CASE STUDIES

Duncan Goose, Global Ethics - 2008 Winner Entrepreneur of the Year

Humanitarian and entrepreneur may not be an easy fit in the modern business world, but both words apply equally to Duncan Goose, founder of Global Ethics. As distributor of branded products such as One water, 100 per cent of Global Ethics’ profits go to the One Foundation, which in turn provides help and aid to developing countries.
 

In 2008, Goose was named overall winner of Entrepreneur of the Year at the National Business Awards, but his journey to collect it started far away from the glitz of an awards ceremony.

Having fulfilled his ambition and rode a motorbike around the world between 1998 and 2000, Goose was in the middle of Hurricane Mitch which killed 30,000 people and caused $4 billion of damage. Goose initially helped by offering hands-on support clearing the damage, but went on to create a fund-raising programme with some fellow travellers. The response to the campaign was overwhelming and the initial money raised was used to rebuild 13 villages. The realisation for Goose was that a little support can have a life-changing effect and he set up Global Ethics to put his plan into action.

Global Ethics’ PR agency Text 100 introduced Goose to the National Business Awards and, keen to gain further exposure for Global Ethics and the One range of products, Goose decided to enter. "The Awards gave us an opportunity to benchmark ourselves against other companies, but also to see whether winning an Award would raise our profile and therefore the opportunity to accelerate the development of the business."

The act of entering was proven to be a fruitful task for Global Ethics, as Goose details. "Completing the Award form itself is a useful discipline and encouraged some internal fact finding - this in itself proved useful from an internal and external comms perspective as some of the data was useful from a marketing perspective."

There was also the impact that being part of an event covered by the national press would have on the business. "It’s a good motivator for the company as a whole - win or lose - to be accepted as a nominee is a big morale boost for the team, and for our partners and customers."

Once the Award was won, Goose said doors were opened for business. "It proved to be a valuable communications tool for both the sales and marketing team. To win such a prestigious award, against so many highly respected and recognised companies, has provided a level of credibility to the business and the team as a whole." Although difficult to quantify a direct correlation, Goose is confident that winning the Award ‘definitely accelerated our growth’.