Anita Roddick, the Body Shop
Anita Roddick, The Body Shop
Sylvia Whisenant
Strayer University
Dr. Johnny Maddox
Business 302
November 24, 2011
Anita Roddick, The Body Shop This paper examines the management style of Anita Roddick, how her unique style of leadership helped her become not only a success in business, but a success in getting the world of corporate business to become green and socially responsible. The Primary Business The Body Shop, a world- wide cosmetics company, its products are made with natural ingredients from around the world. This was the company that Anita Roddick started as a way to earn a living. She didn’t promise to take years off of a persons face, but to offer inexpensive and natural lotions and get social justice for free. (Fried, 2008)
The Start After running a restaurant and hotel, overworked and needing a change, Anita’s husband Gordon went for a horseback ride from Buenos Aires to New York City leaving Anita to support herself and their two daughters. Needing money to survive with no training or experience, Anita mixed ingredients together that she had in her garage, making fifteen different products. In March of 1976, she opened her first store in Brighton England using her hotel as collateral. (History, 2011) The shop was between two funeral parlors which caused a threat of a lawsuit because of the name The Body Shop turned into no cost publicity for her new venture. Because she didn’t have enough money, she had hand written labels and offered her clients to reuse their bottles, starting the era of recycling. Ten months later she opened a second store, later franchising The Body Shop. Three Major Business Challenges Back then, when most businesses were opened mostly by men, where banks didn’t loan women money, this was one of Anita Roddick’s biggest challenges. She had gone to her local bank to borrow money to open the shop. The bank turned her down. She told her husband what happened, so he
Sylvia Whisenant
Strayer University
Dr. Johnny Maddox
Business 302
November 24, 2011
Anita Roddick, The Body Shop This paper examines the management style of Anita Roddick, how her unique style of leadership helped her become not only a success in business, but a success in getting the world of corporate business to become green and socially responsible. The Primary Business The Body Shop, a world- wide cosmetics company, its products are made with natural ingredients from around the world. This was the company that Anita Roddick started as a way to earn a living. She didn’t promise to take years off of a persons face, but to offer inexpensive and natural lotions and get social justice for free. (Fried, 2008)
The Start After running a restaurant and hotel, overworked and needing a change, Anita’s husband Gordon went for a horseback ride from Buenos Aires to New York City leaving Anita to support herself and their two daughters. Needing money to survive with no training or experience, Anita mixed ingredients together that she had in her garage, making fifteen different products. In March of 1976, she opened her first store in Brighton England using her hotel as collateral. (History, 2011) The shop was between two funeral parlors which caused a threat of a lawsuit because of the name The Body Shop turned into no cost publicity for her new venture. Because she didn’t have enough money, she had hand written labels and offered her clients to reuse their bottles, starting the era of recycling. Ten months later she opened a second store, later franchising The Body Shop. Three Major Business Challenges Back then, when most businesses were opened mostly by men, where banks didn’t loan women money, this was one of Anita Roddick’s biggest challenges. She had gone to her local bank to borrow money to open the shop. The bank turned her down. She told her husband what happened, so he
References: McAleer, M (1996). Anita Roddick. Retrieved November 24, 2011 from Business Biography http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/anita/htm Milman, O (2007, September, 4). Anita Roddick The late Body Shop founder on what Entrepreneurship meant to her. Retrieved November 24, 2011, from Startups build a better business http://www.startups.co.uk/anita-roddick.html Roddick, A (2006). About Dame Anita Roddick. Retrieved November 24, 2011, from Anita Roddick.com http://www.anitaroddick.com/abaoutanita.php