Best-selling author, businesswoman, philanthropist, and 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.

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.

Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.

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?

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.

Sp 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

I love it. So where's the best place that you want people

to go, Shari, to get the book, stay connected with you?

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.

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?

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.

Thank you for what you do, Shari. We really appreciate you

and wish you the best.

Thank you. Thank you so much.