REMASTERED: Doing Good Is Good Business, with Shari Arison (Values, Leadership, Culture, Author)

Best-selling author, businesswoman, philanthropist, and owner of The Arison Group and Arison Investments, Shari Arison, explains why doing good is good business, how to instill a values-based culture from the top down, the best advice for young leaders, and why the issue is the future.

Episode Transcript

Host (00:20):
Shari Arison is absolutely amazing. Shari is an American
born Israeli businesswoman andphilanthropist. She's the owner
of Arison investments, which ismade up of several different
companies and also philanthropicorganizations. And her
philosophy, I think you're gonnafind fresh and radical and very

(00:41):
unique. And so she is also anauthor, Activate Your Goodness
and The Doing Good Model. And soshe is here to talk to us about
what that means, doing good. So,Shari, welcome to the show.

Shari Arison (00:52):
Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.

Host (00:54):
So you have this philosophy, Shari, doing good is
good business. So can you justtell us, like, what does that
mean, and how did you kind ofcome up with that?

Shari Arison (01:04):
Well, after working many, many years in
different fields, in business,I'm in finance, real estate,
infrastructure, water, renewableenergy and salt. And alongside
that, I also have severalphilanthropic organizations,
Family Foundation, a volunteerorganization and a spiritual
organization. What I realized isthat do good for people and for

(01:28):
the planet, and you can stillprofit in everything that you
do. So the vision became doinggood, and all the values that we
implement became the doing goodmodel. The doing good model has
13 values, some of the valuesthat are implemented are, for
instance, financial freedom,because we're in finance and we
have a bank through the doinggood model, we realize that

(01:51):
being in finance, we can reallyeducate people and give them the
tools to make the right choicesso that they can prosper and
grow. So that's an example.Another example is in
sustainability. Our real estateand infrastructure company
builds 100% sustainable so sincewe have this sustainable
information, why not implementsustainability throughout all of

(02:13):
our companies and all of ourorganizations? So that's how we
take value by value and createpractical tools for
implementation across the board.You know, it's funny for years,
I'm talking years back when Italked about sustainability,
when it wasn't even a word thatanybody understood. The main
issue was, how can you buildsustainable and make profit? And

(02:35):
we've proven that it can bedone. We've made more money over
the years building sustainable,and we've shown a profit, a
growing profit, over the yearsin all of our businesses. And I
truly believe that when you arevalue based and you truly care,
but I mean authentically careabout people, about your
employees, about your customers,about, you know, people, and the

(02:55):
future of our planet, you alsoprofit.

Host (02:58):
Sp let's talk about the planet for just a second,
because that's a part of thisthat you also feel like any
investment that you have made toprotect the environment is
something that has just comeback directly in a bottom line
profit.

Shari Arison (03:10):
Yes, definitely. And I think everything's
integrated. I mean, you know,the caring cannot stop at a
certain level. It's caring aboutthe individual and doing good
individually for oneself andone's one surrounding. And that
includes interpersonalrelationships. That includes,
you know, all the ever wideningcircles. And that includes our
environment. You know, we haveone planet that we live on, and

(03:33):
we need to care for our planetas well. And like I said, it has
not reduced our profits. It isan increased our process by
thinking this way andimplementing our businesses in
this way.

Host (03:45):
So what about creating that culture beyond you? How do
you communicate as a leaderthrough all these different
organizations and all thesedifferent industries that you
go, look people, this isn't justa nice thing. This isn't just us
sitting around the campfiretalking about doing good. This
is actually the culture.

Shari Arison (04:04):
Well, I can give you one major example of what
we've done in order to make thiswork. Number one, when you when
you talk about values, it's notsomething that you can tell
people to be value based. Youhave to educate. You have to
engage people, you have toenroll them. And that takes
time. Is a process, but whatwe've done is we've created
cross cultural forums. We callthem forums, and what we have is

(04:29):
representatives, and it'snormally middle management. It's
not CEOs and chairmans, it'smore of the employee level of
representatives from each one ofthe businesses and organizations
sitting around the table. So wehave representatives from the
bank, representatives from theinfrastructure company, the
water company, the spiritualcompany, philanthropic

(04:50):
organizations. So we have allthese different people sitting
around the table with backing oftheir chairmans and their CEOs
in order to be creative. Andthink how we can implement these
values. Now, what's happened isit's created discussion. It's
created creativity. It's createdpractical tools for
implementation. And people areengaged and excited, and they

(05:13):
feel like they're part ofsomething bigger. They get
together every month. You know,we have it in the middle of the
year, and at the end of theyear, we have a conference of
all of the companies comingtogether, showing what's
actually been implemented. So,you know, it's not just
something written, it's notsomething on the wall, it's you
can actually see what's beendone. So for instance, I mean,

(05:33):
just, I'll take one of thevalues of volunteering, for
instance. So we created gooddeeds day, and we had 61
countries already that joined infor good deeds day. We had 3
million hours of volunteering onthat day. We have all of our
companies involved in good deedsday. It's crossed all cultures,
all boundaries, all ages. Andpeople come together and do a

(05:55):
good good deed for the benefitof others, each one in their own
way. So that's somethingconcrete, something that can be
measured, and we do this withall of our values. It's caught
on. It's grown every singleyear. It's grown, you know, by
the amount of people, the amountof volunteer time it's it's
grown by the different countriesthat are involved. And it's
amazing, because what we foundis, because it's simple, and

(06:16):
because everyone can do a gooddeed according to their hearts
desire. You know, whether it'swith children or the elderly or
the homeless, or, you know,beautifying your neighborhood.
It could be whatever it is thatyou want to do, and that's
bringing people, uniting peopletogether around the common goal
of doing good.

Host (06:34):
I mean, this is this a big deal. I I saw some pictures
where you got to meet the Pope,and I saw pictures of Times
Square. You know, that's areally big deal. I also just
wanted to highlight somethingthat you said. You said, you
can't tell people to be valuebased. It's like, you have to
show them.

Shari Arison (06:51):
Exactly, you know, like, for instance, vitality is
one of the values. And some ofmy employees came to me and
said, Okay, how should weimplement vitality? And I said,
I don't know, you know, whydon't you just ask the employees
what vitality is to them? And itwas amazing to see the feedback
to some people's nutrition andto other people, it's sport, and

(07:11):
to other people, it's spendingtime with the family and going
on family trips and and it wasjust amazing and and the
creativity that was created, andthe engagement, and it was just
quite amazing. And that's what'shappening around all the values.

Host (07:27):
Were you always like this? Did you grow up with this
natural insight to go you knowwhat doing good? I can see the
connection to how it leads toprofitability, and it's also
doing good in the world. Or wasthere a point in your life,
where the light bulb came on foryou, and if so, how did that
happen? I'm just kind ofcurious. Where did this come
from?

Shari Arison (07:47):
Well, I always cared about people, and I always
cared about humanity and theplanet. It's something that was
bigger than myself and I and Ialways thought about ways that I
can do my part. You know? Ialways felt that, you know, we
all have the responsibility tomake a difference. If we want to
see a collective positive futurein the world, we each need to do
our part. And I've always triedto do my part. I think the light

(08:10):
bulb that came off was theswitch between doing it in a way
that was hard and tiring. And,you know, I almost felt sick at
one point. You know, I was goinguphill all the time, and that's
when I realized that I didn'tneed to go into the dark places
and turn on the light. I couldjust grow the goodness and grow

(08:30):
the light. And there's a lot oforganizations out there that are
doing really great things,people who really care, and I
think that if we put all ourforces together, we can grow
that goodness. And that that'swhat the doing good model is all
about, coming together, youknow, all of us, and growing the
good in the world.

Host (08:46):
And so you're saying that you don't necessarily have to go
into the darkest parts of theworld. It means you can also do
good by taking the things thatyou're already involved in,
reframing them in a way to alsodo good as a part of what you
already love and enjoy doing.

Shari Arison (09:02):
Yes, and I think that, you know, there is so much
good. I mean, we created asocial network called good net,
okay, good net.org, and withintwo years, 17 million people
connected. And it's only aroundgoodness, it's only around, you
know, a conversation of doinggood, and it's different people,
individuals, organizationsaround the world that are doing

(09:23):
good and I think that, you know,there is so much going on,
whether it's in business orphilanthropy or individuals you
know that are doing good deedsevery day. And if we join those
people together, it can't beignored anymore, because what
you see out there is verydifferent. And I think if we
want to, you know, we want tosee a good world, we want to see
a positive world. We we all needto make that happen.

Host (09:45):
I love that. So you know, if you were addressing young
leaders, what advice would yougive to young leaders in this
area of just doing good?

Shari Arison (09:54):
Well, I think, number one, I think it's
important to know that you cando business and have a
successful business. US andstill be value based, I would
suggest to connect to one'sheart and see what you're
passionate about. I think whenpeople are passionate about what
they do, they create, you know,amazing things. You can take
really elated ideas, reallyrelated values, and bring them

(10:19):
down to practical day to daytools and for implementation.
And really, anyone in any fieldcan do business and do good for
themselves and for theircommunity and their country.

Host (10:33):
I love it. So where's the best place that you want people
to go, Shari, to get the book,stay connected with you?

Shari Arison (10:39):
Well, they can go, of course. They can go, of
course, to Amazon or Barnes andNoble, but also they can go to
thedoinggoodmodel.com, theycould either purchase the book
or get information there.

Host (10:50):
So my last question for you is, what is next for
somebody like you? I mean,you're still involved in a lot
of things. Why? What's drivingyou?

Shari Arison (11:00):
Well, it's interesting, because I've been
having a lot of discussionsabout this with with my children
and with my management teams.And I think my biggest issue is
that everything that's been donebe sustainable. Because, you
know, the doing good model isbigger than me, and and doing
and doing good and and gooddeeds day is way bigger than me.

(11:22):
I mean, you know, it's alreadyin 61 countries, and so my dream
right now is to just make surethat all of this is sustainable
and continues without me,because I'm not the issue. The
issue is the future of all ofus, our collective future, and
that's what's important to me.

Host (11:36):
Thank you for what you do, Shari. We really appreciate you
and wish you the best.

Shari Arison (11:41):
Thank you. Thank you so much.