The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, And Place - Softcover

John Abrams

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933392193 ISBN 13: 9781933392196

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co, 2006

Synopsis

Socially responsible investments have grown exceptionally in the same year that "moral values" determined a presidential election. So why has business been so slow to catch on? In a new book, The Company We Keep, small business owner and entrepreneur John Abrams makes a case for a return to workplace values, and shows how we can ultimately profit by them.
The Company we Keep is more than the success story of a revolutionary company. It sets down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that has piqued the interest of entrepreneurs around the country. In the words of Abrams, "This is a book about a different way of doing business in today's world--a way based on workplace democracy, shared ownership, staying small, building community, commitment to a place, and long term thinking."
John Abrams founded the South Mountain Company, a design and building firm, on Martha's Vineyard more than thirty years ago. Through a commitment to place and community entrepreneurship, he has seen the company grow and prosper, while at the same time experimenting with a revolutionary employee ownership model that has challenged the traditional business rhetoric of unchecked growth.
There is a revolution going on in corporate America, and social entrepreneurship is leading the way. Rejecting the myth that short-term profits are the only indicator of business health and wealth, John Abrams shows how building a company to serve the needs of people (employees and owners), community, and the environment can be a successful business plan as well. Part entrepreneurial business plan, part guide to democratizing the workplace, and part prescription for strong local economies, The Company We Keep marks the debut of an important new voice in the literature of American business.

About this title

From the Publisher

"Unabashedly personal, written in an unaffected and engaging manner... far from any utopian script, Abrams’ work is a compelling and celebratory reminder that companies like South Mountain are desperately needed in a time of real estate boom and inevitable bust and the ruins left in their wake. The Company We Keep should be required reading for every island—from small towns and urban neighborhoods and community planners—about the still small possibility of building enduring cathedrals in our everyday lives." —The Bloomsbury Review

About the Author

John Abrams is co-founder and president of South Mountain Company, a design/build and renewable energy company on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. In 1987, South Mountain Company was restructured to become employee-owned, and so began the adventure that led Abrams to write his first book, The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place. With added experience and research, Abrams has revised the book, renamed Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place, so that it can better serve as a primer for employee-ownership. In 2005 Business Ethics magazine awarded South Mountain its National Award for Workplace Democracy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1933392193
• ISBN 13: 9781933392196
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 313