Corporate States of Mind

My girlfriend works for a company called TOMS Shoes. The company produces shoes that are sold in the United States, but for every pair sold, they ship a pair to a third world country for a shoeless child.

Their advertising is interesting in that it encourages individuality. By having these new, cool shoes you are seperating yourself from all of the boring people around you. Throughout my discourse this has been referred to as independence.

But, the mission of the company seems to be to unite cultures - to share the wealth of our nation with a poor nation. This connectivity has been defined as support.

So, it seems that the space that TOMS lives in, its corporate state of mind, is similar to my own: it is the space between independence and support.