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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
7.11.2006 - 03:00pm ET
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Book Release: True to Yourself; Leading a Values-Based Business By Mark Albion
''A perfect blend of inspiration and instruction, a must-read manual for anyone who aspires to a position of leadership.''
--Alan M. Webber, Co-Founding Editor, Fast Company
(CSRwire) How do you build the kind of company you've always wanted to work in, the
kind of organization you'd be proud to be part of--one that serves people
and the planet while being financially successful, too? What do you do
when you believe that business should serve the common good, while
everyday business pressures--meeting payroll, battling competition,
retaining your best employees, keeping customers and investors happy--are
at a fever pitch? Leading a small business when you measure success more
broadly than with a single financial bottom line is no easy task.
True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business was
written to help you do just that.
Mark Albion has dealt with these issues for over twenty-five years. In
this practical, down-to-earth guide, his insightful interviews with
seventy-five forward-thinking leaders and his own experiences as an
entrepreneurial leader provide hands-on examples of how you can combine
profit with purpose, margin with mission, value with values.
True to Yourself begins by outlining the unique values that
drive small, values-based businesses and the three most important personal
characteristics that you must develop--Competence, Compassion, and
Commitment. These lead Albion to five critical leadership practices, each
illustrated with a chapter on how successful businesspeople have put that
practice into action, along with questions to help you reflect on how that
practice relates to your personal experience, and a hands-on exercise to
help you start making that practice an integral part of your business.
Leadership is lonely. Leadership is hard work. Values-based leadership is
even lonelier and harder. True to Yourself is a trusted
guide to help you avoid mistakes while making your job easier, your
company more successful, and your life more fulfilling.
"If you want to build a values-based business, as I did with Kinko's,
Mark Albion provides you with the practical know-how to avoid mistakes and
lead your company's growth."
-- Paul Orfalea, Kinko's Founder & Chairperson Emeritus
"If you want to build a business with social conscience, a company that
reflects your core values and that people are proud to work for,
True to Yourself will help you pour your heart into doing
just that."
-- Howard Schultz, chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company
"There has never been a more important moment for leadership from
women. It is critical that we have equality in business as well as
education and politics, as women recognize the social and environmental
challenges we face and develop the courage to confront them. True
to Yourself offers the practical guidance and support to allow
women to meet these exhilarating challenges and help others working with
them do the same."
-- Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder, Esprit Clothing Company&
Chairperson Emeritus
****
Mark Albion is a social entrepreneur who has co-founded seven
organizations, including Net Impact, an international network of MBA
students and professionals committed to using the power of business to
create a better world. He wrote the New York Times bestseller
Making a Life, Making a LivingĀ®, and was a professor at Harvard
Business School.
True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business
By Mark Albion
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Paperback
Number of Pages: 120
ISBN: 978-1-57675-378-1
$12.00
Publication Date: July 2006
Announcing the Social Venture Network Series
Until now, most books on socially responsible business practices have been
aimed at major corporations. But small businesses are far more receptive to
the "triple bottom line" of people, planet, and profits, because so many of
them are started by people determined to bring their personal values to the
workplace. And small businesses collectively are huge--they employ half the
workforce. Of the more than five million businesses in the United States,
only 17,000 have 500 or more workers.
To serve this large and growing market, Berrett-Koehler Publishers has
partnered with Social Venture Network (SVN) to produce a series of
low-priced, down-to-earth paperback guides that will walk readers through
the practical steps of starting and growing a socially responsible
business. This series represents the merger of the Berrett-Koehler value
of "creating a world that works for all" and Social Venture Network's
commitment to building a just and sustainable world through business.
Far too many companies are focused on the bottom line to the exclusion of
everything else. But the members of SVN and the staff of Berrett-Koehler
know from their own experience that there can be a new bottom line for
business--one that values healthy communities and the human spirit as well
as high returns. Drawing on the expertise of SVN members, the Social
Venture Network Series will show the owners and managers of small
companies how easy--and how profitable--it can be to run a values-based
business.
The first two books in the Social Venture Network Series,
Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and
Have Fun by Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick, and True to Yourself:
Leading a Values-Based Business by Mark Albion are due out this
spring. Watch for Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Drive Your
Socially Responsible Business by Chip Conley and Eric
Friedenwald-Fishman and Growing Local Value: How to Build a
Values-Driven Business That Strengthens Your Community by Laury
Hammel and Gun Denhart in Fall of 2006.
About Social Venture Network: Since its founding in 1987, SVN has grown
from a handful of visionary individuals into a vibrant community of 400
business owners, investors, and nonprofit leaders who are advancing the
movement for social responsibility in business. For more information, see
the SVN web site: www.svn.org.
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