Ask the CEO

Posted by Erin on 05.25.2011 at 4:20 pm

Have you ever wondered what the head of a company thinks about the daily activity of the corporation? Our CEO, David Murphy, wants to give you just that kind of insight, and in the process get to know you, our friends, fans, followers, donors and customers!

The first Monday of every month we will be posting “Ask the CEO” on Facebook, Twitter, and this blog (first installment below!). You can ask David questions about how BWB works, what he thinks about social enterprise in the news, what books he is reading, what he is proud of that BWB has recently engaged with etc. Then he’ll get back to you ASAP.

David Murphy will also be posting a monthly blog entry the first Monday of every month for you to learn more about what we’re up to and why we’re up to it.

Here are some of the questions and answers from our very first “Ask the CEO”

Q: How can you ship my order at no cost to me?

A: We include the shipping into the price of the book. We believe that it makes it much simpler than to wade through pages in the check out process. We also have great relationships with several major shippers, making our costs lower to ship, which are then passed on to you as savings.

Q: Can I send you back books from Israel?

A: We accept book donations from anywhere. Unfortunately, we can only pay for for the shipping of donated book from the US. However, when you buy a book from us, we pay for the shipping to anywhere in the world!

Q: I love books – actual books. To me, there is nothing better than fingering a page right before it is turned, or snugging my bookmark into the spine at the end of a good read. However, I am not blind to the boon electronic reading devices are enjoying these days. What are BWB’s plans for the future? How do you plan to stay viable and relevant in the midst of what looks to be a pretty big shift away one of my fave things – the printed word? Thanks!

A: We love books too! In the short term, this is a good thing for us because people are donating their physical books more and there is no shortage of people who want to buy them. In the long term, we will need to offer the books in whatever format our customers want them.

Q: Hello David – Any plans to visit Tanzania? Karibu!

A: No immediate plans for Tanzania this year, but each year we do have a lottery for all of our employees to have a chance of travelling with our major non-profit literacy partners to see how we make an impact. In July, a group of 6 employees will be traveling to Peru and Chile with Worldfund. Some of the trips in the past have included Ghana, Liberia, Brazil, Cambodia, Uganda, Capetown and Kampala.

Q: Why is the 5 cent payment to offset the carbon footprint an optional payment? Why not make it part of the price, and advertise it as ‘Five cents from every order goes to investing in green technology.”

A: We make the 3 to 5 cents optional as some of our customers are looking to save as much as possible, which is why BWB is great option! We allow our customers to “let their conscience be their guides”. Given that you are clearly passionate about the environment, you might be interested in the fact that we have a carbon-balanced policy (from offsetting shipping, to offsetting Operations). We have also won 2 EPA awards for our efforts: 2010 WasteWise Gold Achievement award winner in the Climate Change category, and the WasteWise Gold Award for Paper Reduction in 2009.

Thank you all so much for participating in the Better World Books community!

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