The Art of Compassionate Business: Main Principles for the Human-oriented Enterprise

There are several well-ingrained assumptions regarding the dynamics of work and business activities, which can be refuted. Some examples of these widespread assumptions in business and work environments are employees being viewed as commodities, competitors perceived as threats, companies’ resources seen as limited, and customers perceived as scarce and difficult. All this leads to the question: "Is there a way to perform business activities more humanely?"

The second edition of this book challenges the reader to change the way they perform in business situations and become more focused on the human aspects of business activities. The users of this knowledge and those affected by them will undergo a profound transformation in the way they perform business activities. They will benefit from gradually testing and implementing the guidelines conveyed in this book, both in the business environment and in the workplace. When readers put these principles into practice, positive ripple effects are bound to affect other stakeholders of the organisation they work for or own.

The author has refreshed all the concepts and examples introduced in the first edition which include aspects related to mission and vision, passion, business mindset, organisational learning, improvement of business conversations, use of constructive criticism, and betterment of relationships with the most relevant stakeholders (customers, suppliers, intermediaries, community, employees, etc.). The author also includes a discussion of creativity and the innovation process as well as other relevant aspects related to a healthy business environment and provides various real-life examples of companies which have adopted a loving attitude towards their stakeholders – which has become so important in the current business environment.

Dr. Bruno R. Cignacco, PhD, is an international business consultant, TEDx speaker, and business coach. For over 30 years, he has advised and trained hundreds of companies on international trade activities and international marketing. He teaches business modules, both at undergraduate and at postgraduate levels, at various universities in the UK. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), UK. He is also a Master Life Coach and Master NLP practitioner. He has studied disciplines related to personal development for more than 30 years. He has delivered countless talks, seminars, and conferences in several countries. He is the author of business books, such as Fundamentals of International Marketing for SMEs (Atlantic Publishers, 2010) which has been published in several languages, like English (Atlantic Publishers, 2010), Spanish (Macchi Publishers, 2004), and Portuguese (Saraiva Publisher, 2009). His other business book is Techniques of International Negotiation (Macchi Publishers, 2014). He is also the author of personal development books published in different languages. His website is www.brunocignacco.com.