DW's Blog
Dorothy Lane Market A Firm of Endearment
by DW Green — February 22, 2012
We recently received the Dorothy Lane Market Vendor Honor Roll award. It is a tremendous honor to be acknowledged by one of America’s premier retailers. Since 1991 Dorothy Lane Market has presented the DLM Vendor Honor Roll award to recognize outstanding vendors for their excellent service. Dorothy Lane Market is a Firm of Endearment, a stakeholder brand who honors and serves all of its primary stakeholder groups. Stakeholder groups include customers, employees, vendors, partners, communities, the environment and shareholders. Stakeholder brands align the interest of all in such a way that no stakeholder group gains at the expense of other stakeholder groups.
According to Firms of Endearment* authors, Raji Sisodia, Jag Sheth and David B. Wolfe, “In addition to aligning the interest of all stakeholders, stakeholder brands embrace a humanistic approach to business. A humanistic company is one that is run in such a way that its stakeholders develop an emotional connection with it. Humanistic companies are the ultimate value creators; they create promotional value, experiential value, social value, and of course financial value. There are many companies that are successful and admirable in many ways but lack a strong emotive dimension. We call this emotive dimension the soul of a company and we believe that companies without souls face a doubtful future.”
For the first time in history, the majority of adults in developed countries are forty years old and older. For this and other reasons, there is a well-documented trend for people to concentrate their attention on meaning rather than material accumulation. Just as individuals are asking themselves what am I going to do with the rest of my life many business leaders are asking themselves how are we going to make this company an instrument of service to society even as we fulfill our obligations to build shareholder growth.
Dorothy Lane Market, COSTCO, Wegman’s, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, IKEA, Harley Davidson and Southwest Airlines are such companies. Dorothy Lane’s Vendor Honor Roll is an example of how their commitment to being a stakeholder brand manifests itself in their daily business dealings.
Our intent as a company is to assist our clients’ discovery of their unique purpose, their reason for being…their soul. And then help them express that unique purpose and meaning to all of their stakeholder groups.
*I wholeheartedly recommend reading Firms of Endearment.
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