{"id":2454,"date":"2010-07-02T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ietransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=2454"},"modified":"2010-07-02T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T21:00:00","slug":"panera-bread-learns-people-are-basically-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/articles\/panera-bread-learns-people-are-basically-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Panera Bread Learns People Are Basically Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Panera Bread sets an example with its non-profit cafe and challenges other corporations to push their philanthropy beyond writing checks.<\/p>\n

Last month, I blogged about Panera Bread’s<\/a> new non-profit cafe in St. Louis dubbed the St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe<\/a>. The idea was simple\u2026 take whatever you want to eat or drink and instead of paying a cashier, drop whatever you can afford into a donation box.<\/p>\n

Ron Shaich, who stepped down as Panera\u2019s CEO last month, opened the non-profit cafe \u201cto find out what human nature is all about\u201d. He said he\u2019s dreamed about doing something like this for years. Now, the cafe has been open over a month, and we want to know… what’s the verdict?<\/p>\n

Did Panera\u2019s social experiment prove that people are basically good at heart?<\/p>\n

The cafe took in $100,000 in revenue its first month, and Shaich said in a recent interview with USA Today<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n

“I guess I would say it’s performing better than we even might have hoped in our cynical moments, and it’s living up to our best sense of humanity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Score a point for humanity.<\/p>\n

But what I really admire about Ron Shaich is his interpretation of corporate responsibility. It’s much more than traditional philanthropy and cause marketing. True corporate responsibility is how a business operates in a community. What are its social and environmental impacts – good and bad.<\/p>\n

In his interview, Shaich continued…<\/p>\n

“The non-profit chain is a challenge to other corporations to push their philanthropy beyond writing checks. More valuable is to put their supply chains, technology and knowledge to use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The fascinating question to me is: Can we take our skills \u2014 our core competencies, as we call them in business \u2014 and apply them very directly to solving some of the problems in society. And not just for publicity, but to make a difference.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bravo, Ron Shaich, bravo. Hopefully, other CEOs are listening.<\/p>\n

Follow Cindy Tickle on Twitter @ethicalbiz<\/a>
\nImage Credit: samantha celera<\/a> via flickr under cc license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panera Bread sets an example with its non-profit cafe and challenges other corporations to push their philanthropy beyond writing checks. Last month, I blogged about Panera Bread’s new non-profit cafe in St. Louis dubbed the St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe. The idea was simple\u2026 take whatever you want to eat or drink and instead 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Last month, I blogged about Panera Bread’s new non-profit cafe in St. Louis dubbed the St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe. 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