There is nothing unique about Stride Rite. We have shareholders looking for the $we return on their investment as any other public company. We’re different only to the extent that we’ve gone beyond the traditional limits of how we define our social responsibility. We look at public service as an investment. We believe the well-being of a company cannot be separated from the well-being of the community. If we’re not providing the community with access to day care and elder care, if we’re not providing proper funding for education, then we’re not investing properly in our business.
It costs infinitely less to spend money on initiatives such as the ones we sponsor than to, say, pay the costs associated with a young child who hasn’t had a good head start and ends up in a prison or detention center. Take our family-leave policy. It costs us next to nothing. And yet the statement it makes to employees is powerful. It says to them that we care. And when employees know you care about them, they tend to be more productive. It’s the same with our day-care center. To me, it’s a nobrainer. But it’s the kind of thinking that seems to elude the Oval Office.
A recent study by the Covenant Investment Management in Chicago found that responsible companies tend to produce a higher return to stockholders. They explained this in terms of “stronger employee and community relations, customer loyalty and less regulatory interference.” My additional explanation has to do with the greater sensitivity of management. If you develop a certain acuity in listening to consumers, you also learn to listen well to your employees and to the community. Have our stockholders suffered? Well, those that invested $10,000 in 1984 would now have $155,000. Not bad.
One of the things I’m intrigued with is volunteerism. That is to me the noblest calling of all. And yet, while we in the corporate world are given far too much in compensation, people in public service are often not recognized financially. One of the things we do at Stride Rite is to pay our employees to do mentoring in inner-city schools for two hours a week. It creates energy, good will and a hope of making a difference. But maybe the biggest contribution we can make as a foundation is using our voice to reach our partners in government. We must help our political leaders to understand the difference between a “free market” that allows the Keatings of the world to loot S&Ls and “competitive market forces” that are thoughtfully controlled so that greed and enlightened self-interest are distinguished. If the politicians want to be pro-business, we must educate them on the business of business.
