Anita Roddick Essay

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Anita Roddick Anita Roddick, born in 1942, was the founder of the Body Shop International. She was an inspiring and influential business executive that shaped ethical consumerism. Her company was one of the first to prohibit the use of ingredients tested on animals and promoted fair trade. She was a controversial woman in the world of business and her new and radical ideas sparked controversy not only within the cosmetics industry that she was operating in, but also within the entire world of business economics. Instead of following the norm of focusing on the business, profits, and costs, Roddick made corporate social responsibility the center of her business model; she believed that its possible to turn a profit while practicing ethical conducts. Anita Roddick built her success off her franchise The Body Shop in 1976 as a way to earn a living while her husband was away on a two-year horseback journey across America. She started small and showed the importance that creativity held for her when she began packaging her all-natural products in urine sample bottles. Her creativity and the company’s strong environmental flare led to its quick success. Roddick had already opened a second shop before her husband’s return of being gone 10 months. When Anita Roddick opened her first Body Shop, she did not expect to get rich. She just hoped to survive. Her plan was disarmingly simple—she would create a line of cosmetics from natural ingredients and rather than rely on vanity to sell her products, she would appeal to her customers’ concern for the environment. Through a combination of low-key marketing, consumer education and social activism, The Body Shop rewrote the rulebook for the $16 billion global cosmetics business and made Roddick one of the richest women in England. Customers wanted to sell the products, and in 1984 the company went public and spread

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