"BEAUTIFUL BUSINESSES TRANSFORMING OUR ECONOMY"
June 29, 2005
Judy Wick's Twenty-Fourth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture
"Good Morning Beautiful Business" is now in print.
Edited by Hildegarde Hannum, the lecture may be read on-line
at www.smallisbeautiful.org or ordered in pamphlet form
by sending $5 to the E. F. Schumacher Society, 140 Jug End
Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
The lecture is a powerful call for including the word "local"
in the definition of socially responsible businesses. It
takes a deep commitment to a particular place and substantial
effort to weave together all the threads of that place--people,
land, and community--to create new economies that can counteract
the devastating effects of the global economy. Judy Wicks
is by example and intent, a leader in building these new
economies.
In addition to founding the White Dog Cafe, the White Dog
Foundation, and the Black Cat retail store, Judy Wicks is
co-founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living
Economies) with chapters throughout North America. Among
the numerous awards Judy has won are the prestigious Business
Enterprise Trust Award, founded by Norman Lear for creative
leadership in combining sound business management with social
vision, and "Business Ethics" magazine's first
Living Economy Award. White Dog Cafe has been chosen as
one of "American Benefactor's" twenty-five most
generous companies and one of "Conde Nast Traveler's"
top fifty American restaurants. "Inc." magazine
included Wicks as one of its twenty-five favorite entrepreneurs
in the country.
Following are some of our favorite quotes from "Good
Morning Beautiful Business."
Quotes from "Good Morning Beautiful Business"
by Judy Wicks
Business is about relationships with all the people we
work with and buy from and sell to. My business is the way
I express my love for the world, and that is what makes
it a thing of beauty.
Today much of what I care about--nature and animals, community,
family farms, family businesses, indigenous cultures, the
character of our towns and cities, even our children's future--is
being threatened by corporate globalization. In order to
protect all that I care deeply about, I needed to step out
of my own company, out of the White Dog Cafe, and start
to work together with other businesses to build an alternative
to corporate globalization. I started my journey with the
simple premise that a sustainable "global" economy
must be comprised of sustainable "local" economies.
Rather than a global economy controlled by large multinational
corporations, our movement envisions a global economy with
a decentralized network of local economies made up of what
we call living enterprises: small, independent, locally
owned businesses of human scale. These living enterprises
create community wealth and vitality while working in harmony
with natural systems.
Many business schools teach students to leave their values
at home when they go to work. We teach our children the
Golden Rule at home, but in the workplace gold rules. I
believe this has caused a lot of unhappiness because most
of our waking hours during our working years are spent in
the workplace, and when our values at work aren't aligned
with our personal values, we lead unsatisfied lives.
We also are faced with a political crisis in which multinational
corporations are increasingly dominating our lives--the
food we eat, the clothes we wear, the news we see and hear--and
controlling our government. Politicians and government administrators,
who are frequently former CEOs and lobbyists, often owe
their jobs to the corporations that fund political campaigns.
The merger of corporate interests with government is defined
as fascism. We need to bring power and freedom back to "we
the people." We can do that by transforming our economy.
In the process of building local economies, many small
businesses will be created--businesses that grow, distribute,
and process food, making preserves, sauces, and soups from
local farm products, as well as businesses that design
and make clothing from locally grown fiber crops. When a
product is not available locally, consumers should buy in
a way that helps and supports the local community where
the product, such as coffee or chocolate, originated. It's
important to know where your purchase comes from, to know
that through fair trade other communities in other parts
of the country or the world are the beneficiaries of the
purchase.
We are taught that we're losers if we don't pay the lowest
price as consumers, earn the highest profit as business
people, and make the highest return as investors. We need
a revolution in values so that we will value life more than
money and so that we can make decisions as consumers and
business owners and government leaders in our enlightened
self-interest, at the same time benefiting all of life.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of the local-living-economy
movement is that by creating self-reliance we are creating
the foundations for world peace. If all communities had
food security, water security, and energy security, if they
appreciated diversity of culture rather than a monoculture,
that would be the foundation for world peace.
Warmly,
Susan Witt and Alexandra Penny
E. F. Schumacher Society 140 Jug End Road Great Barrington,
MA 01230 USA
www.smallisbeautiful.org
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