What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers Is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business Is Listening
For more than sixteen years, Jeffrey Hollender has presided over Seventh Generation, a world leader in manufacturing environmentally friendly, nontoxic household products. What Matters Most illuminates the successful practices of Seventh Generation-and many other pioneering companies around the world-to demonstrate the pragmatic aspects of a corporate strategy that hardwires social and environmental concerns into the company's culture, operating systems, and business relationships. It shows business leaders how to assess their own company's performance, adopt a socially responsible approach to doing business, and embark on a path of long-term growth. "Jeffrey Hollender...has shown that doing the right thing does pay off both in terms of building a brand that generates great customer loyalty and a business that has consistently generated superior growth." -Ben Cohen, Founder, Ben & Jerry's "What Matters Most stands out for its moderate and thoughtful analysis of a controversial issue.... Hollender is a voice of reason in today's important debate on corporate responsibility." -Soundview Speed Reviews
Amazon.com Review
CEO Jeffrey Hollender, whose Vermont-based company Seventh Generation is a poster child for corporate conscience, has written a brave and detailed blueprint for a new paradigm of "responsible business." Written in the dog days of Enron/Inclone/Martha Stewart scandals, Hollender's vision is passionate and panoramic. "Corporate responsibility is a broad social movement centered in the corporation as much as the anti-war movement of the 1960s was centered in college campuses." He builds a persuasive case for global citizenship, with in-depth analysis of case histories (For example, the "peace pops" controversy after Ben and Jerry's ice cream was acquired by Unilever, the commitment to healthcare coverage during Starbuck's global coup d'etat).
Hollender borrows from best sellers such as Built to Last but he is willing to ask the tough questions: When do core values conflict with goals and commitments? Does being a responsible business really cost shareholders more money? How do corporate charters inhibit social responsibility? How can reputation become a corporate pressure point? His answers are provided in seven approaches to social responsibility. Each defines new metrics to define prosperity, environmental stewardship and corporate citizenship. For example, he unpacks the strategy of "transparency" in descriptions of Challenger explosion, the embedded journalists of The Gulf War and the SARs epidemic. Sometimes these powerful strategies are swamped in an overabundance of examples, sources, or acronyms of activists groups. But Hollender's comprehension shows us the forest and the trees. --Barbara Mackoff -
- Paperback: 392 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books (January 3, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0465030866
- ISBN-13: 978-0465030866
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
