The Heart of Business: Integrating Prosperity and Values for Real Change

In The Heart of Business Liz Mohn describes her experiences as a woman and an entrepreneur at Bertelsmann, Europe’s largest media corporation, in a powerful call to action for organizations of every size and purpose to adapt to the evolving criteria of success in the twenty-first century. With the new millennium being shaped by the forces of internationalization and globalization, Mohn asks an important question: Will humane values take their rightful and necessary place as a vital factor in the equations that measure achievement and prosperity in the world we will hand over to our children and grandchildren?

Making a plea for a new paradigm of business and personal achievement that combines material rewards with those of friendship and social consciousness, Mohn writes passionately and eloquently about her beliefs as a woman, a philanthropist, and a corporate leader. At their heart is a deep concern about frightening trends in our society: the loss of direction, the increase in both selfishness and loneliness, the lack of concern for children and the elderly. In response, says Mohn, we must commit ourselves to such principles as the preservation of traditional cultures amid the pressures of globalization, the ethical education of children, and love rooted in recognition of our common humanity. The distance Liz Mohn has traveled in her own life mirrors the distance that all of society—from individuals and families to large corporations—must travel to remain forces for positive change in our new world. In The Heart of Business Liz Mohn offers an equal measure of hope and an energizing spirit of renewal.

Liz Mohn is chairman of the board of the Bertelsmann Asset Management Group (Bertelsmann Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH), deputy chairman of the Bertelsmann Foundation, and a member of the supervisory board of Bertelsmann AG. She is in charge of corporate culture at Bertelsmann and the first woman to be a member of the Club of Rome, a global think tank based in Hamburg, Germany. In 1993 she founded the German Stroke Aid Foundation. She is also a recipient of the medal of honor of Germany’s Order of Merit and the service medal of the German Medical Society for her work on behalf of stroke victims.