Who: Eileen Fisher, founder, president and chief creative officer of Eileen Fisher, Inc., as well as a fashion icon.
Why: For developing her “business as a movement” mantra, in addition to being a great supporter of female entrepreneurship. Oh, and she’s so cool.

For Eileen Fisher, it’s definitely never business as usual. And that’s part of the reason we love her.

For example, while Fisher is of course concerned about turning a profit for her namesake company, it’s not her main concern. Instead, she’s most interested in following her “business as a movement” philosophy, which is based on making sure her company has a positive influence on the world.

In fact, according to a Fast Company article published last year, this philosophy is absolutely core to her business.

“We’ve begun asking, ‘Why are we doing this?’ more often and more clearly,” Fisher said. “It’s disruptive a little, but we’re going deeper. We want to be a great company more than we want to be a big company. We’ve made significant profits — records the last two years — but is this enough? Are people happy at the company? No. Is this OK? No. So how do we relook at the company? If selling more means creating more stress for ourselves, should we do it?”

Fisher’s “business as a movement” concept is squarely focused on sustainability, in all of its forms.

“There are limited resources,” she told Fast Company, referring both to environmental factors and her human workforce. “There are good things about blurring the lines between work and how we live, but it’s also good for us to have some pause time, to be with your kids and ride a bike or something.”

To restore more balance to her company, Fisher has implemented a no-email rule on weekends. In addition, “we have no meetings on Monday before 10 a.m. or Friday after 1 p.m.,” she says. “It’s a possible new model. If we can still make a good profit — we might make a little less, we don’t know yet — but I believe it can work.”

Fisher also swears by collaborative leadership. In a recent Bizwomen article, she explained, “this whole collaborative thing is really important. We work in circles. It isn’t me coming in with an idea and saying, ‘We’ve got to do it this way.’ It’s more like people really working together, listening to each other, co-creating.”

She continued: “We’ll have a collaborative team and then three on the deciding part of the team. They’ll listen to everybody and then pull away, and the small team will make a decision. It’s meaningful because we get to hear a lot of voices, check out a lot of ideas, and then you want people to take charge and move forward with things.”

Another reason we love Eileen Fisher? She’s an ardent advocate for other female entrepreneurs. For example, Fisher recently teamed with TakePart.com for the “In Her Company” campaign, which recognizes 30 up-and-coming businesses led by female entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, the Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant Program is celebrating its 10th year. The program seeks applicants from 100 percent women-owned businesses that are founded on the principles of social consciousness, sustainability and innovation, and are ready to move to the next phase of development. In 2014, the program awarded $125,000 in grants to several lucky female entrepreneurs.

And just this month, Fisher announced a partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to create the new Eileen Fisher Social Innovator Award. Fisher intends to use the award as a means to recognize the next generation of designers who are committed to sustainable design practices.

“Becoming more mindful about clothing means looking at every fiber and every seed and every dye and seeing how to make it better,” Fisher told Women’s Wear Daily. “We want to inspire today’s up-and-coming designers to think about the impact they’re having on the world. We want to make sustainability our way of life; we want it to be universal.”

Pretty great, don’t you think?

Do you have suggestions for our “Women We Love” column? If so, drop me a line at mcampanelli@napco.com.