Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist: How a CEO Doubled Earnings, Inspired Employees and Created Innovation from One Simple Idea
Language: English
Published by St Martin's Press, 2011
- Softcover
- Used

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In 1994, Interface founder and chairman Ray Anderson set an audacious goal for his commercial carpet company: to take nothing from the earth that can't be replaced by the earth. Now, Anderson leads the way forward and challenges all of industry to share that goal, with Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist. The Interface story is a compelling one: in 1994, making carpets was a toxic, petroleum-based process, releasing immense amounts of air and water pollution and creating tons of waste. Fifteen years after Anderson's call for change, Interface has: --cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82% --cut fossil fuel consumption by 60% --cut waste by 66% --cut water use by 75% --invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes --increased sales by 66%, doubled earnings, and raised profit margins With practical ideas and measurable outcomes that every business can use, Anderson shows that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth. Ray Anderson is featured in the film, So Right, So Smart, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at how his leadership transformed Interface into a company with a sustainable business practices that made it more profitable than it was before. utually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth. Ray Anderson is featured in the film, So Right, So Smart, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at how his leadership transformed Interface into a company with a sustainable business practices that made it more profitable than it was before.utually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth. Ray Anderson is featured in the film, So Right, So Smart, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at how his leadership transformed Interface into a company with a sustainable business practices that made it more profitable than it was before.utually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth. Ray Anderson is featured in the film, So Right, So Smart, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at how his leadership transformed Interface into a company with a sustainable business practices that made it more profitable than it was before.…
Seller Inventory # CIN0312544553A
- Title
- Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist: How a CEO Doubled Earnings, Inspired Employees and Created Innovation from One Simple Idea
- Author
- Ray C Anderson
- Publisher
- St Martin's Press
- Publication year
- 2011
- Condition
- Fair
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0312544553
- ISBN 13
- 9780312544553
That was 17 years ago - before 'green' was the compelling business imperative that it is today (for reference, oil was then $18/bbl), and frankly, the environment was nowhere on Ray's radar. An Interface associate asked Ray to give a speech to a task force that was forming to answer customer concerns about environmental impacts, and though he had not a clue what he would say, he accepted. As the date for the speech grew closer, he began to sweat -- and then Paul Hawken's book, The Ecology of Commerce, landed on his desk. The rest is green business history -- Ray read the book (he's called it a 'spear in the chest' epiphany), his outlook was radically transformed, and he gave a speech that would put the petroleum-dependent carpet company on a path to zero environmental footprint.
What's happened in the intervening years has made Interface the poster child for green business, and Ray's become a bit of an eco rock star. He ditched his gas-guzzling Jaguar in favor of a Prius, built an off-the-grid home, and today, at 76, his life is radically different than what he would have imagined for himself at age 60. This is his story.
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About the Author
The story is now legend: the "spear in the chest" epiphany Ray Anderson experienced when he first read Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, seeking inspiration for a speech to an Interface task force on the company's environmental vision. Seventeen years and a sea change later, Ray estimates that Interface is more than half-way towards the vision of "Mission Zero," the journey no one would have imagined for the company or the petroleum-intensive industry of carpet manufacturing which has been forever changed by Ray's vision. Interface is redesigning processes and products, pioneering new technologies, and making efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy. Ray chronicles that journey in a new "how" and "why" to on sustainability, Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist, (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011) the paperback follow-up to the book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist, published by St. Martin's Press in September 2009.
An honors graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology, Ray learned the carpet trade through 14-plus years at various positions in the textiles industry, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Today, he chairs the world's largest producer of modular commercial floorcoverings. Interface has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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