Firms of Endearment

Description

“This new edition of Firms of Endearment continues to break important new ground in understanding the power of capitalism to transform our world for the better. In the first edition, the authors… gave us an introductory quantitative analysis, and a set of rich stories that made the analysis make some sense. Now, they take a giant step forward. They give us a ’proof of possibility,’ grounding a new story of business in solid economic analysis and practical management thinking.”

—R. Edward Freeman, University Professor, The Darden School, University of Virginia

Today’s greatest companies are fueled by passion and purpose, not cash. They earn large profits by helping all their stakeholders thrive: customers, investors, employees, partners, communities, and society.

These rare, authentic firms of endearment act in powerfully positive ways that stakeholders recognize, value, admire, and even love. They make the world better by the way they do business—and the world responds.

They have created radically new rules. This extensively updated book will help you master those new rules, learn from their newest experiences, build your great firm of endearment, change the world, and succeed on every level that matters.

• Build a high-performance business on love (It can be done. We’ll prove it.)
• Help people find the self-actualization they’re so desperately seeking
• Join capitalism’s radical social transformation—or fall by the wayside
• Don’t just talk about creating a happy, productive workplace: do it
• Honor the unspoken emotional contract you share with your stakeholders
• Create partner relationships that really are mutually beneficial
• Build a company that communities welcome enthusiastically
• Help all your stakeholders win, including your investors

“Business has enormous potential to do good in the world. Much of the good is currently being done ‘unconsciously’ simply by creating products and services that people value, providing jobs, and generating profits. However, business can also be done much more consciously, with higher purpose and optimal value creation for all major stakeholders, while creating cultures that optimize human flourishing… Firms of Endearment points the way that all businesses should aspire to emulate and ultimately transcend. I am grateful to the authors for their landmark contribution…”

—John Mackey, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Whole Foods Market

Doing good is great business. In industry after industry, today’s best companies have discovered this—and they’re leaving their short-sighted competitors in the dust.

Firms of Endearment, Second Edition reveals how these remarkable companies are generating more of every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. Not because it’s “politically correct,” but because it’s the only path to long-term competitive advantage.

These are companies people love to buy from, work for, and partner wi

How companies that earn “share of heart” and not just share of wallet are reinventing the rules of capitalism. 

• Witness world-class companies who are reinventing the rules of capitalism
• Discover how being socially responsible can lead to big profits
• Learn from powerful examples to deliver the emotional, experiential, and social value stakeholders demand

Today’s best companies get it. From retail to finance and industries in between, the organizations who recognize that doing good is good business are becoming the ultimate value creators. They’re changing their culture and generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they’re doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it’s simply politically correct, because it’s the only path to long-term competitive advantage.

These are the firms of endearment. Companies people love doing business with, working for and collaborating with as partners. Since the publication of the First Edition, the concept of corporate social responsibility has become embraced as a valid, important, and profitable business model. It is a trend that has transformed the workplace and corporate world.  This Second Edition updates the examples, cases, and applications from the original edition, giving readers insight into how this hallmark of the modern organization is practiced today.

Raj Sisodia is the F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. He is also co-founder and co-chairman of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. He has a Ph.D. in marketing from Columbia University. Raj is the co-author of The New York Times bestseller Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (Harvard Business Review Publishing, 2013). In 2003, he was cited as one of “50 Leading Marketing Thinkers” by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He was named one of “Ten Outstanding Trailblazers of 2010” by Good Business International, and one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior” by Trust Across America for 2010 and 2011. Raj has published seven books and more than 100 academic articles. He has consulted with and taught executive programs for numerous companies, including AT&T, Nokia, LG, DPDHL, POSCO, Kraft Foods, Whole Foods Market, Tata, Siemens, Sprint, Volvo, IBM, Walmart, Rabobank, McDonalds, and Southern California Edison. He is on the Board of Directors of The Container Store and Mastek, Ltd., and is a trustee of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. For more details, see www.rajsisodia.com.

Jag Sheth is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Gouizeta Business School at Emory University. He has published 26 books, more than 400 articles, and is nationally and internationally known for his scholarly contributions in consumer behavior, relationship marketing, competitive strategy, and geopolitical analysis. His book The Rule of Three (Free Press, 2002), coauthored with Raj Sisodia, has altered current notions on competition in business. This book has been translated into five languages and was the subject of a seven-part television series by CNBC Asia. Jag’s list of consulting clients around the world is long and impressive, including AT&T, GE, Motorola, Whirlpool, and 3M, to name just a few. He is frequently quoted and interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Financial Times, and radio shows and television networks such as CNN, Lou Dobbs, and more. He is also on the Board of Directors of several public companies. In 2004, he was honored with the two highest awards bestowed by the American Marketing Association: the Richard D. Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award and the Charles Coolidge Parlin Award. For more details, see www.jagsheth.net.

The late David B. Wolfe was an internationally recognized customer behavior expert in middle-age and older markets. He was the author of Serving the Ageless Market (McGraw-Hill, 1990) and Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Connecting with the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority (Dearborn Publishing, 2003). David’s consulting assignments took him to Asia, Africa, Europe, and throughout North America. He was widely published in publications in the U.S. and abroad. He also consulted to numerous Fortune 100 companies, including American Express, AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Hartford Insurance, Marriott, MetLife, Prudential Securities, and Textron.

How companies that earn “share of heart” and not just share of wallet are reinventing the rules of capitalism. 

• Witness world-class companies who are reinventing the rules of capitalism
• Discover how being socially responsible can lead to big profits
• Learn from powerful examples to deliver the emotional, experiential, and social value stakeholders demand

Forewords     x
Prologue: A Whole New World     xxi
Chapter 1: Building Business on Love and Care     1
Chapter 2: New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism     27
Chapter 3: Dealing with Disorder     49
Chapter 4: Employees: From Resource to Source     59
Chapter 5: Customers: Healing vs. Hucksterism     87
Chapter 6: Investors: Reaping What FoEs Sow     105
Chapter 7: Partners: Elegant Harmonies     119
Chapter 8: Society: The Ultimate Stakeholder     141
Chapter 9: Culture: The Secret Ingredient     163
Chapter 10: What We Have Learned     191
Chapter 11: The Other Side of Complexity     205
Appendix A: Brief Company Profiles     223
Appendix B: Interview with Rick Frazier     257
Index     267

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