A few years ago we decided to write on a flip chart the names of everyone who made up the Seagreens® business.

Beside each name we added a word to indicate what kind of relationship we had with these people - consumer, retailer, nutritionist, supplier, media, and so on.

Several Pentel markers later, and sheets of names still coming - we sat down to contemplate the diversity and quality of these relationships.

A few of them we had been in touch with that morning. Others we had not heard of for several years. The list went back to the early days when Seagreens® was just an idea.

A small group had met on a regular basis to guide its beginnings: a nutritionist, food industry consultant, packaging designer, advertising executive, student, financial adviser.

Those early meetings were convened by Seagreens® architect, Simon Ranger: “I want to create a brand that will deliver goodness in all its relationships”.

This provided a criterion for the quality of product, type of packaging, telephone manner, selection of business partners, treatment of suppliers - every decision and behaviour along the way.

Instead of using Seagreens to make profits which might - in a conventional business model - support altruistic projects elsewhere, this approach made Seagreens the altruistic project itself.

The business of Seagreens was placed at the heart of life, not separate from it. Not a means of living, but integral to life itself. It is a vision of business serving the balance of the greater whole.

And every day, the list of names gets longer...