The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win - Hardcover

Hollender, Adjunct Professor Jeffrey; Breen, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470558423 ISBN 13: 9780470558423

Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2010

Synopsis

How to create a company that not only sustains, but surpasses-that moves beyond the imperative to be "less bad" and embrace an ethos to be "all good"

From the Inspired Protagonist and Chairman of Seventh Generation, the country's leading brand of household products and a pioneering "good company," comes a one-of-a-kind book for leaders, entrepreneurs, and change agents everywhere. The Responsibility Revolution reveals the smartest ways for companies to build a better future-and hold themselves accountable for the results. Thousands of companies have pledged to act responsibly; very few have proven that they know how. This book will guide them. The Responsibility Revolution presents fresh ideas and actionable strategies to commit your company to a genuine socially and environmentally responsible business and culture, one that not only competes but wins on values.

• Points the way for innovators and influencers to generate trust by becoming transparent, elicit people's passion and creativity, turn customers into collaborators, transform critics into allies, rewrite the rules and reinvent business
• Shows how to build a socially and environmentally responsible yet genuinely good company and an authentic brand
• Drawing on groundbreaking interviews with real-world change leaders, Hollender and Breen present lessons and insights from the "good company"' parts of big companies like IBM and eBay, trailblazers like Patagonia and Timberland, and emerging dynamos like Linden Lab and Etsy

The Responsibility Revolution equips people with the tactics, models, and mind-sets they need to compete in a world where consumers now demand that companies contribute to the greater good.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey Hollender (Burlington, VT),?Co-founder and Chairman and for Seventh Generation, has led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the nation's fastest growing brand of natural home and personal care products. As?the leading authority on issues related to green consumerism, he frequently addresses social and environmental responsibility at?national and international venues.?He co-founded and was a Director of Community Capital Bank, a New York financial institution that invests in affordable housing and community development. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of Greenpeace USA, Healthy Child Healthy World, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, the Social Venture Network, Verite, and Alloy Inc. He is currently working on a joint venture with WebMD and Healthy Child Healthy Home.

Bill Breen (Gloucester, MA) is?Seventh Generation's Editorial Director and?was the founding Senior Editor?on the original team that launced?Fast Company.?He edited?major sections of the magazine?and helped it win numerous awards, including the coveted National Magazine Award for General Excellence, and?wrote some of FC's most talked about articles on brand building, leadership, competition, innovation, and risk. Breen speaks to business audiences throughout the country and has appeared on CNN, Fox, CBS Radio, National Public Radio, and other media outlets.

Seventh Generation is one of the country's top ten responsible businesses and the country's leading brand of environmentally-responsible home and personal care products.? It derives its name from an?Iroquois quote: "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." It is the notion that what we do today defines tomorrow, and we believe it embodies the philosophy we must all embrace to make the world a better place.

From the Back Cover

"Points towards true north for our evolution to the next revolution in business."
—WALTER ROBB, President and CEO, Whole Foods Market

In The Responsibility Revolution, Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation, and Bill Breen, coauthor of The Future of Management, reveal how the smartest companies compete in a world where the marketplace demands that every business build a better future.

Through vigorous reporting and insightful analysis, Hollender and Breen create a road map for building financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable organizations. The Responsibility Revolution brings together a potent mix of corporate giants, big brands, and emerging companies—from pioneers in sustainability to those now forging their own path— including Nike, Timberland, eBay, IBM, Marks & Spencer, Patagonia, Novo Nordisk, Organic Valley, Etsy, Linden Lab, and Seventh Generation. Revealing how these top businesses redefine what it means for companies to act responsibly, each chapter offers new models for building the kind of exemplary companies that will thrive in this new era of sustainability.

This is a first-of-its-kind book for leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, and change agents everywhere. Filled with fresh ideas and actionable strategies, The Responsibility Revolution shows how to commit your company to a socially and environmentally responsible business and culture—one that not only competes on values, but wins.

"Building a sustainable enterprise requires the artful balance of making tough choices and having big ideas. In The Responsibility Revolution, Hollender and Breen throw down the gauntlet to all of us to create better corporations that also create a better world."
—TIM BROWN, CEO, IDEO, and author, Change By Design

"The Responsibility Revolution delivers a truckload of examples for growing a company that benefits society as well as shareholders. I only wish we had its real-world lessons when we launched Ben & Jerry's."
—BEN COHEN, co-founder, Ben & Jerry's

Reviews

With the public increasingly embracing ecological sustainability, many businesses have pledged to be good corporate citizens-but how committed are they? Hollender, chairman of clean household company Seventh Generation, shares his own company's process of redefining its mission and values, and makes an unimpeachable argument for how sustainable business practices protect both the environment and employees. However, he fails to obviate criticisms or concerns that companies can remain competitive and profitable while undergoing the transition to becoming more environmentally conscious. For example, Hollender describes how outdoor clothing and equipment company Patagonia decided to move from chemically grown or treated cotton and wool to "good cotton," only to find that their demand exceeded supply. Patagonia had to convert farmers to new growing methods, which increased the price of their product. While the company "eventually right-sized itself," and "influenced far bigger companies... to follow its lead," it is unclear what the company's return on investment was or how long it took to achieve. While corporate responsibility is an incontrovertibly attractive ethos, this work skimps on the finer points and complications of making this necessary-but complex-transition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470558423
• ISBN 13: 9780470558423
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 214