May 2008

Authentic Food Organizations: Why I love my CSA

May 29, 2008

Tweet Spring is here, and I’m in love again… with my CSA. CSA as in “cyber-spouse avatar”? No, CSA as in Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a group of us — 55 families, Farmer John (that’s John, below), the five or so employees of John’s Starbrite Farm, and 20 weeks of organic produce. [Quick introduction: Community […]

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Authentic, but how? What questions would you ask this organization….

May 21, 2008

Tweet Readers- I found a great story in my local paper about a woman in my town who sings in a men’s chorus. Yes, you read that correctly–She is in a Men’s chorus. While not exactly like the photo, above, I think the ratio in this chorus is at least 75:1 men to woma n. […]

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Suspicious of “Authenticity”, women challenge Dove ads – Again!

May 12, 2008

Tweet The latest controversy over Dove’s "Real Women" ads shows just how suspicious we are of organizations that claim they have become authentic and honest, after showing themselves to be neither. You may already be aware of the two previous controversies related to Unilever Corporation’s Dove "Real Women" ad campaign . [Jump to previous post […]

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Previous Authenticity Controversies re: Dove & Unilever

May 11, 2008

Tweet Can Dove / Unilever be thought of as ‘authentic’? 1. Dove makes and sells products to ‘fix’ women’s beauty problems, and contradicts the messages it intends to send in the "real beauty" campaign. These unreasonable standards of beauty hurt women and girls . CBC’s Street Cents "examines whether Dove wants to turn beauty standards/stereotypes […]

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B Corporations: Video Clip

May 10, 2008

Tweet Here is a video clip of Andrew Kassoy, a co-founder of the B Lab (the non-profit that has set up the B Corporation structure) speaking at a Stanford Entrepreneurship seminar in February of 2008. It’s interesting to hear the argument behind the B Corporation straight from the folks who thought of it! Marrying Socially […]

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B Corp Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

Tweet What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Until recently, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an authentic […]

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The Authenticity Paradox of Gilmore & Pine

May 1, 2008

Tweet The authenticity paradox , as defined by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II in their book "Authenticity: What consumers really want" , contains the following axioms: If you are authentic, you don’t have to say you’re authentic. If you say you’re authentic, then you’d better be authentic. It’s easier to be authentic, […]

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