Anita Roddick - Triumph Through Hard Work November 14

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Anita Roddick - The Body ShopBlazing a trail for female entrepreneurs everywhere, Dame Anita Roddick proves a shining example of someone who has built up a small local enterprise into a major, sustainable high street brand through pure hard work and innovation.

A former UN employee, she initially set up the Body Shop in a bid to provide herself and her children with sufficient funds when her husband was away in the US - and from a small store in Littlehampton selling just 15 product lines she has now created a world-recognised company with over 300 products on its shelves and, by 2004, 1,980 stores in 41 countries.

Her achievements have been marked with numerous first prizes in awards for female entrepreneurs and others - as she has become something of a standard bearer for budding businesspeople in general. Her work ethic can to a degree be traced back to her upbringing - she is the daughter of an Italian immigrant father and American mother who together ran a cafe in the early years of her life before divorcing. As she once said in an interview: “Any immigrant, you watch what they do with their kids. It’s like legitimate child labor. From day one we were working in the cafe. There was no leisure; we don’t understand leisure. The work ethic is so profound within the immigrant culture.”

As is common with many entrepreneurs, it was a genuine interest in people which persuaded her to enter the business she did. “It’s storytelling”, she once said of the skin and bodycare business - suggesting that the social importance and impact of the wares she produces are of maximum importance to her. Likewise, the Body Shop’s passion for supporting environmental issues and taking a lead on issues such as animal testing suggests a genuine passion to do what is right and make a genuine effort to change the world. Her belief that the underdog, the outsider, can bring something new and vibrant to the table has been key to her success - and she should know, given her aforementioned immigrant background and the fact that as a woman she perhaps had to work harder than some in order to establish herself in the early years. The willingness that she shows to subvert traditional business practices and ask pertinent - and sometimes awkward � questions is known to be one of her greatest strengths and idiosyncracies.

Like Sir Richard Branson, among others, Roddick did not enjoy distinguished training or education and has relied primarily on her own endeavour and perseverance to reap dividends. It has paid off - and as a model of triumph over adversity she proves an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs of any background.

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