Ben Barry and the Fashion Industry

As Ben Barry came out of meeting with his top staff, he was still wrestling with the strategic direction his company should take. Ben believed that we are put on this planet to do good. As young entrepreneur, he felt strongly that business should be at the forefront of positive change in society. Unlike government and social agencies, which many times lacked resources and were overwhelmed with day to day responsibilities, he felt business had the economic and creative resources to solve complicated social problems.However, Ben was not so naive as to assume that businesses would buy into his world view unless there was profit to be made from such activities. Could you do good and make money at the same time? At the end of the day this was the question that would determine how businesses would approach this issue. Ben felt the answer was strong yes, but he knew that others were not as convinced. But how to go about creating business model in his industry that would be profitable and create positive change for society was problem. Could he do both?The Ben Barry Agency: HistoryBen Barry remembered the day he decided to go into the modeling business. He was 14 years old and in eighth grade. He had gone to visit some family friends. Lauren, the daughter in the family, was talking about the modeling course she'd taken and how eager she was to begin career in the profession. However, she was being told that her size 8 frame was too heavy to compete at the top levels of the industry. Ben remembered his surprise at Lauren's pronouncements since he considered her to be beautiful girl who he thought should have no problem being successful model. She needed to be a size 4 at the biggest, Lauren told him, and was considering limiting her food intake to two meals day to accomplish that goal.Ben felt prick of discomfort in the pit of his stomach. Why should someone who looked like Lauren have to change her appearance to fit an image that Ben thought was unrealistic: too thin, too different from what the typical female looked like? Ben realizes now that he was hopelessly naive, but at that point in time the crusader in him came out, and he offered to represent Lauren himself, the way she looked now. Lauren was skeptical, but given her prospects, she decided to take Ben up on his offer.Thus began the Ben Barry Agency: business and calling all wrapped into one. Ben started his agency in Ottawa, Canada in 1997 at age 14 with one model but quickly began to increase his numbers by approaching people he thought were beautiful - women size 12, women over 50, women with children and jobs who would approach modeling differently, women who had effervescent personalities. The first thing Ben always noticed was the personality - did the individuals seem engaged with life, did they seem happy and energized? Ben felt that if the answers to these questions were yes, that personality would show through in their work.In addition to signing nontraditional models, Ben also ran his agency outside the mainstream when it came to agreements with his models. He took 25% less commission on jobs than the industry average; he allowed models to work with other agencies: and he did not require special classes or other activities where he got fee for the models participating. IfI was on crusade to change the modeling industry, I felt I had to start within the walls of my own agency, Ben said.Ben started out intent on changing the face of the modeling industry from the size 0-2 overly thin young woman to women (and men) who were more representative of the population at large. But he found that these traditional models were what the industry had deemed to be beautiful and acceptable. In promoting his vision of more healthy representation of the ideal young woman, Ben experienced push back from the industry. He was told that ads with nontraditional models would be dull and boring - and not reflect the glamour and excitement of the fashion world. …

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