Book picks similar to
The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- And How You Can Too by Andrew Savitz
business
sustainability
csr
social-entrepreneurship
Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed
Gregg Easterbrook - 2009
So what comes next? Growth will resume. But economic uncertainty will worsen, making what comes next not just a boom but a nerve-shattering SONIC BOOM. Gregg Easterbrook - who "writes nothing that is not brilliant" ("Chicago Tribune") - is a fount of unconventional wisdom, and over time, he is almost always proven right. Throughout 2008 and 2009, as the global economy was contracting and the experts were panicking, Easterbrook worked on a book saying prosperity is about to make its next big leap. Will he be right again? SONIC BOOM: Globalization at Mach Speed presents three basic insights. First, if you don't like globalization, brace yourself, because globalization has barely started. Easterbrook contends the world is about to become "far "more globally linked. Second, the next wave of global change will be primarily positive: economic prosperity, knowledge and freedom will increase more in the next 50 years than in all of human history to this point. But before you celebrate, Easterbrook further warns that the next phase of global change is going to drive us crazy. Most things will be good for most people - but nothing will seem certain for anyone. Each SONIC BOOM chapter is based on examples of cities around the world - in the United States, Europe, Russia, China, South America - that represent a significant Sonic Boom trend. With a terrific sense of humor, pitch-perfect reporting and clear, elegant prose, Easterbrook explains why economic recovery is on the horizon but why the next phase of global change will also give everyone one hell of a headache. "Forbes" calls Easterbrook "the best writer on complex topics in the United States" and SONIC BOOM will show you why.
The Purpose Economy, How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth and Community is Changing the World
Aaron Hurst - 2013
We are sharing everything, from bikes and cars, to extra rooms in our homes. We now create, buy and sell handcrafted products in our local communities with ease.Globally recognized entrepreneur, founder of Taproot Foundation and CEO of Imperative, Aaron Hurst, argues in his latest book that while these developments seem unrelated at first, taken together they reveal a powerful pattern that points to purpose as the new driver of the American economy.Like the Information Economy, which has driven innovation and economic growth until now, Hurst argues that our new economic era is driven by connecting people to their purpose. It's an economy where value lies in establishing purpose for employees and customers through serving needs greater than their own, enabling personal growth and building community. Based on interviews with thousands of entrepreneurs, Hurst shows this new era is already fueling demand for a whole host of products and services and transforming how millennials view their careers. A new breed of startups like Etsy, Zaarly, Tough Mudder, Kickstarter, and Airbnb are finding new ways to create value by connecting us with our local communities. At the same time, companies like Tesla and Whole Foods are making the march from just appealing to affluent buyers to becoming mainstream brands. Hurst calls these companies, along with the pioneering entrepreneurs who founded them, the Purpose Economy's taste-makers.This book is at once a personal memoir of Aaron Hurst s own awakening as a purpose driven entrepreneur, when he left a well-paying tech job in 2001 to launch Taproot, creating a pathway for millions of professionals and Fortune 500 companies to volunteer for nonprofits. It's also a blueprint for a new economic era that is transforming companies, markets and our careers to better serve people and the world.Highlights:ECONOMIC EVOLUTIONHow did the Information Economy emerge and what does it tell us about what is next?PURPOSE AT WORKWhat have researchers in the last decade uncovered about what really creates purpose at work and how any job can generate purpose?CAPTAINS OF PURPOSEWhat are the keys to building and growing a successful organization in this new economy?MOVING PURPOSE MARKETSWhat do electric cars, organic food, same sex marriage and pro bono service have in
Organization Development: The Process Of Leading Organizational Change
Donald L. Anderson - 2009
Incorporating OD ethics and values into each chapter, Donald L. Anderson provides discussion of the real-world application of these theoretical ideas. In-depth case studies that follow major content chapters allow students to immediately apply what they have learned. In today's challenging environment of increased globalization, rapidly changing technologies, economic pressures, and expectations in the contemporary workforce, this book is an essential tool.
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World
John Elkington - 2008
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." By this definition, some of today's entrepreneurs are decidedly unreasonable--and have even been dubbed crazy. Yet as John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan argue in The Power of Unreasonable People, our very future may hinge on their work.Through vivid stories, the authors identify the highly unconventional entrepreneurs who are solving some of the world's most pressing economic, social, and environmental problems. They also show how these pioneers are disrupting existing industries, value chains, and business models--and in the process creating fast-growing markets around the world.By understanding these entrepreneurs' mindsets and strategies, you gain vital insights into future market opportunities for your own organization. Providing a first-hand, on-the-ground look at a new breed of entrepreneur, this book reveals how apparently unreasonable innovators have built their enterprises, how their work will shape risks and opportunities in the coming years, and what tomorrow's leaders can learn from them.Start investing in, partnering with, and learning from these world-shaping change agents, and you position yourself to not only survive but also thrive in the new business landscape they're helping to define.
The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil
Christine Bader - 2014
They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don’t always succeed.Christine Bader, is one of those people. She worked for and loved BP and then-CEO John Browne’s lofty rhetoric on climate change and human rights—until a string of fatal BP accidents, Browne’s abrupt resignation under a cloud of scandal, and the start of Tony Hayward’s tenure as chief executive, which would end with the Deepwater Horizon disaster.Bader’s story of working deep inside the belly of the beast is unique in its details, but not in its themes: of feeling like an outsider both inside the company (accused of being a closet activist) and out (assumed to be a corporate shill); of getting mixed messages from senior management; of being frustrated with corporate life but committed to pushing for change from within.The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil is based on Bader’s experience with BP and then with a United Nations effort to prevent and address human rights abuses linked to business. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other “Corporate Idealists” working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.
Move: How Decisive Leaders Execute Strategy Despite Obstacles, Setbacks, and Stalls
Patty Azzarello - 2017
Whatever your needed transformation may be: a new initiative, a new market, a new product, your fresh strategy is up against a powerful foe: an organization's tendency to stay very busy and completely engaged what it's already doing. This book shows you how to cut through resistance and get your team engaged and proactively doing the new thing! Author Patty Azzarello draws on over twenty-five years of international business management experience to identify the chronic challenges that keep organizations from decisively executing strategy, and to give you a practical game plan for breaking through. Leaders tend to assume that stalls in execution are inevitable, unchanging parts of the workplace—but things can change. At the heart of every execution problem is the fact that there simply are not enough people doing what the business needs. This guide shows you how to get your entire organization on board—remove the fear, excuses, and hurdles—and uphold the new pursuit against distractions and dissent. No transformation can succeed without suitable engagement from the whole organization, but building engagement can be difficult, uncomfortable, and tentative. This book shows you how to get it done. Get your organization to embrace and personally commit to the new work Remove obstacles and passive aggressive attacks that block progress Defend new strategic initiatives against short term pressures to revert to "business as usual" Sustain momentum and the desire to move forward Make sure no one is ever asking, 'Are we still doing this?' Inertia isn't just a law of the universe, it's a law in the workplace that can be a major obstacle to making things happen. The great thing about inertia is that it cuts two ways: a body at rest remains at rest, but a body in motion remains in motion. People love to finish things. Move shows you how to make successful execution the new norm—starting today.
Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It)
Robert D. Lupton - 2011
Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups who want to help—not sabotage—those whom they desire to serve. Lupton, the founder of FCS Urban Ministries (Focused Community Strategies) in Atlanta, the voice of the Urban Perspectives newsletter, and the author of Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, has been at the forefront of urban ministry activism for forty years. Now, in the vein of Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty, Richard Stearns’s The Hole in Our Gospel, and Gregory Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart, his groundbreaking Toxic Charity shows us how to start serving needy and impoverished members of our communities in a way that will lead to lasting, real-world change.
The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster: Why Now Is the Time to #Join the Ride
Darren Hardy - 2015
This book is designed for those new (or early stage) to entrepreneurship or those who have watched from afar and have wanted/wished to join in, but the fear of the unknown has kept them stupefied and in paralysis. This book will detail the worst (which is not so scary after all) and the best (which is absolutely thrilling) of being in business for yourself and give you the essential skills to be successful (preventing the 66% death rate). The focus of the book is on the emotional journey one takes when they step onto the wild ride of entrepreneurship. It’s meant to warn (forthcoming fears, doubts and self-defeating conditioning of past/upbringing), inoculate (from the naysayers, dream stealers and pains of rejection and failure) and guide them (building those undeveloped skills of independence, self-motivation and self-accountability) safely past the landmines that blow up (cause failure) of 66% of all new businesses.
The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business
Duff McDonald - 2013
Founded in 1926, McKinsey can lay claim to the following partial list of accomplishments: its consultants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological change to the nation’s best organizations; they remapped the power structure within the White House; they even revolutionized business schools. In The New York Times bestseller The Firm, star financial journalist Duff McDonald shows just how, in becoming an indispensable part of decision making at the highest levels, McKinsey has done nothing less than set the course of American capitalism. But he also answers the question that’s on the mind of anyone who has ever heard the word McKinsey: Are they worth it? After all, just as McKinsey can be shown to have helped invent most of the tools of modern management, the company was also involved with a number of striking failures. Its consultants were on the scene when General Motors drove itself into the ground, and they were K-Mart’s advisers when the retailer tumbled into disarray. They played a critical role in building the bomb known as Enron. McDonald is one of the few journalists to have not only parsed the record but also penetrated the culture of McKinsey itself. His access puts him in a unique position to demonstrate when it is worth hiring these gurus—and when they’re full of smoke.
Think Like a Freak
Steven D. Levitt - 2014
Then came SuperFreakonomics, a documentary film, an award-winning podcast, and more.Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and teach us all to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally—to think, that is, like a Freak.Levitt and Dubner offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. As always, no topic is off-limits. They range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria.Some of the steps toward thinking like a Freak:First, put away your moral compass—because it’s hard to see a problem clearly if you’ve already decided what to do about it.Learn to say “I don’t know”—for until you can admit what you don’t yet know, it’s virtually impossible to learn what you need to.Think like a child—because you’ll come up with better ideas and ask better questions.Take a master class in incentives—because for better or worse, incentives rule our world.Learn to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded—because being right is rarely enough to carry the day.Learn to appreciate the upside of quitting—because you can’t solve tomorrow’s problem if you aren’t willing to abandon today’s dud.Levitt and Dubner plainly see the world like no one else. Now you can too. Never before have such iconoclastic thinkers been so revealing—and so much fun to read.
Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
C. Otto Scharmer - 2013
Financial collapse, climate change, resource depletion, and a growing gap between rich and poor are but a few of the signs. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer ask, why do we collectively create results nobody wants? Meeting the challenges of this century requires updating our economic logic and operating system from an obsolete “ego-system” focused entirely on the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that emphasizes the well-being of the whole. Filled with real-world examples, this thought-provoking guide presents proven practices for building a new economy that is more resilient, intentional, inclusive, and aware.
FYI: For Your Improvement, A Guide for Development and Coaching
Michael M. Lombardo - 1996
Updated forth edition of the 1996 title (see ISBN 0965571203 for further information)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell - 2000
Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.Gladwell introduces us to the particular personality types who are natural pollinators of new ideas and trends, the people who create the phenomenon of word of mouth. He analyzes fashion trends, smoking, children's television, direct mail, and the early days of the American Revolution for clues about making ideas infectious, and visits a religious commune, a successful high-tech company, and one of the world's greatest salesmen to show how to start and sustain social epidemics.
Gung Ho!
Kenneth H. Blanchard - 1996
It is a must-read for everyone who wants to stay on top in today's ultra-competitive business world.Raving Fans taught managers how to turn customers into full-fledged fans. Now, Gung Ho! brings the same magic to employees. Through the inspirational story of business leaders Peggy Sinclair and Andy Longclaw, Blanchard and Bowles reveal the secret of Gung Ho--a revolutionary technique to boost enthusiasm and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization. The three principles of Gung Ho are:The Spirit of the SquirrelThe Way of the BeaverThe Gift of the GooseThese three cornerstones of Gung Ho are surprisingly simple and yet amazingly powerful. Whether your organization consists of one or is listed in the Fortune 500, this book ensures Gung Ho employees committed to success.Gung Ho! also includes a clear game plan with a step-by-step outline for instituting these groundbreaking ideas. Destined to become a classic, Gung Ho! is a rare and wonderful business book that is packed with invaluable information as well as a compelling, page-turning story.Management legend Ken Blanchard and master entrepreneur Sheldon Bowles are back with Gung Ho!, revealing a surefire way to boost employee enthusiasm, productivity, and performance and usher in astonishing results for any organization.Raving Fans brilliantly schooled managers on how to turn customers into raving fans. Gung Ho! now brings the same magic to employees. Here is the story of how two managers saved a failing company and turned in record profits with record productivity. The three core ideas of Gung Ho! are surprisingly simple: worthwhile work guided by goals and values; putting workers in control of their production; and cheering one another on. Their principles are so powerful that business leaders, reviewing the manuscript for Ken and Sheldon, have written to say, "Sorry. Ignored instructions. Have photocopied for everyone. I promise to buy books, but can't wait. We need now!" Like Raving Fans, Gung Ho! delivers.
The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni - 1998
Author Patrick Lencioni--noted screenplay writer and sought-after executive coach -- deftly tells the tale of a young CEO who, facing his first annual board review, knows he is failing, but doesn't know why. "This book provides extraordinary insight into the pitfalls that leaders face when they lose sight of the true measure of success: results. This model is required reading for my staff." --Eric Schmidt, chairman of the board and CEO, NovellAny executive can learn how to:recognize the mistakes that leaders can make avoid errors before they occur and much more! Refreshingly original and utterly compelling, the story of this executive (written to be read in one sitting) will be enjoyed, remembered, and reread for years to come. It serves a timeless and potent reminder that success as a leader can come down to practicing a few simple behaviors--behaviors that are painfully difficult for each of us to master."Lencioni delivers a provocative message: CEOs mainly have themselves to blame when things go wrong. If you're a CEO (or any manager for that matter), do you have the courage to face the blame? Doing so could change your future-for the better." --Dr. Jerry Porras, coauthor, Built to Last; professor, Stanford School of BusinessYou won't find any dry management rhetoric in this razor-sharp novelette. Apply these riveting lessons in leadership with the self-assessment at the end of the book. It will change your career!