Rebok Skates For Skinny Feet

When faced TIMBERLAND 65 000 activists almost all Peru

JEFF SWARTZ PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TIMBERLAND

You can learn how to be your day by the number of e-mails that are waiting. I get up very early, so I usually start with an advantage as far as mail is concerned. But on June 1, 2009 these came all day.

Timberland The first accused of supporting slave labor, destroy the rainforest and exacerbate global warming, all in the first sentence. The following were the same. I had the strangest feeling that would be a long day.

These e-mails were sent by adherents of Greenpeace, in reaction to a report recently issued by the institution about deforestation in the Amazon. The essence of the report was that cattle breeders in Brazil are illegally cutting down Amazon rainforest to create grazing, and leather from their cows could end up in shoes, including those of Timberland. senders not threatened a boycott, but said they were concerned and urged us to work with Greenpeace to find a permanent solution for both the global and the global deforestation climate.

• As CEO, e-mails tend to get angry. Most are like, "You support something with which I disagree, therefore you are an idiot." But these were something else. Came from a powerful activist organization, suggesting that there was a problem with which I was not intimately familiar. Even in the midst of my sleepy morning, I knew that was a bad combination.

• This morning our Department of Information Technology (IT) devised a system to automatically redirect all messages activists my inbox to a special folder, it will not have to see them, but because they wanted to make sure that everyone received a response.

After
• had to figure out how we would respond, not only to allegations of Greenpeace, but the senders angry, they were more than 65,000 in the first weeks. I thought if so many people took the time to send an email, should have at least half a million is not so and they were equally angry. our brand's reputation was at stake.

• NDE DO WHAT COMES SKIN?
• As much as it cost me to admit it, Greenpeace was making a legitimate question: Whence came our leather? What came next on the list of things that would not admit was that we did not know the answer. Until then, no one had asked.

• The fact is that the origin of fur has never been easy to trace: are treated as waste in slaughterhouses who are mainly interested in the meat.

• Non-traceability of the materials in our supply chain is almost archaic. But This idea was enough to give a headache.

• was willing to suffer the headache, and impose it on my computer, because he believed that Greenpeace had raised a good question and we could capture value in trying to answer it.

• I also saw this as a battle for hearts and minds of environmental activists, who believe that private companies are evil by definition and that the world would be better if these firms disappeared.

• wanted you to know that you can be a profitable global company and have to Once a commitment to environmental protection.

• UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION
• Our efforts to be environmentally responsible, since feed our plants with renewable energy to calculate the carbon footprint of our shoes, made the accusations Greenpeace were hard to believe.

• Moreover, we participate in collaboration with other brands to address sector issues and hold quarterly discussions with our 'stakeholders' so that anyone is concerned about the impact of our business to ask their criticisms and questions.

• That's another reason why we took the guerilla tactics of Greenpeace accuse first and work later, "as an affront.

• call to Greenpeace a few hours after receiving the first e-mail, but it was days before they can talk on the phone with someone who knew the subject. While waiting for the organization to speak with us, our supplier was seeking some answers.

• My next question to the computer: If your provider does not know where it came from their cattle, could begin to know? Could we begin to track where each cow grazing?

• Our engineers concluded that the task was difficult but not impossible. What could preclude this effort, they said, was that the more distant companies supply chain, livestock breeders and slaughterhouses, they refused the initiative.

• Our supplier had no choice but to take the matter seriously: all his customers made the same tough questions at the same time. He knew he should join the change.

• RESPONSE
• Our response ended evolve over time. Compose an e-mail response may sound easy, but we work very hard to do well. In addition, we monitor how many senders responded. We did not expect that we all answered saying "Ah! We never realized how great we are! " but expect to hear from activists who value our response. Some did.

• In July, we began to make progress in working with our supplier and consultations with our competitors and Greenpeace. Although the latter expected us to do a high-level statement in which true to its position, we wanted to really understand the problem and ensure that our provider had a system that could be implemented and sustained over time.

• July 22, Nike announced it would ask its suppliers of leather in Brazil to certify in writing that their skins were not from deforested areas. few days later we reached a similar agreement with our supplier. The implementation has been so difficult as we expected and more.

• In late July 2009 we issued a statement praising Greenpeace to ensure that this issue would capture the attention of the sector, so it was able to claim victory. In return, they issued a statement saying that Timberland had taken a leadership position on the issue, which was as rewarding as flattering coming from the organization that got us into this mess.

• LEARNED THAT THE SWARTZ OF THIS EXPERIENCE
• When angry activists are launched against them, do not sit with folded arms and closed minds. is possible that they are raising legitimate questions that you should have done earlier. And if you can find at least one common goal-in this case a solution to deforestation, there will be also found at least one reason to work with, not against it.

• On the other hand, do not naively welcome them with open arms. For each common goal is at least a half dozen personal agendas at stake.

• The Greenpeace -In this case include selling membership subscriptions and save the world.

• In times of stress, look and listen. this is where you discover what is committed to its principles and how committed are your team, your partners and your competitors.