On November 4, 2013, WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts sat down with Honest Tea co-founder, President and TeaEO Seth Goldman to talk about holy basil, the importance of a strong message and what it takes to uphold a strong commitment to social responsibility while growing a business with integrity.
CARTER ROBERTS I’d love to hear about starting a company that has really pure, hard-core values. How do you stay true to those values as your company grows?
SETH GOLDMAN We started with the smallest of means, but the greatest of ambitions. We wanted to have an impact on the American diet, global agriculture and labor standards in the developing world. The first several years were all about survival and finding a model that was sustainable—and I’m using the word “sustainable” from a business perspective, not an environmental one. Eventually we got enough traction and started to click in natural foods channels, and we grew from there.
But to really answer your question, I guess honoring our values comes back to the mission. No matter how big you get, the mission is where it’s at. It’s probably the same for WWF. Our mission just happens to come in a bottle.
CR And how do you take that mission to scale? It’s a question we ask ourselves at WWF every day.
SG The most direct way to take the mission to scale is to sell more bottles. In addition, we were seeing that even as small as we were in the beginning, we were inspiring others to follow. We’d see big companies trying to do something with organics, or with reducing their packaging weight. But we thought, “Why can’t we be the ones driving the change?” We were still a very small fish in a really big pond.
CR Even small changes can deliver outsize impacts. Tell me the story of a place that’s different now because of decisions you made.
SG Great question. Have you heard of tulsi? It’s also known as “holy basil.”
CR Why is it called “holy”?
SG Because it’s a venerable plant in the Hindu religion. We were one of the first to say, “Wait a minute, this isn’t just an herb with restorative properties, it makes a great tea when you brew it!” I visited tulsi farmers in southern India and I was so excited by the possibilities, but they were very pragmatic. They said, “We only make 14 cents a kilogram [1 kg = 2.205 lbs.] for this freshly picked herb—we can’t make a living on that.”
So we worked with the cooperative to help set up a drying shed in their community, and connected the farmers to our larger supply chain. Now these farmers sell the dried tulsi as a value-added crop for $3.70 a kilo, instead of 14 cents a kilo.
It was a simple solution, but just not something they had the ability to take on themselves. When I first visited, their capacity was 10,000 kilos (22,050 lbs.). Now it’s 100,000 kilos (220,500 lbs.).
CR And what’s the market for tulsi outside of India?
SG It’s modest. But we just announced a national distribution deal with a restaurant chain with 250 outlets. And one of the offerings is our lemon herbal tea, and that’s made from tulsi. One interesting lesson we learned? When we call it “tulsi,” nobody’s interested. But when we call it “lemon herbal tea”…?
CR They go for it.
SG Bingo!
CR So, tell me: Your company’s gotten a lot bigger in the past few years. And in 2011, after several years as an investor, The Coca-Cola Company bought Honest Tea. So how do you sustain your culture and your values as you get bigger? On the one hand, your product is now on 10 times as many store shelves. But on the other hand, doesn’t this represent a challenge to a culture built out of a smaller company?
SG No, not really. I mean, for us, bigger is more impactful.
CR Bigger is better.
