After they’ve bagged their billions, corporate leaders often talk about giving back to the community.
They start foundations, make donations, chair the United Way and put their names on buildings. To Julius Walls Jr., who grew up in the projects of Brooklyn, N.Y., this is backward.
“We shouldn’t talk about giving back,” he told a group of MBA students at Denver’s Regis University on Wednesday. “We should talk about ‘stop taking.”‘
Walls, 44, is chief executive of Greyston Bakery in southwest Yonkers, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. If you’ve ever had chocolate fudge brownie ice cream or frozen yogurt, made by either Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs, you’ve tasted Greyston’s product.
Those tasty little brownie chunks are not baked by elves, but often by felons, drug addicts, social misfits and people who are otherwise deemed unemployable. Greyston is their only hope in a ‘hood where the unemployment rate exceeds 30 percent.
“We believe everybody deserves an opportunity for employment,” Walls said. “We don’t believe everyone should keep a job if they can’t do it.”
Most do not make it through training, and turnover is high. But today, 40 of the bakery’s 45 employees started as entry-level applicants with no questions asked.
“We tell our managers, don’t make judgments about whether an employee is a good person or a bad person,” Walls said. “All they are is a person who is or isn’t ready to work at our place of employment at this point in their life.”
Bernard Glassman, a Jewish aerospace engineer turned Zen Buddhist, founded Greyston Bakery in 1982. It is a for-profit company owned by the nonprofit Greyston Foundation, which provides job training, child care, housing and HIV/AIDS treatment for about 1,200 low-income Yonkers residents each year.
Walls, the son of a prison guard, began his career at age 14 working at a McDonald’s. He went to seminary to become a Catholic priest. But he dropped out, married and had three children. Along the way, he founded a company that made chocolate bars for fundraisers.
Walls has long been bothered by an economic system that favors those with wealthy parents. “Why are some children able to do things and others have no shot at it?” he asked. “I refer to it as the sperm lottery.” Winning it begins with private schools and ends with a fat inheritance.
Greyston was a company Walls frequently called upon, and he was impressed with the opportunities it created for those who lost the sperm lottery. In 1995, he became its marketing consultant. In 1997, he became its CEO.
The bakery has $5 million in annual revenue. Like every business, it’s had its missteps. It has not been profitable since May 2004, when it moved into a new $10 million building. But Walls hinted to students that his ongoing expansion plans will include a visit to Wild Oats Markets Inc., a Boulder-based natural-foods chain.
Meantime, he’s spreading a message about corporate responsibility.
“The most important aspect of a corporation is its limited liability,” he told Regis students. “Shareholders have the right to take part in profits … but they are not held personally liable. … Once you have limited liability, what are you free to do? Pretty much anything.”
Corporations too often abuse resources and labor forces, Walls said.
“As an investor, I have a right to return on my investment,” said Walls. “But when is enough enough?
“What we’re doing won’t last. You can’t continue to rape society and take resources out of it. … What you have to do is not only produce efficiently and effectively … but you also have to support consumers who can buy your product. … If we continue to build some of these big- box corporations, there won’t be anyone left to buy the stuff they are selling.”
If more people made more money – as opposed to just a few people making a lot more money – there would be less need for philanthropy. “If we weren’t taking as much from society, we wouldn’t have to give back so much,” Walls said.
But then, he sees things differently.
“We don’t hire people so we can make brownies,” he said. “We make brownies so we can hire people.”
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to him at denverpostbloghouse.com/lewis, 303-820-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
