How Living Your Values Can Help the Bottom Line

In How Living Your Values Can Help the Bottom Line Greg Steltenpohl, Founder of Odwalla Juice, describes the surprising change in ownership structure at Odwalla after they experienced a food safety contamination problem and did a voluntary recall of all their products. Bottom line? Stock price dove, and long-time juice drinkers became stockholders.

Steltenpohl concludes:

"... one of the misunderstandings around socially responsible businesses is that it seems like an obligation, when in reality it changes the engine of a company. When you embody a strong values structure inside an organization, it actually drives innovation, it drives commitment, it drives performance. In my experience, there's really no conflict other than an old mental model that says doing good is an expense-- instead of an asset.

"To put it in business terms, we should be thinking of social responsibility and accountability in creating a business as a balance sheet issue, instead of as an income statement problem. But nowadays I think there's a sinister side to a lot of it as well-- that I would characterize as a commodification and monetization of human values. And really it all boils down to, in economic terms, how we act in the marketplace and what is called 'socially responsible investment' strategies."

Do you agree with Steltenpohl that monetizing human values is "sinister"? Or is placing a monetary value on doing the right thing a good way to inspire the doing of the right thing?