Dear Friends,

There is snow on the ground at my house, and I have had to get the winter coats out. However, a warm spell is coming this weekend, so I’ll probably get one last ride in before the long winter.

I stayed up late on Tuesday to watch the election returns and hear President Obama’s speech. It was one of the best speeches I have heard, and I was very proud of our country and the millions of people who voted in the election.

I am giving the keynote presentation at the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility on Wednesday, and have been thinking a lot about what to talk about. My friend Ken Squire, who owns our local radio station, WDEV, wants to carry the presentation live, and I told him that will be a guarantee that I will screw it up somehow.

As I look back on my business career of over 40 years, the one thread that has been consistent has been that I am motivated by corporate responsibility. When a business “incorporates” — if you look at the Latin base for that word — it means that you “create a body.” A business is a body in society and it has a much greater footprint than any individual. It has buildings, it creates waste, it hires workers, it provides useful products and services. With that greater footprint comes a greater responsibility, and that is the basis upon which I see socially responsible business. Businesses can be enormous agents of positive change and have such a vital impact upon workers that this responsibility is an essential part of our approach to business.

Fortunately, I have a great team of people here at Small Dog Electronics, starting with Hapy, my son and partner, who also ascribe to this philosophy of measuring our success in equal measure by People, Planet and Profit. At our weekly management meetings, each of the managers has an opportunity to make suggestions on how we can do better with our commitment to people and planet and we have adopted many of the ideas presented. As a business that operates on razor thin margins (the new iPad mini, as an example, carries a 7% margin), it is vital that profit is also one of our measures, because without profit it is impossible to fulfill our obligations to people and planet.  

During my talk on Wednesday, I want to talk about how it is easy to be socially responsible if your company is very profitable, but that the real challenge is how to maintain that commitment to People and Planet when profit margins are slim. I think that the socially responsible business movement will never reach its full potential unless traditionally low-margin businesses like the corner store can see how their business can also act in a socially responsible manner.   

We have a great selection of Apple Certified Reconditioned (refurbished) MacBook Pros with both 17-inch and 15-inch models in stock right now. These models all carry the same 1-year Apple Warranty as new Macs and they are eligible for AppleCare Protection Plan as well.  If you are looking for a new laptop, these MacBook Pros can save you some change!  

View the 15-inch model here and the 17-inch models here.