Gap Inc. Joins Will Marre's List of Giving Is Winning Companies

January 27, 2011 (Press-News.org) "Acting in an ethical way is not only the right thing to do — it also unlocks new ways for us to do business better," states Dan Henkle, SVP of Global Responsibility at Gap, Inc. It is this philosophy that lands Gap Inc. on Will Marre's list of Giving is Winning companies. As CEO of Realeadership Alliance and author of Save the World and Still Be Home For Dinner (Capital Books), Marre is spotlighting a list of 25 top companies who are integrating giving into their core business strategy.

According to Marre, giving and winning go together. "The companies on the list are making industry leading profits and growing at a healthy clip," he contends. "When giving becomes an essential part of your culture, employees are inspired to create more value and consumers choose you."

Gap Inc. (http://www.gapinc.com/GapIncSubSites/csr/index.shtml) is a great example, contends Marre, of what giving at the core of business strategy can do. Some of their initiatives include P.A.C.E (Personal Advancement, Career Enhancement), a program that helps female garment workers in developing countries advance beyond entry-level positions and fulfill their potential through education. This program won the Financial Times Justmeans Social Innovation 2009 award. Gap is also dedicated to improving factory working conditions and working toward change in using forced child labor to harvest cotton in Uzbekistan.

Gap's overview of their social responsibility programs states: "Even in a time of unprecedented economic challenges, acting responsibly is a compass by which we run our business. It informs our decisions and focuses the daily efforts of thousands of people within Gap Inc. and beyond. We know from experience that it brings sustained, collective value to our employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers and society."

Marre's list of Giving is Winning companies stems from his extensive research titled Apple to Zappos being conducted with Clemson University and the University of California San Diego on what successful companies are doing in today's challenging environment that average companies are not. Through data research, executive interviews and in-the-trenches client projects with many of today's thriving companies, Marre, is on a mission to show how successful companies are becoming unbeatable through strategies that are good for the community as well as the wallet.

Visit http://www.willmarre.com/blog to find out more about Marre's Winning is Giving list and get a special series based on his research findings, "Apple to Zappos: What Today's Successful Leaders Are Doing That the Rest of Us Aren't."

Will Marre is CEO of Realeadership Alliance and founder of Thought Rocket, a new online leadership development platform providing up-to-the-minute leadership research on what successful organizations are doing to thrive in the 21st century. Will Marre is also the cofounder of the Covey Leadership Center where he brought the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to millions of executives and managers worldwide. He also heads the advisory board of the Human Performance Institute (a Johnson & Johnson company) and is an Emmy award-winning writer of a public television learning documentary. For more information please visit http://www.willmarre.com.