The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship: Creating Enduring Value

How many times have you heard someone say, "It’s not personal; it’s just business"?

That attitude reflects a belief that business needs to be cut-throat, that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, that the pursuit of profit is the only thing that matters, and that the only way to succeed is to beat the competition. But none of this is true: business doesn’t have to be that way.

 

The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship is a prescription for living the American Dream and for finding the fulfilment that comes from helping employees and customers improve their lives. In his 30-year career in international business strategy, economic development, and entrepreneurship, author Andreas Widmer has seen firsthand numerous companies both succeed financially and also build a people-centered venture in the process.

 

He shares his favorite success stories and details five key principles for conducting business in ways that combine personal virtue, the latest entrepreneurial tools, and long-term perspective in order to make business a win-win proposition for everyone. At a time when the number of new business startups is at its lowest point in 50 years and more than half the workforce at existing businesses struggles with motivation, finding a better way to do business is more urgent than ever.

 

For any entrepreneur, manager, employee, or business student seeking to build people-centered businesses and teams, The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship is an insightful, practical guide to how businesses can be run to be both virtuous and profitable.

 

Andreas Widmer is an entrepreneur, professor, consultant, business coach, popular speaker, and author, with 30 years’ business experience in international business strategy, economic development, and entrepreneurship. He has worked extensively in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America and has launched more than 100 technology products. Andreas has taught entrepreneurship at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business & Entrepreneurship since 2012. He founded and is the Director of the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship, which promotes a new kind of entrepreneur: one who can integrate personal virtue, the latest entrepreneurial tools, and long- term perspective for enterprises that harness human creativity in the service of individuals and communities.

 

His previous book is The Pope & the CEO: John Paul II’s Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, which explores leadership lessons Andreas learned when, at age 19, he served as a Pontifical Swiss Guard protecting Pope John Paul II—lessons he later applied during his own business career. The book has sold more than 40,000 copies; was translated into 5 languages (Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian); and received extensive media coverage and favorable reviews.

 

Andreas has an advanced business degree and a BS in business administration in sales management from two Swiss colleges (Bénédict-Handelsschule and Kaufmaennische Schule Luzern, respectively), and a B.S. degree in international business from Merrimack College (in North Andover, MA). He has an MS from St. John’s Seminary (in Boston) and was awarded an honorary doctorate by St. Charles Borromeo Seminary (in Philadelphia) in 2018. He speaks 5 languages: English, German, French, Italian, and some Spanish.