Social Responsibility & Economic Crisis. Interview with alumni Esther (Rothstein) Tetreault

Esther (Rothstein) Tetreault ’99, MBA ’03 owns Trillium Brewing with her husband, JC. What began in 2013 as a small storefront in Boston has grown to four locations. Here, she shares the secrets of Trillium’s success.

Navigating Social Responsibility During Economic Crisis

The novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020 brought life as we knew it to a standstill. Now thanks to one year of amazing scientific ingenuity, hard work, careful planning, and tremendous patience, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But what happened to all those businesses in that year? Sadly, many suffered. One industry that was especially hit hard was the hospitality industry, including the food and beverage services industry.

This is the industry from which our speaker, Esther Tetreault hails. Her business, Trillium Brewing Company makes award-winning craft beers that can be enjoyed at home and typically welcomes thousands of people daily to their store locations. Esther and her team had to pivot and fast. As with most things COVID-related, there was no playbook, no set of policies that were sure to work, and little concrete guidance from government and industry authorities. Ester and Trillium confronted the question, how do you balance strategic planning for the survival of the company with moral responsibility for protecting your community?

Esther also spoke about the process of making their dream a reality: “Trillium came to be out of a little dream of my husband and mine, pre-wedding actually. Before we got married, I used my Bentley education to start a business that I was passionate about, in an industry I was passionate about, which was fitness. And so I started my own company...Over the course of our relationship, he saw just how happy I was doing something for myself that I was completely in control of...I think I gave him a little bit about the entrepreneurial bug because when he got into home brewing, we realized this could be something that we could do together actually. So we started planning Trillium conceptually as we were planning our wedding. Actually, we packaged and released beers and came up with the brand Trillium just for fun to serve at our wedding, but then it became a reality. We both decided that this was the time. If we were going to take the leap and start a new business, we should do it now before we had any regrets later in life or didn't really have the time to invest in it.”

When asked by Professor, Jeff Moriarty: “If you could give your Bentley self a piece of advice What would it be?” Esther said: “There are few things that stand out to me from my Bentley experience in both undergrad and business school...I took a negotiation class under the entrepreneurial leadership track for my MBA program. And there was one class, negotiations, where each week you got a case and you negotiated one side of a deal with somebody else in the class. And so you each got your packet, you went home, you did your research, you know, you knew what you were looking to get out of this deal. You just have to negotiate over the course of the week and then submit your deal. And then you got graded. If you both got what you wanted but had to give something up, you each got 3.0's. That was a huge deal. But for you to get a 4.0, that means somebody else had to get a 2.0...I'm a very competitive person. I had a 4.0. I wanted to continue getting a 4.0. I wasn't going to let this course bring my average down. But your grade got posted every week, so your next partner for the next week saw what your grade was so if you got a 4.0, somebody is coming after you the next week. The class was designed to be impossible to get a 4.0 because at some point somebody is just going to say, forget it. I'd rather get a 0, then give you another 4.0, and then you get a 0. Early in my education that was a real lesson... Sometimes it's just not worth it to win every point. I'm going to tell you what is important to me...The other person feeling like they win as well is important.”

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