People don't want simply to buy the product, they want to have sympathy with the company too.

Be special. Be anything but mediocre.

If you can shape your business life or your working life, you can just look at it as another extension - you just fulfill all your values as a human being in the work place. If you are an activist, you bring the activism of your life into your business, or if you love creative art, you can bring that in.

If you don't believe one person can make a difference, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.

I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon's advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.

If there is excitement in their lives, it is contained in the figures on the profit and loss sheet. What an indictment.

One of the most intriguing things in management and in business is the role of storytelling - people need the anecdotes to do the work that they do.