A presentation given at NYU and at the Stanford University Entrepreneurship Conference.

1. Stanford University Entrepreneurship Conference
Achieving impact through
responsible business &
social entrepreneurship
Jeffrey Hollender

2. Premise
•Social entrepreneurship & responsible business will only
succeed in fulfilling its promise as a transformative
economic & social movement if its development is guided
by a system based perspective and implemented in a
deeply cooperative manner.
•By social entrepreneurship & responsible business I
include the broad landscape of businesses founded to do
“good” in the world as an absolute and non-negotiable part
of their mission.
•By a systems perspective, I mean a perspective that

3. What is social entrepreneurship & responsible business?
• Responsible business must be resilient and
regenerative, “good” not less bad.
• The purpose of the responsible business is to harness both
public & private assets to serve the public good.
• Responsible business shall accrue fair returns for investors, but
not at the expense of the legitimate interests of other
stakeholders.
• Responsible business shall meet the reasonable needs of the
present while improving the ability of future generations to meet
their needs.
• Responsible business shall distribute the value and the wealth
they create equitably among those who contribute to their
creation.

4. Four topics of focus:
1) Key inflection points – or how did we get here
2) Successes worthy of celebration but not indicative of
the future
3) Our challenge: Poorly defined standards & unclear
goals or
many movements with shared values that fail to
cooperate

5. Successes:
• Ethical personal-care products grew from $5.3 billion in 2005
to $8.1 billion in 2009, up 53%
• U.S. organic food sales rose from $12.6 billion in 2005 to
$21.4 billion in 2009, up 70%
• Sales of local food, which travels less than 150 miles from
source to table, rose from $4 billion in 2002 to $7 billion in
2011, up 75%
• In 1994 there were 1,755 farmers’ markets, by 2010 there were
6,132, up 250%
• In 1992, 935,000 acres of U.S. farmland were planted with
organics, rising to 4,800,000 acres in 2008, up 413%
• In Europe sales of fair trade–certified products grew from €220
million in 2000 to €3.4 billion in 2010, up 1,400%

6. Successes:
• The U.S. LOHAS market (lifestyle of health and sustainability)
of products is estimated at more than $200 billion.
Major corporations have watched this growth closely
•Toyota Priussales rose from 3,000 cars in 1997 to more than
400,000 in 2010.
•Whole Foods sales grew from $90 million across ten stores in
1991 to $9 billion across 300 stores in 2010.
•Kashi cereal, owned by Kellogg grew from $25 million in 2000
to almost $1 billion in 2011.
• Global alternative energy deals climbed 40% from 2010 to 2011
to $53.5 billion

7. 10 ways to ensure success & accelerating change
1. A systemic approach
2. Real innovation
3. Revolution not just iteration
4. Ownership & compensation matter
5. Boundaries & metrics
6. Accountability & radical transparency
7. Corporate governance
8. Cooperation
9. Values & personal behavior
10. Public Policy

8. Contact
Blog & website:
jeffreyhollender.com