My wife and I both have many close family members in South Carolina, so the recent flood has been on our minds recently.

My first thoughts are with all of those affected by the flood.  

Relevant to this blog, the flood also reminds me of one of the opening passages in Conscious Capitalism by Whole Food's co-CEO John Mackey. In that passage, Mackey recalls the massive flood in Austin, TX in 1981. At that time, Whole Foods only had one store, and the flood filled that store with eight feet of water. Whole Foods had loses of $400,000 and no savings and no insurance.

Mackey notes that "there was no way for [Whole Foods] to recover with [its] own resources" and then:

• "[a] wonderfully unexpected thing happened: dozens of our customers and neighbors started showing up at the store….Over the next few weeks, dozens and dozens of our customers kept coming in to help us clean up and fix the store…It wasn't just our customers who helped us. There was an avalanche of support from our other stakeholders as well [such as suppliers extending credit and deferring payment]. . . . It is humbling to think about what would have happened if all of our stakeholders hadn't cared so much about our company then. Without a doubt, Whole Foods Market would have ceased to exist. A company that today has over $11 billion in sales annually would have died in its first year if our stakeholders hadn't loved and cared about us–and they wouldn't have loved and cared for us had we not been the kind of business we were." pgs. 5-7

I have two questions. First, what decisions lead to that sort commitment from stakeholders? Second, does this sort of commitment only attach to small businesses? 

Asked another way, would Whole Foods still have that sort of stakeholder turnout today? If not, is it because they have not continued to make decisions that inspire stakeholders or simply because they have grown so large that stakeholders assume the company can fend for itself.

It is seemingly easier to make connection with a small, local business than with a large chain, but there do seem to be a few larger companies that still reach their stakeholders on an individual and personal level. Companies, of all sizes, seem to reach stakeholders through making thoughtful decisions in hiring, training, producing, and giving. Authenticity seems to be quite important, as does listening to stakeholders and taking action to address stakeholder needs.