Reciprocity, Incorporated
Augie Nieto, founder and former CEO of the highly-successful, multi-million dollar company, Life Fitness, Inc., was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2005. There's no known cure, and once Augie recovered from the shock, he entered into a partnership with the Muscular Dystrophy Association to raise funds to fast-track research into the causes of and possible treatments for ALS. In the course of his fundraising, Augie stumbled across a new business paradigm, new to him anyway. While some companies simply wrote him checks, others had clearly institutionalized their compassion and exhibited a pronounced corporate social conscience, a full embrace of the web of obligations that connects us all.