Why are today’s businesses as they are? Building on WH "Beable’s Romance of Great Businesses", a description of 32 significant companies published a century ago, this book explores how some British commercial icons started, evolved and then coped with an ever-more-complex economic environment. Who were those Victorian entrepreneurs? How did their beliefs influence their work? What is their legacy? What has been lost and what gained? Finding that the political and religious affiliations of ...

After a century in which charities suspected the motives of cynical business people, and business people dismissed the contributions of amateur volunteers, the two sectors are coming together today as never before. The third sector has increased its business capacity through the experience gained from a decade of providing commissioned services to the public sector. Society today expects employers to do more to engage with both communities and good causes and the business case for doing so...

Business doing good is doing good business; this book learns from the era where governments ruled the world, pre-globalisation, and where business looked after itself, where issues like climate change, resource depletion and even poverty and hunger were not thought to be the responsibility of business.The Company Citizen concludes that not only are these key issues for business today but that the world will not be able to manage these issues without the active participation - even ...

This second edition of Welcome to GoodCo updates the author's critically acclaimed analysis of how the tools of business are being (and ought to be) used to help tackle the great problems of both the planet and of local communities. In exploring the increasingly politically relevant issue of 'responsible capitalism' - and its variations - he asks what it means, where it came from, why politicians are so timid around the issue and what exactly are the obstacles this crusade will have to fac...

“An inspiration for managers, leaders and everybody interested in Enzo Ferrari's life.”Born 1898 in the Northern-Italian city of Modena, Enzo Ferrari lived his dream and founded the world’s most famous sports car manufacturer. This book analyzes how he achieved his goals by what are considered to be modern concepts. Or were leadership theories, emotional intelligence, business ethics, client orientation and sustainability already guiding principles of business in t...

At a time of global economic crisis and disillusionment with capitalism, Adodo offers refreshing and positive insight into a more integral way of business management, enterprise and community development as well as holistic healing in Africa. For over three decades, Africa was the recipient of billions of dollars in aid funds that were meant to catapult the continent from undeveloped to developed status. Yet the more the aid poured in, the poorer African countries became.The devast...

The financial crisis of 2008 and the Great Recession caused a crisis of public confidence in business and American-style capitalism, with its focus on maximizing shareholder value. Corporate leaders understood that reform was needed and that they needed to commit themselves to the dual goal of producing benefits for society and their firms’ bottom lines-to creating shared value.” But the specific actions they could take to bring about this change were less clear.This ebook offers ...

Over time we have seen large corporations, in many cases with multinational operations, begin to play an increasingly significant role in modern society. This in turn has put the governance of these corporations into focus.Against this background, Corporate Governance in Action helps provide a framework for examining corporate governance through a focus provided by external pressures on large corporations. It also brings together the approach of economics and finance with theories ...

The recent financial crisis has awakened a renewed sensibility to ethics in business and management, and an increasing interest in a better understanding of how ethics and economics are intertwined. Managers and executives must understand not just the moral value of ethical behaviour, but also how this can strengthen and benefit the organization.

This book explores how the interrelated concepts of responsible citizenship, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability can be interpreted, researched and taught. It contributes to the much-needed debate on the role of universities – and business schools in particular – in the context of rising social and environmental stakes and growing calls for 'doing business the right way'. The book offers diverse perspectives on the concepts of responsible citizenship, CSR and sustainab...

The relationship between economic or social or political activity and risk is widely recognised at a societal level, a market level and a business level, and equally widely discussed. The relationship between governance and risk at all of these levels is equally widely recognised but much less widely discussed. But the consequences of poor governance in this arena have been exposed to all in the recent financial and economic crisis as financial institutions and even countries have collapse...

In traditional cultures, the shaman is the healer, the connector, and the spiritual leader or sensemaker. Today in the management academy, some individuals use their intellectual gifts to perform a similar role - mediating between various disciplines, ideas and theories, as well as making sense of ideas, insights, and research for others. This book, based on the work and lives of 28 very well-known management academics, describes what it means - and what it takes - to be an intellectual sh...