University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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outweighed short-term profits, if conflicts between them have arisen. However, most
of the time community trade, environmental protection, non-animal testing and
human rights have been business opportunities for The Body Shop, niches the
competitors have not been able to utilize.
The Body Shop has been active in role experimentation. The company has been very
creative in inventing both new cooperative ways to do responsible business and new
ways of actively influencing environmental and socio-cultural causes. Community
trade is The Body Shop’s own invention, which commits the company to trading
fairly and responsibly with suppliers. The company actively seeks out small-scale
farmers, traditional craftspeople, rural cooperatives and tribal villages with highly
skilled experts at their work, and forges deep, long-lasting relationships, rewarding
these suppliers with good trading practices and a reliable, independence-building
wage (The Body Shop 2009). The Body Shop had its first community trade
agreement with an Indian supplier already in 1986 (Roddick 2000).
The Body Shop Foundation was established in 1990 to fund human rights and
environmental protection groups (The Body Shop 2009). It has, for example,
launched The Big Issue paper for homeless people. The Body Shop has initiated
many international campaigns over the years, including Save the Whale (with
Greenpeace) in 1986, Ogoni People in 1993, Against Animal Testing in 1996, Make
Your Mark (with Amnesty International) in 1998, Renewable Energy (with
Greenpeace) in 2002, Stop Violence in the Homes (with UNICEF) in 2006 and Spray
to Change (with MTV) in 2006.
Initially, there was no guarantee for success for the Body Shop in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, but anticipation of achievement grew exponentially with the rapidly
increasing awareness of environmental and socio-cultural issues in societies of the
developed world in the late 1980s and in the 1990s. The Body Shop became an icon
of environmental and socio-cultural responsibility. This responsible leadership role
was very demanding to Anita Roddick who was overwhelmed by work, campaigns,
travel, publicity and invitations. The company could hardly take a backseat and
become a follower after 30 years of being the leader of leaders in responsible
business and campaigning. In 2006 The Body Shop became part of the L'Oréal
Group, but continued to operate individually within the Group in order to retain its
unique identity (The Body Shop 2009). Dame Anita Roddick died in 2007. Her
legacy and inspiration continues at The Body Shop.
Grameen Bank
The idea of Grameen Bank (Bank of the Villages) came during the Bangladeshi
famine of 1974 when economist and university professor Muhammad Yunus (1940-)
gave a $27 loan to a group of 42 women without requiring any collateral, so that they
could build bamboo baskets for sale (Yunus 2006). He was surprised to see that with
such a small amount of money they employed themselves, provided for their families,
earned enough to pay back the loan with interest and even gained some profit.
Muhammad Yunus understood that there lay huge entrepreneurial potentials in rural