Everyone’s Vision – and Mission – is Different

Two of the speakers yesterday were from Dow Chemical and Clorox. The speaker from Clorox spoke about the company’s acquisition of Burt’s Bees for a billion dollars and how they were focused on growing that brand and not screwing it up in the process.

I had a conversation during the coffee break (appropriately enough) with an old friend, a well-known coffee roaster and environmental and social activist who I have known for 15 years. I asked him what he thought about the presentations. His comment was that it was all very sophisticated, whereas the types of sustainable development projects that he is used to involve some cash (twenty dollar bills), PVC tubing and a large water tank to try and provide clean water for a coffee beneficio in Guatemala.

As we stood in the hall drinking our coffee and talking about the specialty coffee industry, we both agreed that the idea of spending a billion dollars to buy a company making beeswax lipbalm and shampoo was just something that we couldn’t relate to. But we were certainly going to increase our next donation to Coffee Kids.