November/ December 2006

Business Vader joins health side

Obesity offers opportunity to business

Len Berry Utter the words business and obesity in the same breath, and you're probably not picturing an image of health. But according to new research from Texas A&M University's Mays Business School, the health market offers businesses new opportunities, and a chance to change the public’s pejorative perception of the business-obesity relationship.

Leonard L. Berry, a Texas A&M Distinguished Professor of marketing and holder of the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership at Mays Business School, says that the fight against obesity extends much farther than a drive-through window. In his research, “Regaining the Health of a Nation: What Business can do about Obesity,” Berry and his co-authors reveal that because of their unique position, businesses can proactively help deter the obesity epidemic using three spheres of influence—employees, the marketplace and schools.

“Businesses have influence on these spheres by virtue of the goods and services they sell, by virtue of their access to employees and the opportunity to encourage wellness, and by making an investment in our schools to encourage healthier eating and more physical activity,” Berry says.

Contrary to popular belief, Berry said businesses should be proactive in curbing obesity because it’s an excellent business opportunity. Wellness among employees means more efficient work and less expense through decreased healthcare costs, Berry said, and a lower risk of employee injury with fewer occurrences of illness-related absenteeism.

Many companies are already being proactive by offering wellness alternatives for employees. Sprint has designed its 200-acre headquarters with parking lots farther away from the building to ensure exercise, and Highsmith Inc., a Wisconsin distributor, places a “Twinkie tax” on high-fat items in vending machines. Without a well-rounded program to help justify them, though, changes like these may not be received with open arms.

“The key issue is not to do anything in isolation,” Berry said. “If all a company does is build a new parking lot that’s three blocks from the building, then that’s not enough—it doesn’t fit into a pattern of a variety of proactive actions to create a healthy workforce, so it’s not understood or appreciated by employees.”

The marketing power of businesses is also very influential. If companies use common sense in marketing, they can draw in consumers while still combating obesity. “No other society entity is better positioned or equipped to modify people’s behavior than business,” Berry said. “And no other segment knows more about persuasion, uses media more extensively or adeptly, or has access to more people.”

By helping businesses recognize the opportunities of health promotion, Berry hopes to promote a business role that quells obesity.

“When the subject of obesity comes up in the popular press, business is almost always portrayed as the villain…that they just care about profits and they don’t care that the nation is getting fat,” Berry said. “But obesity is a huge opportunity for business, and a chance for businesses to generate financial and social profits—they don’t have to wear the villain’s hat anymore.”

The article, just published in the fall 2006 issue of Organizational Dynamics, was co-authored by Kathleen Seiders of Boston College and Albert C. Hergenroeder of Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics.

— Ashley N. Coker


November/ December 2006
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