Doing the Right thing for the Right reasons.

When Steve Demos was struggling through college back in 1970, he says that he felt like he knew everything he didn't want to do to make a living, but unfortunately, he had no idea what he did want to do. So in a move to try and "find himself," Steve took several years off to travel through the far east, especially India. While there, Steve chose to live a vegetarian life style and formed a new philosophy for living that he calls a "right livelihood."

"Wherever the Golden Rule of 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' could be applied in business," Steve says, "it should be done." To put this in modern day business English, he says that means, "Any and everyone who touches a stream of revenue must be doing good for society in order to warrant their benefits."

Steve returned to the USA and settled in Boulder, Colorado, where he decided that a business of making healthy vegetarian food had all the attributes to which he could apply his "right livelihood" philosophy. He tried a lot of different ideas and approaches before he finally started a company called White Wave Tofu, which has now become the largest soymilk company in the world.

The first batch of tofu was made in Steve's kitchen, using $500 he borrowed from a friend. From those simple beginnings, White Wave operated successfully for the next 20 years obtaining sales of around $6 million.

In 1996, after a "getting rich slowly" philosophy had kept White Wave solvent, Steve realized that foods like tofu were not going to make the impact on society he'd originally hoped. Eventually, Steve needed to find a product that required no customer education, a product containing "freshness, familiarity, and convenience." Later that year, Silk soymilk became the answer to the dilemma he faced. And what an answer it was!

Silk, a fresh soymilk product made from organic soybeans, is now available in over 90% of U.S. supermarkets. This product increased White Wave's profits from $6 million up to $14.2 million in 1999. Then when the FDA began talking about the benefits of soy products, White Waves sales jumped up to more than $362 million.

Steve attributes all of his success to his striving to practice integrity at the highest levels. Living his philosophy of "Right Livelyhood," was when the highly publicized sale of White Wave to Dean Foods took place in 2002. Steve sold a major portion of his company for $295 million dollars.

At the time, White Wave had about 150 employees of which 100 had worked for the company for 2 years or more. Steve refused to sell, unless every employee who had been with the company for 2 years or more received something from the sale. The lawyers were stunned by Steve's adamant request. The sale of the company was almost jeopardized because of it. In the end, $15 million dollars of the sale price was handed out to about 100 people, many of whom didn't speak a whole lot of English. One of them, a truck driver named Pedro, received almost $400,000. There was no legal obligation for Steve to do this. Steve's face lights up when he talks about handing out the checks and explaining, through a translator, why the employees were getting the money.

Looking back on the sale, Steve said: "This event was a cause and effect circumstance proving that if you choose to do something the right way for the right reasons, you end up at a better point. The ultimate message is that there is a path, and that path is "Right Livelihood," to create wealth for all without guilt or negativity.

After the sale, experts expected the culture at Dean's Foods to decimate White Wave. But instead, the opposite occurred. Steve made new deals with his management team for each of them to stay on for at least $1 million dollars each, and together his team brought in an additional $35 million that blew away the expectations of the new majority share owner. Steve was promoted to manage not just White Wave, but he became president of the Refrigerated Products Division of Dean's Foods, with sales that exceeded $1.2 billion!

Solid Gold Performance...

Is the direct result of choosing to live a life of Intentional Excellence, in unwavering dedication to one's highest values.

How Did WhiteWave Become a Gold Mine? By Superior:

Mission...     Marketing...     Production Management...

Click on Function... Insert a Do It in your Strategic Plan... then Just DO IT!

Your Thoughts and Observations...

"A product, a food or a service has to be good for me, good for you and good for everything it touches. That means no harming the planet, no harming other sentient beings, no exploiting the supply chain, no exploiting the employees, no misleading the consumers." ~ Steve Demos