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.
Every Wednesday we hold an intimate 60 minute strategy and execution clinic where we go through our Build on Purpose framework, and then discuss one question that's on the mind of each attendee. CEOs / founders only, and max 5 in each session. If this sounds interesting, sign up through Zoom here.