Doing Good Is Good Business, with Shari Arison – Episode 91 of The Action Catalyst Podcast

Best-selling author, businesswoman, philanthropist, 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.

About Shari:

Businesswoman and philanthropist, Shari Arison, has been active for many years in the fields of business and philanthropy, operating to realize the vision of Doing Good.  

Through Arison Investments – the Arison Group business arm, Shari founded Miya – a global water efficiency company, with the vision of bringing an abundance of fresh water to the world. In parallel, Shari led and advanced values such as Financial Freedom at Bank Hapoalim where she was the controlling shareholder, Sustainability at Shikun & Binui, and Vitality at Salt of the Earth. 

Shari has always led businesses that aim at bringing added value to people, society, the environment, and the economy. For many years she strived to change “systems”, as a whole, and in recent years she decided to sell the operating companies that she owned, and has transitioned from a model of ownership to a model of influence, without holding a controlling stake. 

Today, Arison Investments continues to invest globally, and does so specifically in industries that bring added value to humanity in the fields of Education, Energy, Robotics, and more. “Now I can continue creating impact through investments that are made from a harmonious, creative, and enjoyable place, focusing on initiatives that bring added value to our planet and humanity at large,” Shari explains.  

Over the course of many years, Shari developed The Doing Good Model – a practical day-to-day tool for integrating values at the core of businesses, nonprofits, communities, and individual people. The model incorporates 13 universal values that are applied as a moral compass in any endeavor. The model is taught academically at George Mason University in the USA, and The Doing Good Model Organization guides value implementation in businesses and organizations in Israel and worldwide. 

Forbes has repeatedly ranked Shari as one of the most influential women in the world, and has listed her as one of the world’s greenest billionaires for her environmental contribution in Israel and worldwide, which is also translated into business dealings. 

She was named Honorary Fellow of the Decade by the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC) Herzliya, where she served on the Board of Directors, and has received the America–Israel League Partners for Democracy Award for her contribution to advancing the economic relations between the USA and Israel. 

Additionally, Shari was named Honorary Dr. of Humane Letters by George Mason University, in appreciation for the application of fundamental human values to global business and organizations. 

She has published seven books, which became instant bestsellers in Israel and worldwide, translated into numerous languages. In these books, she wrote from the heart to share her journey on the path of raising awareness and creating positive change. Her books were written from different angles and in diverse fields, including spirituality, business, giving, art, and children’s books. 

Learn more at ShariArison.com and ArisonInvestments.com.

The Action Catalyst is presented by the Southwestern Family of Companies. With each episode, the podcast features some of the nation’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing meaningful tips and advice. Learn more at TheActionCatalyst.com, subscribe below or wherever you listen to podcasts, and be sure to leave a rating and review!

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(Transcribed using A.I. / May include errors):

Host
Shari Arison is absolutely amazing. Shari is an American born Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist. She’s the owner of Arison investments, which is made up of several different companies and also philanthropic organizations. And her philosophy, I think you’re gonna find fresh and radical and very unique. And so she is also an author, Activate Your Goodness and The Doing Good Model. And so she is here to talk to us about what that means, doing good. So, Shari, welcome to the show.

Shari Arison
Thank you very much. I’m happy to be here.

Host
So you have this philosophy, Shari, doing good is good business. So can you just tell us, like, what does that mean, and how did you kind of come up with that?

Shari Arison
Well, after working many, many years in different fields, in business, I’m in finance, real estate, infrastructure, water, renewable energy and salt. And alongside that, I also have several philanthropic organizations, Family Foundation, a volunteer organization and a spiritual organization. What I realized is that do good for people and for the planet, and you can still profit in everything that you do. So the vision became doing good, and all the values that we implement became the doing good model. The doing good model has 13 values, some of the values that are implemented are, for instance, financial freedom, because we’re in finance and we have a bank through the doing good model, we realize that being in finance, we can really educate people and give them the tools to make the right choices so that they can prosper and grow. So that’s an example. Another example is in sustainability. Our real estate and infrastructure company builds 100% sustainable so since we have this sustainable information, why not implement sustainability throughout all of our companies and all of our organizations? So that’s how we take value by value and create practical tools for implementation across the board. You know, it’s funny for years, I’m talking years back when I talked about sustainability, when it wasn’t even a word that anybody understood. The main issue was, how can you build sustainable and make profit? And we’ve proven that it can be done. We’ve made more money over the years building sustainable, and we’ve shown a profit, a growing profit, over the years in all of our businesses. And I truly believe that when you are value based and you truly care, but I mean authentically care about people, about your employees, about your customers, about, you know, people, and the future of our planet, you also profit.

Host
So let’s talk about the planet for just a second, because that’s a part of this that you also feel like any investment that you have made to protect the environment is something that has just come back directly in a bottom line profit.

Shari Arison
Yes, definitely. And I think everything’s integrated. I mean, you know, the caring cannot stop at a certain level. It’s caring about the individual and doing good individually for oneself and one’s one surrounding. And that includes interpersonal relationships. That includes, you know, all the ever widening circles. And that includes our environment. You know, we have one planet that we live on, and we need to care for our planet as well. And like I said, it has not reduced our profits. It is an increased our process by thinking this way and implementing our businesses in this way.

Host
So what about creating that culture beyond you? How do you communicate as a leader through all these different organizations and all these different industries that you go, look people, this isn’t just a nice thing. This isn’t just us sitting around the campfire talking about doing good. This is actually the culture.

Shari Arison
Well, I can give you one major example of what we’ve done in order to make this work. Number one, when you when you talk about values, it’s not something that you can tell people to be value based. You have to educate. You have to engage people, you have to enroll them. And that takes time. Is a process, but what we’ve done is we’ve created cross cultural forums. We call them forums, and what we have is representatives, and it’s normally middle management. It’s not CEOs and chairmans, it’s more of the employee level of representatives from each one of the businesses and organizations sitting around the table. So we have representatives from the bank, representatives from the infrastructure company, the water company, the spiritual company, philanthropic organizations. So we have all these different people sitting around the table with backing of their chairmans and their CEOs in order to be creative. And think how we can implement these values. Now, what’s happened is it’s created discussion. It’s created creativity. It’s created practical tools for implementation. And people are engaged and excited, and they feel like they’re part of something bigger. They get together every month. You know, we have it in the middle of the year, and at the end of the year, we have a conference of all of the companies coming together, showing what’s actually been implemented. So, you know, it’s not just something written, it’s not something on the wall, it’s you can actually see what’s been done. So for instance, I mean, just, I’ll take one of the values of volunteering, for instance. So we created good deeds day, and we had 61 countries already that joined in for good deeds day. We had 3 million hours of volunteering on that day. We have all of our companies involved in good deeds day. It’s crossed all cultures, all boundaries, all ages. And people come together and do a good good deed for the benefit of others, each one in their own way. So that’s something concrete, something that can be measured, and we do this with all of our values. It’s caught on. It’s grown every single year. It’s grown, you know, by the amount of people, the amount of volunteer time it’s it’s grown by the different countries that are involved. And it’s amazing, because what we found is, because it’s simple, and because everyone can do a good deed according to their hearts desire. You know, whether it’s with children or the elderly or the homeless, or, you know, beautifying your neighborhood. It could be whatever it is that you want to do, and that’s bringing people, uniting people together around the common goal of doing good.

Host
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 a really big deal. I also just wanted to highlight something that you said. You said, you can’t tell people to be value based. It’s like, you have to show them.

Shari Arison
Exactly, you know, like, for instance, vitality is one of the values. And some of my employees came to me and said, Okay, how should we implement vitality? And I said, I don’t know, you know, why don’t you just ask the employees what vitality is to them? And it was amazing to see the feedback to some people’s nutrition and to other people, it’s sport, and to other people, it’s spending time with the family and going on family trips and and it was just amazing and and the creativity that was created, and the engagement, and it was just quite amazing. And that’s what’s happening around all the values.

Host
Were you always like this? Did you grow up with this natural insight to go you know what doing good? I can see the connection to how it leads to profitability, and it’s also doing good in the world. Or was there a point in your life, where the light bulb came on for you, and if so, how did that happen? I’m just kind of curious. Where did this come from?

Shari Arison
Well, I always cared about people, and I always cared about humanity and the planet. It’s something that was bigger than myself and I and I always thought about ways that I can do my part. You know? I always felt that, you know, we all have the responsibility to make a difference. If we want to see a collective positive future in the world, we each need to do our part. And I’ve always tried to do my part. I think the light bulb that came off was the switch 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 going uphill all the time, and that’s when I realized that I didn’t need to go into the dark places and turn on the light. I could just grow the goodness and grow the light. And there’s a lot of organizations out there that are doing really great things, people who really care, and I think that if we put all our forces together, we can grow that goodness. And that that’s what the doing good model is all about, coming together, you know, all of us, and growing the good in the world.

Host
And so you’re saying that you don’t necessarily have to go into the darkest parts of the world. It means you can also do good by taking the things that you’re already involved in, reframing them in a way to also do good as a part of what you already love and enjoy doing.

Shari Arison
Yes, and I think that, you know, there is so much good. I mean, we created a social network called good net, okay, good net.org, and within two years, 17 million people connected. And it’s only around goodness, it’s only around, you know, a conversation of doing good, and it’s different people, individuals, organizations around the world that are doing good and I think that, you know, there is so much going on, whether it’s in business or philanthropy or individuals you know that are doing good deeds every day. And if we join those people together, it can’t be ignored anymore, because what you see out there is very different. And I think if we want to, you know, we want to see a good world, we want to see a positive world. We we all need to make that happen.

Host
I love that. So you know, if you were addressing young leaders, what advice would you give to young leaders in this area of just doing good?

Shari Arison
Well, I think, number one, I think it’s important to know that you can do business and have a successful business. US and still be value based, I would suggest to connect to one’s heart and see what you’re passionate about. I think when people are passionate about what they do, they create, you know, amazing things. You can take really elated ideas, really related values, and bring them down to practical day to day tools and for implementation. And really, anyone in any field can do business and do good for themselves and for their community and their country.

Host
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
Well, they can go, of course. They can go, of course, to Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but also they can go to thedoinggoodmodel.com, they could either purchase the book or get information there.

Host
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 driving you?

Shari Arison
Well, it’s interesting, because I’ve been having a lot of discussions about this with with my children and with my management teams. And I think my biggest issue is that everything that’s been done be sustainable. Because, you know, the doing good model is bigger than me, and and doing and doing good and and good deeds day is way bigger than me. I mean, you know, it’s already in 61 countries, and so my dream right now is to just make sure that all of this is sustainable and continues without me, because I’m not the issue. The issue is the future of all of us, our collective future, and that’s what’s important to me.

Host
Thank you for what you do, Shari. We really appreciate you and wish you the best.

Shari Arison
Thank you. Thank you so much.