Start a Business, Save the World

These days, when people want to see a change in the world, they're often turning to entrepreneurs to get the job done. Just think about the alternative fuels industry.

So when Craig Walker, 41, and Vincent Paquet, 37, found themselves thinking that every homeless person should have a free telephone number, they decided to make it part of their telecommunication firm's business plan. Even before GrandCentral, a business that offers customers one telephone number that will work on multiple lines including cell phones, began offering service to the public last year, Walker and Paquet teamed up with the city government of San Francisco to offer free telephone numbers to any homeless person needing one.

"You can give a homeless person job training, a hair cut, help them practice doing a job interview, buy him a suit, but if you don't give him a phone number to hand out when he shows up to an interview, there's no way for an employer to call him back and tell him he's got the job," says Walker. "We spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to help the homeless, but that last little bit would make it so much more valuable."

As GrandCentral expands its base of subscribers around the country, the company is also extending its charitable program. Walker says that women who flee home because of safety issues with nothing but the clothes on their backs, as well as any victims of a future Hurricane Katrina-type episode, would benefit from a free telephone number. It's amazing the government or AT&T hadn't thought of doing this already, he adds.

Doing Good Goes Mainstream
While Walker and Paquet's idea may be unique, the concept of businesses "doing good" certainly isn't. It's becoming the norm for every business, big or small, established or startup, to make improving the world for their customers and employees part of their business plan.

In fact, it may soon be odd if a company isn't trying to contribute to the social good, says Bruce Piasecki, author of the recently released book, World Inc. "If you're going to be a global company, you have to go green. When you look at a recent cover of Sports Illustrated, where they're talking about how stadiums are addressing the need to be more environmentally responsible, you can see that it's already gone mainstream. It's no longer a choice; it's a competitive necessity."

Meeting Consumer Demand
So why are so many entrepreneurs coming to these conclusions now? It may simply be a new generation's way of thinking, a feeling that for too long businesses have had a reputation for only caring about the bottom line, when the bottom line is really something beyond just making money.

But there's also the consumer to consider. "There's been a sea change in values in terms of what consumers want," says Piasecki, also president and founder of the AHC Group, an energy and environmental consultant to companies such as Toyota, BP, Chevron, DuPont and Dow Chemical. "In the past, they only wanted cheap and convenience. Now, there's a mounting wave of interest in having it be a superior product, more durable, of higher quality, and they also want it to address some of the critical concerns in their neighborhood."

A company has an edge if its intentions are good, but the product or service still has to be superior or at least equal to its competitors. Walker, the co-founder of GrandCentral, is adamant that if his company is a success, it will be because the public loves the concept and product, not because they offer free services to the homeless. "I don't know if anyone would want to choose an inferior service for themselves because a company is doing some good works," he says. "No one's going to buy the three-wheel car, because the company donates to Greenpeace."

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