Community Spotlight: Radish Lab
This week, Alana Range, CEO of Radish Lab, joins us to talk about running a business for good from the inside out. Their mission seeks to help change the world, and they pursue this goal for employees as well as clients by striving to create a positive, inviting work environment.
Founded in Brooklyn in 2012, Radish Lab is a full-service interactive creative agency focused on people and projects changing the world. The company is a graduate of the Made in New York Media Center’s competitive incubator program.
Why join the movement?
I once saw Howard Schultz give a talk and somebody asked him when Starbucks was able to start thinking about giving back. He said it took him a long time to realize that Starbucks needed to do well before they did good.”
This advice resonated with Alana.
“You can’t do everything to the degree you want to when you first start a business because you need to focus on getting the company off the ground.”
However, she knew she had to start somewhere.
“We were very interested in participating in NYC and Brooklyn’s culture and want to support initiatives like ‘Best for NYC’… because they give you a metric to think about the choices you have to make every day. You’re juggling a huge range of things when you start a business, from which talent to hire to what type of paper to buy for your printer. This assessment provides you a clear checklist of items to shoot for.”
Pride points
“We focus on social impact clients and try to choose meaningful projects that have a purpose and contribute toward a better world. We are very committed to a net positive impact.”
Radish Lab also prides itself on building a culture that allows employees to thrive and retain a positive work-life balance.
Alana says they are constantly looking for ways to incorporate responsible practices into their business, such as regular town hall meetings to discuss the company’s finances, cultivating a diverse working environment, working with nonprofit “Sure We Can” to pick up their recycling, and ordering environmentally sustainable and healthy items from Fresh Direct.
Improvements and goals
While taking the Best for NYC Challenge, Alana realized there were a number of things that Radish Lab could be more conscious of.
“Realizing that offering formal, structured external professional development opportunities, or a basic 401K plan can mean a lot when it comes to improving our company; it’s great to have a checklist for the nuanced ways we can grow to better support our people.”
