Business as Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey - Profits with Principles

Having read so many business books, I find that most of them repeat much of the advice offered in other books. The result is that each new book provides me with only a small incremental amount of useful information. "Business as Unusual" is a welcome exception. It is so original that it is shocking at times (in a good way). The author's way of running her businesses is radically different to how most businesses are run, and her way has worked successfully for her. I suspect that her way would work for many other companies, if only people would keep their minds open enough to try some of the techniques discussed in this book.

This book is not just a business biography. It is also the biography of an activist. It is difficult to separate these two characteristics of the book since Anita Roddick combines her social activism with her businesses. Indeed, I picked up this book thinking it might be a good read about social activism. I was pleasantly amazed in reading the book to discover how her social activism was compatible with (and sometimes, necessary for) excellent, although unusual, ideas for running a business.

There are hardly any books that make me cry. However, when reading this book, I often found tears in my eyes. Sometimes this occurred when reading the details of particular social injustices that the author had met (and fought). But just as often tears of joy and recognition came when reading of business practices that made me think "Thank goodness I am not the only person who feels this way about how a business should treat employees and customers".

If you are interested in social activism then I think you will find this to be an interesting book but be forewarned that it is not a step-by-step manual on how to be an activist. If you are interested only in good business practices and are apathetic to social activism then I think that you will find this book to be invaluable. This is because the business ideas in this book are excellent but so unusual that you will be hard pressed to find them documented anywhere else. This is why the book's title ("Business as Unusual" instead of "Business as Usual") is so apt.

If you like this book and find the author's unusual way of doing business to be fascinating then you will probably also like "Banker to the Poor" by Mohammad Yunus.