Business
Looking for positive and inspiring business stories? From green operations to employee rights, from innovative corporate structures to diversity and inclusion, the Business section at The Optimist Daily has got the latest innovative solutions from the corporate sector.
Indian Innovation
An Indian economics professor seeks innovations where few expect to find them: among small farmers in remote regions of India. Tanadi squats in the shade_of the large tamarind tree. With lowered eyes, he looks at the dusty surface of the village square. Tanadi, a farmer, had not wanted to sit on Read More...
The Employee Always Knows Best
In 2006, after a less than illustrious career in the restaurant business, 31-year-old Ben Zempel got a job with wholesaler Costco. That wouldn’t be remarkable in itself, but Zempel has Down syndrome. Since he got the job, he’s happier than ever, according to his mom, Jane. “To say Ben loves Read More...
Economics for a blue planet
Gunter Pauli, author of The Blue Economy, on why blue is the new green. By Jurriaan Kamp and Marco Visscher Armed with an MBA from the French business school INSEAD, Gunter Pauli was in his mid-30s when he took the reins at Ecover, the Belgian cleaning products manufacturer that ran into Read More...
Damned lies and statistics
Amy Domini | July/August 2011 issue As a kid on Cape Cod, I’d get really frustrated with a ground-dwelling bird that lived all around us. The Virginia quail (or bobwhite) had the most annoying call. At dawn it would start in, tentatively, “Bob? Bob White?” This would repeat until you Read More...
Three cheers for the fourth-sector economy
The highest priority of corporations should be the common good - just as it used to be. Terry Mollner | December 2007 issue Last year, Google’s directors took a step that did not get much attention but could take our social/political/economic world to the next level of maturity. They decided Read More...
Why investing in fast-food may be a good thing
Social entrepreneurs see the economic upheaval as a chance to go mainstream. Amy Domini | March 2009 issue My friends and colleagues know I've been an advocate of the Slow Food movement for many years. Founded in Italy 20 years ago, Slow Food celebrates harvests from small-scale family farms, Read More...
How dangerous is my mobile?
A growing body of research suggests that radiation from cellphones and other electronic devices may harm our health. How worried should we be and what can we do about it? Kim Ridley | December 2006 issue Perhaps more than any other technology, wireless communication is incredibly seductive and Read More...
Green technologies buy time for the environment
Meeting the challenge of the global climate crisis isn’t impossible if we start investing in innovative green companies.. Amy Domini | December 2008 issue The Earth 's population has grown staggeringly in a single lifetime, from less than 3 billion in 1960 to 6.7 billion. And with China and Read More...
Making money a renewable resource
How Peter Liu, a former oil industry engineer, stopped designing petrochemical plants and started the first green bank in U.S. David Bank. David Bank | December 2008 issue Several years ago, when the drips through our ceiling could no longer be ignored, we decided to install solar panels along Read More...
Video: Peter Liu, founder of New Resource Bank
Ode Editors | December 2008 issue Peter founded the bank after nearly two decades of experience in the banking and energy industries. Peter had been a Senior Vice President and Vice President, respectively, of Credit Suisse First Boston and the Chase Manhattan Bank, where he completed $6 billion Read More...