Book Review: In a Changing Corporate Consciousness, Are You A Willing Outlier? - A blog by Aman Singh

Aman Singh is the CSR Editor at Vault.com, where she focuses on how corporate diversity practices and sustainability translate into recruitment and strategic development. Her blog, In Good Company, discusses on many of these issues.
Apr 19, 2010 3:59 PM ET

Book Review: In a Changing Corporate Consciousness, Are You A Willing Outlier?

I have to be honest. I don't read self-help books. And the reasoning is simple: they all tout the same advice differently. However, when I heard about Jeffrey Hollender's latest book (co-authored with Bill Breen, co-founder of Fast Company and editorial director at Seventh Generation), I was more than a little curious. The title The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win didn't sermonize and instead, conveyed the conviction of the authors on the future of business, sounding almost too smug to me. This absolute confidence made me want to challenge their audaciousness, and so I dived in.

But as I got closer to finishing it, I realized I no longer could challenge them. And that their smugness had a basis, a practiced confidence that has built on the accomplishments of companies that are relevant to modern business, keep the bottom line intact and are realistic enough to be encompassed regardless of product or client. Most importantly, the authors keep all the stakeholders in mind as they discuss different business models, i.e., shareholders, consumers, employees, the community, and the environment, a challenge for the most transparent and socialist of companies.

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