When LUSH closed every single one of their 100+ UK stores on 3rd September 2025, posting “Stop starving Gaza, we are closed in solidarity” on their shop windows, they did something most companies would never dare.
They picked a side. They accepted the commercial hit. They made a choice that actually meant something.
The cosmetics retailer didn’t just make a statement. They showed us what happens when leaders stop hiding behind “business as usual” and start acting like human beings.
Moral courage over committee consensus
Most organisations would have spent months in committee rooms, conducting stakeholder analysis and risk assessments. I’ve sat in those rooms myself, watching good ideas get talked to death because nobody wanted to take the first step. LUSH just acted — shutting their stores, website, and factories for a day because they believed it was right.
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And this wasn’t out of the blue, LUSH had already shown their commitment with the Palestine-focused Watermelon Slice soap, their most successful single fundraising product to date. They’d laid the groundwork through years of consistent, values-driven action.
The truth is, consensus-seeking kills more ideas than opposition ever does. When leaders wait for everyone to agree, they’re really waiting for permission to do nothing. LUSH understood that some decisions can’t be committee-ed to death.
I’ve also seen the flip side: companies sitting silent on issues that matter deeply to their customers and employees. Not because they lack values, but because they lack the backbone to act. And sometimes the cost of silence is higher than the risk of speaking up.
Empathy as strategic advantage
LUSH’s decision wasn’t performative corporate virtue signalling. It felt genuine, and that authenticity creates something money can’t buy: real emotional connection with customers and employees.
Everyone knows John Lewis built their reputation on empowering their Partners to make decisions that put customer needs first, even when those decisions cost money upfront. Less well-known but equally effective, Currys equipped its line managers with an employee relations platform called empower®, allowing them to act swiftly without escalation to resolve staff issues or improve workplace culture.
The business case for authentic empathy is actually pretty compelling. Companies that respond to genuine human need don’t just gain customers; they gain advocates. LUSH’s Palestine-focused fundraising success proves this. When you connect with shared humanity rather than manufactured sentiment, people respond with their wallets and their loyalty.
Too many leaders confuse empathy with weakness, seeing emotional response as somehow unprofessional. But empathy without action is just sentiment. Empathy with decisive action becomes competitive advantage.
Purpose-driven operations in practice
What made LUSH’s action possible wasn’t a sudden burst of moral courage. It was years of embedding their values into how they actually operate. When your company culture is built on clear ethical foundations, difficult decisions become less murky.
The specific issue here matters less than the approach. Whether the cause is environmental protection, social justice, or community support, the leadership principles stay consistent. Companies with established ethical reputations find these decisions easier, obviously. LUSH had already built trust through consistent action on various social and environmental issues.
But even in organisations with less obvious ethical positioning, individual employees face moments where they must choose between policy and principle. The smartest organisations create frameworks that empower staff to make ethical choices without waiting for permission. They understand that front-line employees often see problems and opportunities that boardrooms miss. When you trust people to do the right thing, they usually do.
Some employees will find themselves at odds with particular company stances. But this creates opportunity too. When values clash, it forces honest conversations about what the organisation truly stands for. For employees who find themselves fundamentally misaligned, it might signal the need to find a workplace that better matches their principles.
The LACE leadership test
LUSH’s Gaza solidarity action demonstrates something I’ve been thinking about for years. It’s exactly why I built the LACE framework after watching leaders stumble when values and profit clashed.
Listening to the humanitarian crisis and their community’s concerns, not just their shareholders. Accountability for taking a stand rather than hiding behind corporate neutrality. Collaboration with their employees and customers who share their values. Empathy that moves beyond sympathy into concrete action.
These aren’t abstract words on a slide. They’re what turns a controversial decision into a courageous one, as LUSH have just shown.
Every leader faces moments when principle and profit seem to pull in different directions. The companies we remember aren’t the ones that played it safe. They’re the ones that stood for something when it actually mattered.
The question for every leader is straightforward: when your moment arrives, will you have built the kind of culture that makes the right choice possible? And will you have the courage to act on it?
Simon Phillips is a business transformation expert, keynote speaker and podcast host of The Change Show (top 1% globally). He works with businesses going through change, to help them navigate this fairly and efficiently. Known as “The Change Man,”, Simon is an internationally recognised leadership and change management expert and best-selling author.
Simon’s designed his own framework to support his leadership values; it’s called The LACE Way™ framework and it emphasises Listening, Accountability, Collaboration, and Empathy
