Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, Second Edition

Book description

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.

Table of contents

  1. About This eBook
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. Forewords
    1. Foreword to the First Edition
    2. First Foreword to the Second Edition
    3. Second Foreword to the Second Edition
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. About the Authors
  9. Prologue: A Whole New World
    1. The Age of Empowerment
    2. The Age of Knowledge
    3. The Age of Transcendence
    4. Overview of Chapters
    5. Endnotes
  10. 1. Building Business on Love and Care
    1. The Power of Love
    2. What Is a Firm of Endearment?
    3. FoE Stakeholders
    4. Identifying the Original Firms of Endearment
    5. Firms of Endearment vs. Good to Great Companies
    6. Selecting Companies for the Second Edition
    7. The Unspoken Contract That FoEs Honor
    8. The FoE Way
    9. Endnotes
  11. 2. New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism
    1. The Self-Actualization of Capitalism
    2. Shareholders versus Stakeholders
    3. Emotionally Intelligent Management in FoEs
    4. Finding the Will to Change
    5. Endnotes
  12. 3. Dealing with Disorder
    1. The Communications Challenge
    2. Endnotes
  13. 4. Employees: From Resource to Source
    1. FoEs Put Meaning into the Work Experience
    2. The Partnership Advantage in Management-Union Relationships
    3. Building Trust
    4. The Joy of Work
    5. Training and Development Are Priorities in FoEs
    6. Recognition and Celebration Have High Priority in FoEs
    7. How FoEs View Part-Time Employees
    8. Connecting Top to Bottom
    9. The HR Department of the Future
    10. Benefits That Flow to Shareholders from Doing It Right
    11. Endnotes
  14. 5. Customers: Healing vs. Hucksterism
    1. The New Marketing Paradigm
    2. A New Consciousness
    3. It’s Not News: Committed Employees Yield Committed Customers
    4. How Not to Build Trust
    5. FoEs Are Soulful
    6. Endnotes
  15. 6. Investors: Reaping What FoEs Sow
    1. The Whole Foods Way to Shareholder Wealth
    2. Who Are Today’s Investors?
    3. The Zen Way of Viewing the Pursuit of Profit
    4. Bonding Investors, Employees, and Customers
    5. Shareholder Returns
    6. Conclusion
    7. Endnotes
  16. 7. Partners: Elegant Harmonies
    1. Measures That Matter
    2. Stakeholder Concinnity vs. Exploitation
    3. Making Stakeholders Partners Increases Success Potential
    4. Collaboration Is More Profitable Than Exploitation
    5. The Art of Ironic Management
    6. Endnotes
  17. 8. Society: The Ultimate Stakeholder
    1. Business Values vs. Human Values
    2. Pirate or Great Humanitarian?
    3. FoEs and Society
    4. Endnotes
  18. 9. Culture: The Secret Ingredient
    1. The Greatest Place to Work?
    2. The Primacy of Culture
    3. Unleashing Organizational Energy
    4. Setting Organizational Vision: Seeing the Larger Picture
    5. Nurturing Organizational Values by Building Endearing Cultures
    6. FoE Cultural Characteristics
    7. Culture = DNA
    8. Endnotes
  19. 10. What We Have Learned
    1. Distinguishing Traits of Firms of Endearment
    2. Challenging Industry Dogma
    3. Aligning Stakeholders’ Interests
    4. Breaking Traditional Trade-Offs
    5. A Long-Term Perspective
    6. Organic Growth
    7. Blending Work and Play
    8. Rejecting Traditional Marketing Models
    9. Conclusion
    10. Endnotes
  20. 11. The Other Side of Complexity
    1. The Big Challenge of the Times: Transcending a Zero Sum Mindset
    2. FoE Management Requires Holistic Thinking
    3. Getting to the “Other Side of Complexity”
    4. Conclusion
    5. Endnotes
  21. Appendix A. Brief Company Profiles
    1. U.S. Public Firms of Endearment
    2. U.S. Private Firms of Endearment
    3. Non-U.S. Companies
    4. Endnotes
  22. Appendix B. Interview with Rick Frazier
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Rajendra S. Sisodia, Jagdish N. Sheth, David B. Wolfe
  • Release date: February 2014
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780133382631