Book description
"When most people think of corporate responsibility, they are
focusing on a business's effect on and relationship to stakeholders. A
Responsible Business sees stakeholders as full partners and meaningful
instruments for the evolution of healthier communities and more
successful businesses."
-from the Introduction
The Responsible Business offers a new and strategic approach to
doing business that holistically integrates responsibility into all
aspects of an organization, allowing for returns at every level,
business and social. This book goes beyond the often well intentioned
but limited attempts at sustainability to present a framework that
allows organizations to bring responsibility into everything they do
and re-imagine success. From innovation, product development, and
production processes to business management, strategic planning, and
shareholder development, the author shows how being a Responsible
Business is a practical skill that can be applied day-to-day at every
level of the business.
No longer just the role of a department or the job of CSR
professionals, successful responsibility and business efforts start at
the business level, are then taken to the corporate level, and are
finally applied throughout the organization. The Responsible
Business outlines a framework for building a responsibility and
consciousness infrastructure that applies a living systems view to the
business and inspires all of its stakeholders, including shareholders.
Throughout the book, illustrated by examples from technology to
manufacturing, large and small, public and private, Sanford
demonstrates how to make responsibility integral to all aspects of a
business as an engine for innovation, profitability, and purpose.
Praise for The Responsible Business
"This is a very significant book. It makes it clear that
businesses have a single boss with five interrelated aspects. The
stories are among the crispest, most evocative case histories I have
seen. The book is for any corporate leader trying to do the
impossible: create a business that recreates the
world."
-Art Kleiner, editor-in-chief, strategy +
business, and author, The Age of Heretics
"Carol Sanford offers us a proven, practical, and systems-based
approach that integrates five stakeholder groups into a business
system working as an integral whole. Essential reading for leaders
wanting a system framework for sustainability and business
success!"
-Otto Scharmer, MIT Sloan senior
lecturer; author, Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges;
and coauthor, Presence
"The Responsible Business challenges many assumptions
corporate leaders, investment advisors, and sustainability experts
have long taken for granted. It provides a road map that can help
innovative businesses think about how to be truly
transformational."
-Sam Ford, Fast Company expert
blogger and director, Peppercom
"The powerful concepts in The Responsible Business have
changed the process of sustainable development and how communities
truly thrive. Indeed, these proven approaches will be the roadmap to
truly achieve the deepest level of living
communities."
-Bill Reed, founding member of LEED
System and coauthor, The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building
"Critical for re-imagining the future of business. Rarely a day
goes by that I do not call on this way of thinking and looking at the
world. It is useful for taking on the big business decisions that so
many of us face every day."
-Chad Holliday, chairman,
Bank of America
Carol Sanford has been the CEO of InterOctave,
Inc., a global business resource to Fortune 500 and new economy
businesses large and small, for over thirty years. In addition, Carol
lectures at universities such as MIT Sloan School of Management,
University of Washington Foster School of Business, and University of
Michigan Ross School of Business on sustainability, business
innovation, and corporate responsibility. Visit www.
TheResponsibleBusiness. com for additional content and information.
