www.newvoiceofbusiness.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.vi -
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Published on: 4/8/2007
Last Visited: 10/9/2008
Member Spotlight: Meredith Beam
Principal, Beam, Inc.
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Meredith BeamMeredith Beam has always loved business, which seemed natural coming from a family of entrepreneurs.As someone who teams up with organization leaders , from Levi Strauss & Co. to the American Cancer Society , to revisit their original purpose and create a new vision, she sees huge potential for business to create a new vision of sustainability and regeneration.
A founder of New Voice of Business, she says it is unique in bringing together individual businesspeople to help define what Bill Gates and others are calling a more creative and sustainable kind of capitalism.
"New Voice is bringing new ideas to the table," she says, "and we're getting good results."
Early in her career, Beam ran an anti-poverty job training program for a leading retailer, and says it "opened up a social consciousness about business.I thought, ,Look what business can do!'" Today, if business were a brand, she adds, "the brand would be in trouble.Customers, employees, communities and shareholders are putting pressure on business to change."
And business is well-suited to the challenge.It's a sector, says Beam, that develops people to be creative and expand their skill sets, to continually adapt."You learn how to envision, plan, problem-solve, and make decisions," she says.