Does your financial duty trump your moral one as a business leader?
For sure, we want to align the two if we can, but what if there is a conflict?
Here are 4 books I’ve really enjoyed, which complement each other really well, and should be read by everyone building a purposeful business (i.e. a commercial enterprise that creates long term positive value to people and planet).
“The Future We Choose” by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac gives the environmental perspective, with a realistic and hopeful plan of what we should be doing.
“The Value of Everything” by Mariana Mazzucato paints the economic and ethical context of the extractive capitalism we’ve been building over the last half century, with pointers to what we should fix if we want better.
Rebecca Henderson’s “Reimagining Capitalism” gives a more practical perspective on the financial and corporate behaviours and systems that need rethinking.
And the autobiographical case study of Patagonia, the poster-child of a better company, in Yvon Chouinard’s eminently readable “Let my people go surfing“.
Any CEOs who fancy a 4-book book club approach on these for discussion – PM me!
But even if you don’t do that, do read these great books and think through their implications.
Will 2022 be another year of a strategy at best vaguely met? Of being a CEO unable to step back from the day-to-day to do the things your company needs to meet it's ambitions? Of having a purpose and values that don't directly connect to everything you do? We're looking for an intimate beta group of CEOs (10 to 40 employees) to join us on this upcoming webinar to talk through our Build on Purpose framework for making strategy, purpose and values happen.
Buy any of the books through our links and you’ll be supporting local independent bookshops. We put all commission into our microloan fund for female owners of small businesses in the developing world.