This week my classmates and I visited the headquarters of TOMS in Playa Vista, CA, and were all blown away throughout the tour. Our visit began outside, entering large garage doors flowing into their large building of coffee machines, slides, shoe designs, and a fun working environment filled with employees working to make a difference with smiles on their faces.
Following the amazing tour of their building, we sat down with the Global Brand Manager, Kate Faith, and the Head of TOMS Giving Program, Amy Smith. They walked us through videos they have recently produced, as well as plans they have come up with to set themselves up with new, future ways that they can give through their company. They asked us to give feedback as consumers and college students, and worked with us to figure out the ways we could see their new products being marketed, as well as how they can promote different revenues of giving, beyond their One For One program.
We split up into groups and pitched ideas tied with their newest shoes, feeding them ideas and propositions on how they could release these items to the world with a way that can make a large change and help the world in an even larger scale. One experience that I took away was during my group's presentation, as myself and one of my teammates suggested that they could team up with Ashton Kutcher or Shepard Fairy to promote human trafficking. Kate Faith replied with surprise, saying that they have reached out to both of those people, which I thought was great.
Our visit with TOMS showed all of us the real impact that their company is making for the world, and left a large impact on all of us as well. They showed the M-School the amazing ways that they are giving back to the community while simultaneously making profit, and proved that the only direction they are going is up.
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