LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER ONE

       My Professional Journey

      From Caterpillar to Butterfly

      Transformation is a subject I have breathed and lived for most of my life. Some people might say I had it easy—I inherited a fortune. But it’s like they always say: it’s not what you have that matters, but what you do with it. This book is about what I did with it.

      I always wanted to make a difference in the world, and I’m on a constant path of personal growth and transformation. Having spent thirty years leading in philanthropy and overlapping the last fifteen years running a global business, I learned that together, these two worlds form a huge platform for positive change. Because my company operates in more than forty countries on five continents with thousands of people in our global workforce, we have an incredible impact.

      In order to create long-term sustainable change, I knew I had to engage the right people who formed the right teams to create strategy and implementation. My goal was to introduce a values-based perspective in order to transform all of my business entities, because I knew in my heart even then that all of my holdings would have to be congruent with my own moral compass. I knew this change would be possible with vision, never giving up, and by being a personal example to others.

      Anyone who knows me knows that when I have a vision, followed by a deep calling in my gut, nothing will stop my persistence in making it happen. It has taken time, but together we’ve been able to create a model that has turned into our organizational compass.

      Now we have a practical, and yet elated, guide to follow. It’s a business model that has grown from within and matured over time, a model that guides us at the Arison Group in our daily work, making decisions and acting upon them. Because we feel that everything we do focuses on doing good, it was easy to come up with a name: The Doing Good Model.

      The Transformative Power of Doing Good

      Doing good gradually became my go-to mantra, and I have found very creative ways to use my platforms to advance this concept of doing good. I even initiated an annual event to encourage people to do good, which has grown by leaps and bounds. Last year in 2013, hundreds of thousands of people in more than fifty countries went out to do a good deed for the benefit of others on International Good Deeds Day.

      But this book is not about Good Deeds Day. It is about a business model that is values-based and works! I was told very bluntly, years ago, that no large company of mine could be sustainable and profitable at the same time. I was told that I could not develop a culture of corporate giving in a country where no such thing even existed in people’s minds.

      I was even told, more than once, that I did not belong in business. People suggested to me that maybe I would be better off just running the family’s foundation. But you know what? Almost thirty years later, I am even more convinced of my own original vision. I have a lot to offer to the world, and I have had the privilege of leading the most amazing team of forward-thinking executives and employees within my companies and organizations. As a collective, we have taken these companies to new levels of success and prosperity that none of us could have foreseen when we started out.

      I don’t say this to be boastful—I say it because I want to share how we did it, and how you too can use this same set of values to transform yourself and your own company or organization.

      I am passionate about this values-driven business model because I believe that it works well in companies of any size, in any country, and in for-profit or non-profit entities. I firmly believe that anybody and everybody can benefit from adopting a values-based approach to their daily life and work life, whether they are a company owner, a board member, or a worker in any job or field. And I trust that you will believe this too, once you learn more about the Doing Good Model.

      Creating a Culture of Giving

      Over the years as a young adult, I worked in

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