SPEAKER: ANITA RODDICK

Founder and Co-chair of The Body Shop

Board Director, The Ruckus Society

UK Government 'Ambassador for British Business'

Activist and Businesswoman

The above listed titles might suggest a contradiction between my business life and the interests and convictions of my personal life - but for me this has never been the case. Creative tension maybe!

I've been a campaigner since the age of 10, when my sense of moral outrage was awakened by a book I read on the Holocaust. When I founded The Body Shop in 1976 in Sussex, England, it was simply a way of creating a livelihood to support myself and my two daughters. By the time The Body Shop went public in 1984, Gordon and I realised that rather than just being an innovative skin and hair care company, The Body Shop had the potential and power to do good.

That's why the company's Mission Statement opens with the overriding commitment,

'To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change.'

And that's what we've been doing ever since.

Profits and Principles

I see no inconsistency in being both, a Board Director of The Ruckus Society and an official Ambassador for British Business. Ruckus is a non-violent direct action organisation that uses wit, humour and courage to ensure those who seek to turn a blind eye to the impacts of business operating without a conscience or a heart get the message. That compliments my role, as an Ambassador for British Business, proving to the corporate world that there is a way of combining profits with principles.

Giving Shell Hell

Sometimes the message has had to be pretty direct. In June 1993, at the United Nations International Human Rights conference in Vienna, I met a delegation of Ogoni tribespeople from Nigeria. They were seeking justice and reparations against the giant oil multinational Shell that was ravaging their lands through oil exploration and its infrastructure. Their protests brought the wrath of the corrupt Nigerian military government down on them. Working with other NGOs, we turned their campaign into an international cause celebre and gave Shell hell throughout the world A year later, they launched their 'Profits and Principles' advertising campaign declaring their recognition of the interests of ' a much wider group of stakeholders in our business'. I like to think we had a hand in getting Shell to think about what it really means to be a corporate citizen.

Community Trade

For me, campaigning is about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses. What on earth is a skin and hair care company doing getting involved in political activism anyway? Well, as I've said, my experience as an international businesswoman is that political awareness and activism must be woven into the fabric of business - to do otherwise is to be not merely an ostrich, but criminally irresponsible.

One key area where my business and personal interests and ethics naturally and productively combine is through The Body Shop community trade initiatives. I'm immensely proud of our efforts to make fair or community trade relationships more mainstream. The Body Shop now has 46 such projects in 26 countries and we aim to develop more.

Business As Unusual

I couldn't be involved in any business that didn't take issues personally and seek to do what it could about them - that's what motivates me and what motivates many of our employees.

The Body Shop and I have always been closely identified in the public mind. Undoubtedly, because it is impossible to separate the company values from my own personal values, and the issues that I care passionately about - social responsibility, respect for human rights, the environment and animal protection, and an absolute belief in community trade. But The Body Shop is not a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals. Though I no longer sit on executive committees, I still spend 90% of my time on The Body Shop business.

And the other 10%? More of the same, but where 'the business' is 100% activism and campaigning! The most exciting part of my life is now - I believe the older you get, the more radical you become. There's a quote I identify with, 'A woman in advancing old age is unstoppable by any earthly force'.

Sleepless in Seattle.

In November 1999, I flew to Seattle to speak out against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and witnessed at first hand the 'Battle of Seattle'. I came away choking from the CS gas and with a deep sense of shame at the way that multinationals and politicians can behave. It reinforced my resolve to do whatever I can to campaign for human rights, abused and ignored by trade rules which focus only on profits - no matter what the human cost.

Taking on the WTO.

That's why I'm involved with the International Trade Justice campaign, a coalition of groups including Friends of the Earth, the student network, People and Planet, and the World Development Movement to 'shrink or sink' the WTO. Because the WTO's pro-globalisation, 'free trade at all costs', agenda is behind pretty much all of the issues I've spent the last 25 years campaigning on. If we can get Shell to change their spots, maybe, even Exxon or Esso as they're known in the UK might shift their stripes!

.and Sweatshops

Perhaps the most obvious example of how globalisation isn't bringing wealth to the world's poor is the issue of sweatshops , where workers are paid less than $5 a day for making jeans and other garments sold at vast profit in America and Europe. With campaigners from the National Labour Committee, I've been investigating workers and human rights abuses in sweatshops from Central America to Bangladesh. I take these issues personally and I believe millions of other people will too, once they're armed with the facts and empowered with positive actions.

The business awards that Anita Roddick has won include:- 1984 - Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year, 1988 - British Association of Industrial Editors, Communicator of Year, 1988 - County NatWest Retailer of Year 1988 - OBE 1989 - UNEP Global 500 Roll of Honour 1991 - The Financial Evening Standard Outstanding Entrepreneur Analysis Award 1991 - Center for World Development Education, World Vision Award 1992 - National Association of Women Business Owners (US) Business Leader of Year 1993 - National Audubon Society Medal (USA) 1994 - University of Michigan Annual Business Leadership Award 1994 - Daily Express/Moet & Chandon Business 1996 - Women's Center, USA: Leadership Award 1996 - Institute of Charitable Fundraising Managers (UK), Philanthropist of the Year 1996 - Professional Business Women's Conference, USA, Women of Achievement .