“In business, we need to find a better way, but I know from bitter personal experience that when Anita and I decided to turn The Body Shop into a public company, we lost control to conservative institutions that cared little for its future.” LifeWisdomTruthBusinessIntegrityReflectionContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“We developed ethical innovations such as community trade, which involved sharing the profits from some products with the communities that produced them and running many challenging campaigns.” WisdomBusinessIntegrityEthicsCampaignsAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopAnita RoddickProfits With PrinciplesContemplation Of Nature Author:Gordon Roddick
“The moment I realised that we had made a mistake in taking The Body Shop public was about eight years after we did so. It was also the moment I felt I grew up.” LifeWisdomBusinessIntegrityReflectionEthicsAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopProfits With Principles Author:Gordon Roddick
“I saw how much we were subject to other people's expectations in the City – and they weren't the same as ours.” LifeTruthBusinessIntegrityReflectionEthicsContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopProfits With Principles Author:Gordon Roddick
“We felt increasingly trapped by some shareholders' conservatism and narrow outlook.” LifeTruthBusinessIntegrityReflectionEthicsContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopProfits With Principles Author:Gordon Roddick
“The lessons of creeping loss of control made us decide to go private again if possible.” LifeTruthBusinessIntegrityEthicsContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopProfits With Principles Author:Gordon Roddick
“Three times, we tried to buy back the business. The difficulty was that financial institutions assumed if we wanted to buy the company back from shareholders, we must have an idea that profits were about to rise considerably.” WisdomTruthBusinessIntegrityReflectionEthicsContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopProfits With Principles Author:Gordon Roddick
“We did not know there were rules. We probably looked at the rules and decided they made no sense.” LifeTruthChangeReflectionActivismContemplationAttributed No SourcePioneeringThe Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick
“It uncovers layer by layer all the complexities and innuendos, all the colours, shades of honesty and sincerity cast aside. It is a terrible relief to be part of a thing that holds such meaning.” LifeTruthChangeReflectionActivismContemplationAttributed No SourcePioneeringThe Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick
“I can’t diminish my part in the life of The Body Shop and, of course, the determination and brilliant foresight of Anita, the trail she blazed and the dance she led us all on, the things we achieved and how much she is missed even after all these years, beyond her tragic death on 10 September 2007 – the years have gone quickly.” LifeChangeReflectionActivismAttributed No SourceVisionaryPioneeringThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“I am now 80+ and happy to be alive and sitting in the departure lounge. Anita and I made a great partnership, sometimes stormy, and we achieved a lot together in the great arena of life. I hope to exit with a smile, surrounded by my family.” LifeTruthFamilyReflectionContemplationAttributed No SourceVisionaryPioneeringThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“My view at the time was that we needed to have a relatively easy process in which the Indians could be fully involved and would be a high-volume range in The Body Shop’s ‘Trade Not Aid’ bracket.” AdventureTravelContemplationAttributed No SourceFair TradeThe Body ShopKayapóTrade Not Aid Author:Gordon Roddick
“I guess if I am being honest, I was better at playing second fiddle – my life seems to have borne that out – with occasional bursts of first fiddle (The Big Issue, the Amazon, Riding across the Gran Chaco) – a slightly second-rate Ranulph Fiennes or even Pen Hadow. Nothing I have ever done had the benefit of planning – more based on ignorance than risk.” LifeTruthAdventureReflectionContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“Anita would never say no to anybody’s dreams.” LifePhilosophyTruthDreamsReflectionAttributed No Source1976The Body ShopAnita RoddickWisdom Contemplation Author:Gordon Roddick
“We showed that breaking the rules could lift your head above the mist, the fog and clouds of incomprehension. There was sunshine and laughter up there – anything, everything was possible!” LifeTruthBusinessReflectionBraveryEntrepreneurshipContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“Constantly, the thought is, will I be brave enough? So far, I have not risen to that challenge in my personal or public life. I was good enough to give shape but not detail to the opportunity I had in business.” LifeTruthBusinessReflectionBraveryContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body ShopAnita Roddick Author:Gordon Roddick
“I had big fun and big opportunities; we pulled out the extensions on business and made it do more for life.” LifeTruthBusinessReflectionBraveryContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body Shop2003 Author:Gordon Roddick
“We stretched the possibilities to the evident delight of others, who took my similar cries or used the business tool to move to fresh ground that stirred their own passions (or maybe demons), that gave their workforce a feeling of vitality and difference beyond 'let's turn up for next week's pay cheque'.” LifeTruthPassionBusinessReflectionBraveryContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body Shop2005 Author:Gordon Roddick
“What saved us once again was our willingness to recognise that we were wrong and our ability to move on to the next idea.” LifeWisdomTruthReflectionEntrepreneurshipContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick
“We constantly dreamed of better ways to live and make money and held monthly ‘ideas’ meetings with friends – brainstorming for a better life!” LifeWisdomTruthReflectionEntrepreneurshipContemplationAttributed No SourceThe Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick
“It is only perhaps two or three occasions in a lifetime that an outrageous idea comes to one and all the pieces seem to fit; this was such an occasion.” LifeWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source1976The Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick, 1976
“The one thing I know is that I am going to have a fascinating time, win-lose or what, and for that reason alone, the whole thing will have been worthwhile.” LifeWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source1976The Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick, 1976
“I do enjoy the physical act of writing.” LifeWritingTruthReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source1976The Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick, 1976
“Never be afraid to launch yourself into the unknown.” LifePhilosophyWisdomTruthAttributed No Source1976The Body Shop Author:Gordon Roddick