800-CEO-READ New Releases

The High-purpose Company

by Christine Arena

(Harpercollins, 288 Pages)

In The High-Purpose Company, corporate strategist and researcher Christine Arena shows why corporate responsibility is more than just a hot topic of the moment—why it is an essential means to success in today's corporate world. She draws a clear line in the sand between the extraordinary companies driven by purposeful ideals and those companies that merely pretend to be responsible. Readers will be able to easily distinguish between the two groups and see how and why many of the most successful corporations are generating extraordinary profits from their responsible actions.

Using a groundbreaking methodology, Arena and her research team conducted thousands of hours of analysis on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of 75 well-known firms. What they discovered surprised even them—it's not always the obvious companies in ecologically friendly areas of business that are truly the most responsible. Ben & Jerry's or Tyco? Ford or GE? Wal-Mart or Gap? The results of the study defy long-held myths, rewrite rules, reframe strategic priorities, and reveal a new paradigm for business.

Firms of Endearment

by David Wolfe, Jagdish Sheth, Rajendra Sisodia

(Pearson Education, 0 Pages)

It's a fact: People are increasingly searching for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This trend is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, and the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today's most successful companies are those who've brought love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: companies that deliver emotional, experiential, and social value, not just profits. Firms of Endearment illuminates this: the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It's not a book about corporate social responsibility: it's about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era. It's about great companies like IDEO and IKEA, Commerce Bank and Costco, Wegmans and Whole Foods: how they've earned powerful loyalty and affection from all their stakeholders, while achieving stock performance that is truly breathtaking. It's about gaining "share of heart," not just share of wallet. It's about aligning the interests of all your stakeholders, not just juggling them. It's about understanding how the "new rules of capitalism" mirror the self-actualization focus of our aging society. It's about building companies that leave the world a better place. Most of all, it's about why you must do all this, or risk being left in the dust... and how to get there from wherever you are now.

Values Sell

by Nadine A. Thompson, Angela E Soper

(Pub Group West, 120 Pages)

Sales and distribution are the lifeblood of any business — socially responsible businesses are no different. To make a difference in the world, a business has to make its product or service available and get the public to buy it. But how can one compete with businesses for which the bottom line is the only measure of success? You need to get creative! In this practical and inspiring guide, Nadine Thompson and Angela Soper draw on real-world examples to show how a values-driven business can establish a foundation from which innovative sales and distribution strategies naturally flow. They lay out concrete steps for communicating a powerful, motivating vision for the business, and for designing sales and distribution strategies that fit the needs, interests, and habits of the target customer. Values Sell will help any socially conscious entrepreneur develop competitive sales and distribution strategies while staying true to his or her distinctive mission.

Blessed Unrest

by Paul Hawken

(Viking, 352 Pages)

One of the world’s most influential environmentalists reveals a worldwide grassroots movement of hope and humanity

Blessed Unrest tells the story of a worldwide movement that is largely unseen by politicians or the media. Hawken, an environmentalist and author, has spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, these organizations collectively comprise the largest movement on earth. This is a movement that has no name, leader, or location, but is in every city, town, and culture. It is organizing from the bottom up and is emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of this movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and centuries-old history. The culmination of Hawken’s many years of leadership in these fields, it will inspire, surprise, and delight anyone who is worried about the direction the modern world is headed. Blessed Unrest is a description of humanity’s collective genius and the unstoppable movement to re-imagine our relationship to the environment and one another. Like Hawken’s previous books, Blessed Unrest will become a classic in its field— a touchstone for anyone concerned about our future.

Extraordinary Circumstances

by Cynthia Cooper

(John Wiley & Sons, 368 Pages)

Book Description

A courageous narrative of one woman's victory over corporate wrongdoing.

Written in an autobiographic style, Extraordinary Circumstances takes the reader through the journey of Cynthia Cooper–former WorldCom employee and Time magazine’s 2002 Person of the Year–and her compelling story in exposing the largest corporate fraud in history.

Following Cooper from her early upbringing in Mississippi, to her high-level position in WorldCom, to the issues of fraud that she confronted, to the fall of WorldCom, Extraordinary Circumstances is an insider’s guide to the decision-making process that led her to "blow the whistle" and the role her personal faith and ethics played during this challenging time.

Cynthia Cooper (Brandon, MS) was named one of Time magazine’s 2002 Persons of the Year, along with fellow whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins. Ms. Cooper was inducted to the 2004 AICPA Hall of Fame, and is the first woman to receive this distinction. Ms. Cooper is also the 2003 recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award, which is awarded annually to an individual who has made notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting practice or education. Ms. Cooper is the tenth recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award and the first woman to receive the award. As the former vice president of the internal audit department at WorldCom, she is best known for her detection and reporting of the massive corporate fraud that was taking place at some of the highest levels of the company. After the collapse of WorldCom, Cooper continued to work at WorldCom (now MCI) but in 2004 she resigned her position as the Chief Audit Executive for MCI to form her own company, through which she speaks to both professionals and students across the country to share some of the lessons she has learned and to emphasize the importance of strong ethical leadership.

Ethical Fundraising

by Janice Gow Pettey

(John Wiley & Sons Inc, 288 Pages)

The Plot to Save the Planet

by Brian Dumaine

(Crown Pub, 304 Pages)