she challenged other corporate leaders to be ‘true planetary citizens’” (p. 43). Roddick sold The Body Shop in 2006 to global cosmetics manufacturer L’Oreal for over $1 billion dollars (U.S.). She died a year later at the age of 64 from liver disease that was caused by a blood transfusion she received when she was approximately 30 years old. She had previously stated that she planned to donate her wealth to charities that promoted her causes and “once described leaving money to your family as ‘obscene’” (Moore). True to her word, when she died, she left her entire $82 million dollar estate to charity and nothing to friends or family. Aside from the health problems Roddick experienced later in life, she faced a large amount of criticism from the sale of The Body Shop to the cosmetic behemoth L’Oreal who had previously admitted to testing its products on animals. Roddick responded that she was a “Trojan horse” of sorts and wanted to use The Body Shop’s positive influence to make the cosmetic industry a better place. She described this theory in a 2006 interview less than a year before she died: I'm not an apologist for [L’Oreal], I'm just excited that I can be like a trojan horse and go into that huge business and talk about how we can buy ingredients like cocoa butter from Ghana and sesame oil from Nicaraguan farmers and how we can do that in a kindly, joyful way and that is happening (Cahalane). Roddick was also embroiled in some controversy over the claim that she stole the idea for The Body Shop from a U.S. company that was already operating in San Francisco under the same name. When she opened stores in the U.S., she paid that company for its trademark under the stipulation that they also sign a confidentiality agreement. 2. If you only had one adjective to describe this person, what would it be, and why? What was the most interesting fact or lesson that you learned in studying this leader? The adjective that we would use in describing Roddick is “passionate.” Most leaders are passionate about something (e.g their business, their country, etc.). However, Roddick’s passion transcended normal boundaries and extended to her employees, customers, communities, and the world in general. This sense of passion drove the way she managed her business as the company was “focused on three bottom lines -financial, social, and environmental. It was expected to deliver superior performance that benefited all of these groups” (Howell, p. 42). One interesting thing we learned about Roddick was the unique method in which she attempted to motivate all employees. She acknowledged that most employees usually care little about the profitability of companies, once stating that for employees “to focus all the time on profits, profits, profits—I have to say I think it’s deeply boring” (Burlingham). Therefore, she opened a Body Shop training school that teaches employees extensive information about the business. The school mainly focuses on the nature and uses of Body Shop products and stays away from discussions regarding profitability. Burlingham describes the school “as if McDonald's were to offer free classes in Grades of Beef and Nutrition Counseling to every kid who flips burgers throughout the chain.” In this manner, Body Shop employees felt more invested in the business because they knew so much about the products which contributed to higher levels of employee motivation. 3. Answer the questions from the end of your assigned chapter in the “The Snapshots of Great Leadership” book. Please precede each of your answers by a copy of the question asked, to orient your readers. 1. Why do you think Anita Roddick focused her behaviour so heavily on social and environmental issues? For Anita Roddick, it appears as though her focus was on social and environmental issues because these issues were part of her underlying and core beliefs. These core beliefs stemmed from her early travels in the developing world, as well as the experience of family hardships during World War II, which reinforced an emphasis on waste avoidance (The Body Shop). The emphasis on reflecting her core values in her business venture was also crucial to her management style. As a leader with Integrity as a key leadership trait, Roddick’s core underlying beliefs were shared values with her employees, drawing a common line between leadership, organizational goals, employees and core beliefs. The match between her beliefs and rhetoric with her investment and organizational actions also underlined her credentials as an Authentic Leader. 2. Was her focus on social and environmental issues “good leadership” in her industry? In retrospect, her focus on social and environmental issues was “good leadership,” as she was ahead of the curve in terms of a wider consensus on many issues. The Body Shop focused on stopping animal testing, well before some major beauty firms such as L’Oreal had stopped, and well before the practice was banned in Britain. The Body Shop engaged in fair trade long before it became common practice at Starbucks or other retailers, and focused on stakeholder engagement as opposed to a narrower shareholder focused engagement, an idea becoming more and more common in North America. In terms of results, the Body Shop was incredibly successful with over 1,900 locations, and provided the founder with a substantial fortune which she left to charity. 3. Which leadership theory best characterizes Roddick’s leadership approach? For Roddick, there are a few theories that would best characterize her leadership approach. However, we feel that the best would be the Charismatic/Transformational Leadership theory, which emphasizes the idea that a leader’s vision and drive will inspire her followers. For Roddick, her vision of a transformed world via the Body Shop’s activism and business practices was a source of inspiration for her employees, competitors, suppliers and other stakeholders. This inspiration created a loyalty to the brand across its stakeholders that was instilled solely by Roddick‘s passion in this approach. The Body Shop would have simply been another store in the mall selling products to women without Roddick’s leadership in this area. 4. Would her leadership style be effective in other industries such as automotive manufacturing, extractive industries (oil or mining), or tobacco? While it is possible that Roddick’s leadership style could be effective in other industries, her underlying core values may preclude her from being successful in some such as these. These industries may be better suited for leaders that practice different leadership theories. For example, an Authentic Leader who believes deeply in the automotive industry, and is able to practice achievement oriented leadership would likely be effective in an environment where engineers and scientists are required to find new paths to improving performance in the automotive industry. Being an effective leader in industries with negative social and environmental connotations such as these would likely require a much different set of values than those held by Roddick. Specifically, a leader here that held any passionate beliefs in environmental or social causes would be challenged by their own moral code, since many of these industries can be argued to be extremely harmful to these causes. Generally, these types of organizations are focused more on the value to shareholders, than the social good and externalities that their products provide. However, there are certain companies in these fields that don’t fit this typical mold. For example, Tesla, an exclusively electric car manufacturer that is attempting to minimize fossil fuel consumption, would be a major exception to this statement. Therefore, we feel that Roddick could potently be successful in these industries, but only to the extent the company she led held her same core values. 4. Briefly describe each leadership theory that applies to this leader’s experience and explain why you think so. We feel that the following leadership theories apply to Anita Roddick: Servant Leadership Theory This leadership theory focuses on the leader serving “the needs of followers and other organization constituents with a special concern for the least privileged individuals” (Howell, p. 21). There is also a need for followers to see the leader as trustworthy. Roddick’s passion for serving so many causes and looking out for the needs of others seems to put her squarely underneath this theory. Howell did not ascribe this theory to any business leaders and reserved it more for political activists (e.g. Gandhi, Mother Theresa). However, given Roddick’s unique position as a philanthropist, activist, and business leader, an argument can be made that she does embody this leadership theory. Path/Goal Leadership Roddick also displays some characteristics of Path/Goal Leadership. Roddick constantly engaged her employees to use creative problem solving in response to Body Shop challenges. This aligns with the theory of Path/Goal Leadership, using an achievement oriented leadership style that emphasizes constant improvement of practices and results. Authentic Leadership This leadership theory focuses on “contributing to something worthwhile and larger than oneself” and “includes a responsibility to act morally and in the best interests of others.” As was the case with Servant Leadership, Roddick exemplified this theory based on her tireless advocacy for the multiple causes she championed. Additionally, she donated her entire fortune to these same groups she supported throughout her life. Trait Theories Howell discusses several universal traits that have been observed to be associated with leaders. Moreover, almost all of the leaders he showcases embody some of these specific traits. In Roddick’s case, she seemed to demonstrate high levels of self-confidence (through her fearless pursuit of unusual entrepreneurial goals) and integrity (through her support of the many causes and fair treatment of her employees). Charismatic/Transformational Leadership Leaders that embody this theory often act as role models for followers, convey an inspirational message, and exhibit symbolic behaviors. Roddick was clearly a great role model who inspired many. She was not only a great entrepreneur, but someone who did things the right way and focused on causes other than the bottom line. In terms of symbolic behavior, one of her greatest acts of symbolism was likely her last in which she gave away her massive fortune to the causes she believed in. References Burlingham. B. (1990). “This Woman Changed Business Forever.” Inc. magazine. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/magazine/19900601/5201.html Cahalane, C. (2006). “Interview with Anita Roddick.” The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/nov/03/ethicalliving.environment Howell, J.P. (2013) “Snapshots of Great Leadership.” Routledge. New York and London. Moore, M. (2008). “Anita Roddick’s will reveals she donated entire £51m fortune to charity.” The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1895768/AnitaRoddicks-will-reveals-she-donated-entire-51m-fortune-to-charity.html The Body Shop International PLC. (n.d). Company Website. Retrieved from http://www.thebodyshop.com/services/aboutus_anita-roddick.aspx
