My origin story: The activist that has always believed business can be a driver for good.

What does business have to do with being good?

Many of you out there will equate business to being bad. Bad for society, bad for the environment, bad all round really.

For those who have known me for some time you will remember me as an activist, chaining myself to large corporate buildings. As a lobbyist I spent time at the United Nations and the European Union arguing for stricter controls on fishing and shipping companies. When I lived in East Africa I worked with communities in fighting for a fair price for local businesses when dealing with international markets.

So, you may ask (as many asked me) why did you start an organisation called ‘The Good Business Foundation’?

It’s a bit of a head scratcher.

But the reality is I have always believed that business can be (and often is) a force for good. It’s just that some businesses aren’t.

Let me tell you a story.

I grew up in a small country town in Australia. It had just one strip of shops. A grocer, a clothes shop, the shoe shop, the bike repair shop, the newsagent, and the local hairdresser named Guilo.

As a teenager I was obsessed with two things; basketball and sport shoes.

I can pinpoint the year exactly, it was 1985. How do I know this? It’s because that was the year the first ever Nike Air Jordan’s came out.

My friends and I rode our bikes past the shoe shop every day to pay homage.

There they were in the front window of the shoe shop in full display.  They glistened through the glass (in great contrast to our dusty and worn school shoes).

Kev, the owner of the shop used to stand at the doorway with a big grin on his face.

‘Pretty flash eh?’ he would say.

Pretty flash indeed I thought.

What I would have given to try on a pair of Air Jordans I thought (let alone own some)!

I remember being so obsessed that I cut a deep hole in the side of my shoes with my pocketknife. I then stuffed a semi-inflated party ballon in the hole just to see what it would be like to walk on air.

Let’s just say I had trouble walking anywhere when my parents saw what I did to my shoes!

One day there was a big storm in my town.

We didn’t get a lot of rain and so the buildings weren’t well equipped to take on a serious deluge. When it did rain, we had lots of fun running around the house catching the drips through the ceiling in pots and pans.

But the storm that day didn’t just cause damage to houses, it caused significant water damage to the local shops.

My dad, an accountant, used to do the books for several of the shops, including for Kev.

I remember dad telling me that the storm had damaged a lot of the shoes and that they would have to be thrown out. He told me he needed to go and see Kev and to assess the extent of the damage.

I saw my opportunity! Imagine if the Air Jordan’s had been damaged? Imagine if instead of Kev throwing them out, I could get them for free?!

I asked Dad if I could tag along.

It was after dark when we finally got to Kev’s shop. I remember entering and seeing the pile of shoes in the middle of the floor. The roof was half in from the water damage. At the back of the shop behind a half-opened door was a desk with a lamp on it.

There sat Kev. He was clearly distressed.

My dad asked me to wait at the front of the shop. I sat on the holy shoe trying chair, just across from the mirror that reached all the way to the ground (you know the one where you can see how your shoes look when you try them on!).

I sat there looking at that pile of water-soaked shoes in the darkness. I wondered if the Air Jordans would be in there somewhere. I wondered if they would soon be mine.

I heard my dad talk to Kev. He was trying to reassure him that everything would be ok. That he had insurance and enough money in the bank to restock while he waited. That news didn’t seem to help.

Then through the dark Kev blurted out ‘but what about the kids!?’.

My dad responded slightly confused ‘what do you mean what about the kids?’.

Kev went on, tears welling in his eyes.

‘In that box there’ (pointing to the one beside his desk). ‘In that box are the shoes for the primary school kids who are starting school next week. They are totally destroyed! What are the kids going to wear to school?

My heart sunk.

There I was focused on one thing. Focused on getting a shiny (and slightly damaged) pair of Air Jordans.

There was Kev, a guy I thought who was just focused on his business only making money. A guy that just liked watching us squirm because we couldn’t afford a pair of Air Jordans. But clearly a guy that was deeply concerned about others, about his community and the critical role he and his business played.

I learned a lot that day. I have been learning ever since.

I have learned that many (if not most) small and medium sized businesses around the globe are just as concerned about things like equality and sustainability.

I have been lucky to meet many of these types of businesses. Businesses like Kick Academy in Geelong who have done more for my kids that I can mention. Businesses like Vera Juice in Timor-Leste whose KPI’s include how many kids are going to school.

These businesses are not B-corps, they are not social enterprises. These businesses just are better businesses. They are businesses founded by people with a mission to make money as well as deliver value to the community around them.

It is for this reason that today we are launching The Good Business Network. It is a place for small and medium sized businesses like Kev’s to meet other likeminded businesses. To share challenges. To share solutions. To embrace the wrestle of doing good and making money.

I invite you to join us as we build an economy of not I, not We, but Both.

Stuart