YEAR 12 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT - THANK YOU
- 15 Feb 2018
On Thursday 15 February we were visited by a very special guest Kalvin Hart, who is part of a very interesting business known as “ThankYou”. You may have seen their products in stores clearly labelled with their brand “ThankYou”, and from the outside they seem just like any other company selling products such as soap and snack bars just to make a profit. However, they run their company under a very special kind of business model known as a social enterprise. A social enterprise takes what they need from the profits in order to sustain the business and then use the other 50% to reinvest in a mission. “ThankYou” thought that they would differ from this too, deciding that they would invest 100% of profit into their mission. Kalvin explained that this has allowed them to help thousands of individuals access clean water and have proper hygiene.Things weren't always this successful as Kalvin explained. They had two failed launches. They lost 300 of their 350 distributors at one point due to supply chain failures and they were doing this with the model that they would invest 100% into their mission. So they had very little money to work with.
The next idea was to sell a book. A book that could be bought for any price. 5 dollars all the way up 5000 dollars and beyond. This was a huge success and after gaining both Coles and Woolies as distributors they could finally have a lasting impact on the world.
This incursion was heavily beneficial for all student undertaking Units 3 and 4 Business as we are currently tasked with learning about business structures, management styles and various techniques to make these a success. “ThankYou” used the example that their workplace has a participative management style where employees had a valid input into business decisions. This can make the employees feel valued, leading to a positive corporate culture.
We would just like to thank Kalvin for taking time out of his schedule to come and teach us about the business that so heavily relates to our course.
We would also like to thank Jobbo and Mr Evans for organising the incursion.
Cheers
Jesse Scholz
Year 12 Student
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