RSS feedMost, if not all shareholders in public companies, do it to make not just money, but more money that they’re gambling on the stock. We’d all like more money, and unless you’re already set up for life, don’t even think of emailing me to say you don’t. But traders, particularly day traders, tend to sit more at the greedy end of the spectrum. Having said that, when public companies are answerable to shareholders, it is usually the short term gains that take priority, with the losers being more often than not, morality, human rights and the environment.
So it is refreshing whenever I stumble across a public company which has managed to debunk the myth that doing what is right is the antithesis of a profitable business.
Visit the L’Oreal web site (yes, they make hair colour products, so don’t start OK), and the first thing you see, apart from all their Flash crap, is a picture of a wooly mammoth and a news story about how L’Oreal researchers are doing fossil hair research. In fact, the four news items currently on their home page are: the wooly mammoth; a story about how L’Oreal’s Welsh CEO, Mr Lindsay Owen-Jones made Time’s most influential 100 business people list; a story about the company’s sponsorship of a business student contest; and a piece on L’Oreal’s commitment to socioaesthetics, which they explain is…
the practice of aesthetic care for ailing and weakened persons weakened for psychological, physical, or social reasons.
The only explanation I could find for socioaesthetics by the way, was this:
- The entirety of a set of internally codified aesthetic values as perceived by most members of a society.
- That which is created through the verbal and noverbal communication of one’s everyday experiences, in relation to the level of positive consensus one’s community has amongs its members, regarding that experience.
…which is not exactly the same thing.
Regardless, 50% are business related stories, and 50% are, at least at face value, good deeds.
The other interesting thing you notice on their site is a complete subsite for their 5 Exceptional Women of Science award, in conjunction with UNESCO, sitting next to the news stories, just under the main left menu panel.
All up, it looks like these guys are doing good science, caring for people, and promoting their morals and good will as the most important aspect of the company. This seems even more significant by the fact that they were recently voted as the number one company in Europe that people would like to work for (subscription required). They’re a French company by the way.
Compare this with their competitors’ web sites: Goldwell, although they do support the Young Survival Coalition with “promotional activities”; Schwarzkopf; and Clairol (turn your sound down).
I don’t claim to know if L’Oreal are doing everything right, but based on the relatively small amount of research I did, when a company both talks up and is proud to put their ethical, environmental and scientific achievements at the top of their web site, you can’t help but sit up and take notice. It bodes well for the future of publicly owned companies and the future of our planet. And completely by accident, they also make the Blue-Black hair dye I used when I was a good corporate citizen. Small world indeed. Now, if they only did a plain blue…