Raising the Bar synopsis (and how the book applies to you)

So I know June's book of the month is Raising the Bar, but I wanted to go ahead and give a good, brief synopsis of the book and how it can apply to you. I found this post from a reviewer (Graham Lawes) on Amazon.com and it's been edited for brevity:

He starts the history of Clif Bar with a personal story of going on a 100 mile bike ride that turned unexpectedly into a 175 mile ride. This was what he calls the first epiphany bike ride and was sustained by only 6 power bars and a banana. As the story goes, it was when he found that he couldn't force down the 6th bar that he decided to make his own. This was the epiphany. It's celebrated every year by a company-sponsored bike event that follows the same route.

Such epiphanies occur frequently, but we're not many of us built like Erickson, so we don't tend to turn our ideas into such a formidable reality as he has done...

There are many good reasons to read this book. It's full of great stories and metaphors. His management ideas are workable, and he's created one of the best mission statements I've seen. This is given in the form of five "aspirations:" Sustaining Our Brands; Sustaining Our Business; Sustaining Our People; Sustaining Our Community; Sustaining Our Planet...

Erickson clearly lived and promulgated these values for some years before formalizing them and writing them down on paper. He also works continuously to meet the company's aspirations. It seems obvious to measure and assess a company based on the achievement of its mission, but that's not what most companies do...

At the end of the book, Erickson sums up his achievements at Clif Bar by saying that Clif Bar's business model is like a jazz score, and that the people of Clif Bar are like jazz musicians. "The core is jazz: the freedom to improvise in the creation of beautiful things, products, and people." This is a nice idea and an appropriate metaphor for the whole book, a tale about the raising of Clif Bar improvised around the stories of his life.

The book is an entertaining -- and at some points dazzling -- composition, but it is also important as a model. Erickson does something valuable by giving us one more book that shows how to build a successful, socially responsible company...

Raising the Bar is a great read, but most of all it's important for its ideas and the example it provides. Erickson is an inspiring model for others. He doesn't believe that taking care of people is just a way to make them work harder. As Erickson puts it, "We believe that if we provide meaningful work as well as something beyond work, people will do their jobs well and lead healthier, more balanced lives."

Fortunately, Erickson's is not an isolated example, and more and more people are practicing the belief that stewardship and sustainability is more important than maximizing shareholder profit.

So if you haven't begun June's book of the month, or aren't still convinced to read it, I invite you to read a free excerpt of the book found here on the Clif Bar website. Happy readings!

Game Theory, Clif Bar, and Giving Back

I spent this past Memorial Day weekend in Waterville, Maine attending Colby's graduation ceremony. Aside from getting free books to read and helping friends move out, I also got to hear Mr. Schelling, the Nobel prize winner for his work on game theory, speak during graduation.

While I didn't find his commencement speech particularly relevant (he spoke about nuclear proliferation instead of giving advice, which he was against doing) I got to thinking about how game theory relates to CK and other companies such as Clif Bar. In particular, I wondered what role the ideas of game theory play when a company makes decisions to "give back" or "take care of its community."

I think too many companies define the optimum strategy on an economic profit basis versus a total return basis that impacts not only the bottom line but also the environment and the community. A company that looks at the big picture, not just economic profit, is Clif Bar and their commitment to the community.

On the drive back from Maine, I got to thinking about how we could do a better job looking at the big picture. I spoke with Orion and we both agree that we want to start a 1% program where we give 1% of our profits at the end of the year to two non-profit organizations of our choice. If you have any suggestions for non-profits, please let us know! And if you have other ideas for giving back, please feel free to contact one of us.

In other news, I finally get to hear G. Felda Hardymon speak today - I'll post about it first thing tomorrow.

And in further news, congratulations to Rizwan for his recent outstanding tutoring. He is one of our great tutors who helped one of his students get a very good SAT II score. Well done!