Overfished Ocean Strategy

Overfished Ocean Strategy
Powering up innovation for a resource-deprived world
by
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva

ISBN: 978-1609949648

Published: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1 edition (June 2, 2014)




Description

Overfished Ocean Strategy offers five essential principles for innovating in this new reality. Zhexembayeva shows how businesses can find new opportunities in what were once considered useless by-products, discover resource-conserving efficiencies up and down their value chain, transfer their expertise from physical products to services, and develop ways to rapidly try out and refine these new business models. She fills the book with examples of companies that are already successfully navigating the overfished ocean, from established corporations such as BMW, Microsoft, and Puma to newcomers such as Lush, FLOOW2, and Sourcemap. The linear, throwaway economy of today—in which we extract resources at one end, create products, and throw them away at the other—is rapidly coming to an end. In every industry, creative minds are learning how to make money by taking this line and turning it into a circle. Nadya Zhexembayeva shows how you can join them and avoid being left high and dry.

 
Commentary

I have had the privilege to hear Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva deliver keynote addresses twice in the past couple of years, and both times, I have listened to her articulation of the headlines of the Overfished Ocean Strategy with absolute focus, totally absorbed in the message and in the delivery. Now, Overfished Ocean Strategy has hit the shelves and I find drawn to its simply stated narrative and coherent arguments. Don't let that simplicity deceive you. The book is the result  of deep-dive research and a good deal of leadership thought and intelligent analysis. By the end of the book, you not only know what the Overfished Ocean Strategy is all about, you know how to get there. You also want to. And, you want others to, as well.

 

The book starts with an overview of our new competitive reality. One in which we are trashing more than we have places to put the trash we generate. The linear economy has outlived its usefulness and is now hurling us along the path to oblivion. Declining resource reserves, the volatility of fossil fuel prices, water scarcity, climate change and weather extremes, with high insurance premiums hot on their heels, and overconsumption of stuff that becomes obsolete all too quickly are the defining warning signs of a crisis in the making. It's a throwaway economy. But all is not lost. Yet. The wealth of ideas, some already successfully implemented, on how to create bottom up sustainable design is what will save us. It's not only about "disruptive innovation for a resource-deprived economy". It's about a new economy, designed from the ground up to recreate the way we innovate and generate value. Instead of rewarding those that handle trash, we should target to eliminate trash at source. This means rethinking our world and stopping overfishing the oceans.

 

There are five central ideas that take us through the journey to an appropriately fished ocean.

 

First: From line to circle: a circular economy in which the waste of one process becomes the raw material for another. Michael Braungart and Bill McDonough's Cradle to Cradle took this concept to scale, and although it makes perfect sense, it's still not even approaching common practice by a big margin.

 

Second: From vertical to horizontal: expanding horizons and approaching business strategies by engaging with the entire supply network at all levels, not just upstream and downstream to suppliers and customers. Through fundamentally remapping supply chain relationships and engaging in partnership spirit with key players, the top-down bottom-up approach to doing business becomes as obsolete as the items in the linear economy that we dispose of so rapidly. And with a direct link to what we might otherwise know as sustainable business practice, Nadya recommends stakeholder mapping as an essential tool in the Overfished Ocean Strategy toolkit: "It is surprising how few managers I meet that are able to think in terms of stakeholder needs and risks - even within their organization, let along outside of it."  

 

Third: Growth to Growth: When we think growth, we think more money, more production, more output, more sales. Theoretically, all this should lead to more profit. But in a linear economy, it also leads to more of the stuff we have to find places to trash. Overfished Ocean Strategy tells us we should be looking for a new kind of growth, one that is based on the value we generate not the items we manufacture. By shifting the paradigm of what constitutes value - services rather than physical products, meaning rather than mass production - companies can reframe their offering and meet society's needs in a different way. "Building relevance into everything a company makes is not an easy task" writes Nadya. "What matters is meaning. The good news is that meaning comes in different forms, and in unlimited supply".

 

Fourth: From Plan to Model: "Planning is overrated" (I am glad to hear this! I can't remember anything good ever coming from a business plan... :)) This fourth principle of the Overfished Ocean Strategy urges us to constantly adapt to the new reality. By the time we finish our plans, reality has changed. It's better to work on the basis of a constantly evolving model rather than a rigid prescriptive plan. Such a shift might, for example, urge you to get out there in the market with a less than complete product (according to plan) and take the plunge with something that can evolve as the market evaluates how to use and benefit from it. Don't plan. Plan to model.

 

Fifth: Department to Mind-Set: Here we go on a journey back to the ancient Sumerian civilization that developed the concept of division of labor in the roles citizens played in Sumerian cities. Current corporate life is pretty much the same.  But, according to Nadya, "resource intelligence is not an easy-to-follow principle. Line-to-circle thinking cannot depend on narrow functional brilliance.The Overfished Ocean Strategy does not fit into a small box or department". And then she adds: "The majority of companies I met got it wrong." Even "the sustainability department" gets knocked on the head here. (I agree with this to a point, thought I personally believe that there is and always should be a place for a sustainability specialist in every company, that acts and an integrator, an overseer of sustainable principles and practices, and a coordinator of sustainability communications, without replacing the individual accountability that all leaders, managers and employees must integrate these into their daily roles).

 

 

Overfished Ocean Strategy follows a simple consistent message that most of us won't be challenged to understand and even agree with. Each chapter is peppered with examples of practice from large corporations and small companies we've never heard of, and supplemented with guidance for how to make the shift. Relevant and sometimes humorous quotes from a range of thought-leaders add interest. The toolkit section at the end of each chapter provides valuable suggestions about where to look for additional help or inspiration. The book does not propose a quick fix. But it does provide several diverse examples of the Overfished Ocean Strategy being played out today in companies across the world. We can learn from all of them.

 

Nadya's earlier book, Embedded Sustainability, co-written with Chris Laszlo, was spectacular, and well worth the investment of time to read. This one is easier on the brain, faster and more entertaining, and plays to both our intellect and to our emotions. It's a book with charm that totally packs a punch. In both cases, it's a perfect reflection of Nadya Zhexembayeva. You have my strongest recommendation to read it and absorb its message. It won't take you too long, but it will leave a lasting change in your thinking.  

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: the Concise guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting  AND  Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices . Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm

Reality-Based Leadership

Reality-Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama, Restore Sanity to the Workplace and Turn Excuses Into Results

By: Cy Wakeman

ISBN: 978-0-470-61350-4

Publisher: Jossey Bass

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on March 8, 2012


Book Description

Recent polls show that 71 percent of workers think about quitting their jobs every day. That number would be shocking -- if people actually were quitting. Worse, they go to work, punching time clocks and collecting paychecks, while completely checked out emotionally.In Reality-Based Leadership, Cy Wakeman reveals how to be the kind of leader who changes the way people think about and perceive their circumstances-one who deals with the facts, clarifying roles, giving clear and direct feedback, and insisting that everyone do the same, without drama or defensiveness. Filled with dynamic examples, innovative tools, and diagnostic tests, this book shows you how to become a Reality-Based Leader, revealing how to:

• Uncover destructive thought patterns with yourself and others.
• Diffuse drama and lead the person in front of you.
• Stop managing and start leading, empowering others to focus on facts and think for themselves.

Commentary

Leadership accountability is one of the most underplayed themes in sustainability today. This shows up when heads of companies receive massive bonuses that are not directly tied to corporate performance. It shows up in the way employee performance is evaluated – using inputs (what people do) rather than outcomes (what results they deliver). It shows up in the fact that 31 percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs (and 17 percent are actively disengaged). It shows up in the fact that "71 percent of workers think about quitting their jobs every day." It shows up in the fact that far too many underperforming people remain far too long in organizations in which they are not positively contributing (and in some cases, they are actually causing damage).

Sustainable Reality-Based Leadership

Wakeman’s book was, perhaps, not written for the sustainability bookshelves. It was written for the Business Leadership, Management and Human Resources sections of business literature. However, its relevance for sustainability is compelling. Business sustainability requires leaders who deliver sustainable results through people. A business cannot be sustainable when only a third of the workforce is engaged or two thirds are thinking about how to get out. Here are some of the issues Wakeman lists as holding organizations back through lack of effective leadership feedback:

• Tenured employees whose skills are not current – leaders must raise the bar for performance and decide who makes the grade and who doesn’t.
• Employees at the top of their pay scale who no longer deliver top value – this happens when "leaders over-reward and under-coach employees over the course of their careers".
• Righteous top performers – "great employees whose performance is compromised by their righteousness and judgment of others."

Stop Managing, Start Leading

Effectively addressing these issues requires executives to stop managing and start leading. First of all, Wakeman writes, they have to "stop arguing with reality." This means relating to the facts of different situations at work, rather than the stories we tell ourselves or making judgments. An example might be when a coworker receives a promotion – you tell yourself that it's not fair, you should have received the promotion, you work harder than the coworker, you deserve it etc. This line of thought is judgmental and reflects "entitlement" thinking.

Instead, if "you embraced reality, you would note that a promotion occurred and do the appropriate thing in such a situation: congratulate your coworker, offer to help and resolve to learn how to deliver what the company values. You'd be high on professionalism, low on drama and investing in better relationships and mutual support in the future…You are arguing with reality whenever you judge your situation in terms of right or wrong instead of fearlessly confronting what is."

Reduce the Drama

By the same token, instead of trying to keep employees happy, leaders should focus on helping them understand reality, while empowering them to build their capabilities to deal with all situations that arise. If you want to evaluate the behavior of the people you lead, you can take Wakeman's Freak-Out Factor test, which will show you how your organization or team measures up in terms of level of drama in the workplace.

"Empowerment without Accountability is Chaos"

Restoring sanity to the workplace is about the adoption of leadership behaviors that drive accountability. The problem with employee engagement surveys, writes Cy Wakeman, is that they don't measure accountability. They are simply "invitations for people to critique their reality". All you end up with is a list of "what would need to change in order for your staff to grace you with their performance". However, one can never create a perfect working environment which meets everybody's aspirations. Engagement surveys are setting leadership up for failure. Instead, Cy Wakeman recommends two questions for employees:

1. What is the one thing you need to be more productive in your work?
2. What are the three things you are willing to do to get it?

Such an approach eliminates the "victim factor" and builds accountability, while enabling leaders to understand what they need to do to truly empower their teams.

Work with the Willing

In leadership, playing favorites is "fair game," Wakeman observes. "Too many leaders I work with have surrendered to the idea of mediocrity in order to never, ever offend anyone. Some leaders are so concerned with treating everyone the same that they are hesitant to give honest feedback". Leaders should spend most of their time coaching the employees who are delivering the best results. In reality, leaders spend "on average 80 extra hours per year thinking about and working with a single person who's in a state of chronic resistance". These people won't change and worse, the best employees will be dragged down by a negative office culture. The idea is to "compensate value, not effort" and give your focus to the employees who deliver. " You will have problem employees for as long as you continue to hire them and put up with them".

Everybody's Opinion Counts. Not.

Wakeman says your workplace is not a democracy. Ninety percent of the people in any organization at any given time are not key decision makers. Leaders need to set clear expectations and goals and focus the energy of their teams on working towards the desired results, rather than wasting hours complaining about why certain decisions are made. Offering constructive feedback is positive. Fighting against decisions that are not yours or your team's to make is futile.

Reality–Based Leadership contains practical, mindset-changing and entertaining advice, anecdotes, tools, and recommendations that anyone who leads people in organizations should read. Just as sustainability relies upon a realistic assessment of business impacts on people, society and the environment and the formulation of appropriate strategies to improve these impacts, so leaders must confront the realities of how they behave in organizations, how accountable they are and how they leverage reality-based tools to ensure their sustainable contribution.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Women and the New Business Leadership

Women and the New Business Leadership

By:  Peninah Thomson with Tom Lloyd

ISBN: 978-0-230-27154-8

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

This review first appeared on CSRWire.com on 10th January, 2012

 

 

Book Description

In Women and the New Business Leadership, the authors discuss the role women directors can play in the reform of corporate governance systems following recent financial, crises in leadership, governance and the economy. The financial and economic crisis and the public belief that failings in corporate governance were partly to blame for it have politicized the debate about how, and by whom, our companies should be run. There is a new belief within the political establishment that companies would be better run, and less likely to act recklessly and so put the financial system in jeopardy, if there were more women on their Boards. This is accompanied by an expectation that companies will respond appropriately when filling Board vacancies. Progress towards gender-diverse boards will be watched closely as a proxy for corporate governance reform and a sign that the lessons of the crisis are being learned.

Commentary

To quota or not to quota? That's a controversial question and one, which is central to the multiple themes discussed in Women and the New Business Leadership. How do we repurpose our corporations to ensure gender parity in the boardroom? Opinions on the issue are sharply divided. Some feel that quotas undermine the "meritocratic principle" and deny companies the right to appoint the best person for the job. Some see quotas the book acknowledges, "as heavy handed interventions in the market that are sure to inhibit the movement of directorial talent to its highest value deployment". Others argue that a reduction in market efficiency is a price worth paying to correct the gross under-representation of women on Boards—something that represents a far greater market inefficiency in the first place.

In recent years, several countries have adopted laws to advance representation of women. For example, in 2010, the French National Assembly adopted a law that imposed minimum quotas for the representation of women on French listed companies and public enterprises; Iceland adopted a similar quota law covering listed and privately owned companies; the Netherlands passed a law requiring 30 percent of Board seats and 30 percent of executive positions to be held by women, and new quota laws are being considered in several other countries. Wherever you are on the spectrum, what is clear is that the voluntary actions of corporations have not created gender balance or gender equality on company Boards.

The authors quote Harriet Harman who said, "The world would not have been plunged into recession if the most conspicuous bank casualty of the crisis has been Lehman 'Sisters'", claiming that the "more gender-diverse Board has become an important symbol of the new “post-crisis enlightenment." Women and the New Business Leadership is a review of these very challenges facing companies and their Boards with regard to the position of women and their absence in the global financial crisis of 2008. Perhaps, as the author goes on to suggest, appointing "more women to corporate Boards may be a more effective way to achieve the desired changes in behavior than trying to change the behavior of male directors?”

Nevertheless, it is important to note that the backdrop for the New Business Leadership message delivered in this book is the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, in which FTSE 100 Chairmen mentor senior executive women in other FTSE companies, with proven success. Author Peninah Thomson founded this program in 2003 and it became a separate not-for-profit organization called The Mentoring Foundation. This followed the November 2010 publication by the Financial Times of a special report called Women at the Top, which suggested that Europe lagged behind the U.S. and other countries in terms of the rise of women to CEO positions. "By November 2010, 15 of the mentored women have been appointed to the board of the FTSE company they worked for, nine were appointed as non-executive directors in a private sector company, seven were appointed as non-executive directors in not-for-profit organizations, eight were appointed to a public sector or government role, 15 were promoted in their own company and three were appointed CEO of a non-FTSE 100 company. A total of 57 "advancements" among a total of 62 mentees."

Finally, Women and the New Business Leadership explores the qualities that women bring to Boards, and the roles they play after appointment. Part of the advantage of the presence of women is the limiting effect on "groupthink", as well as the depoliticizing of Boardroom conversations. One mentee is quoted as saying: "Women tend to want to get everything on the table, because they believe it is only when all the sometimes painful facts are on the table that the truth of the matter can emerge."

Additionally, the presence of women in the Boardroom supports greater empathy, adaptability, and full and fair discussion, leading to more considered and higher quality decision-making processes.

Positioning women on boards as one of the urgent challenges of corporate governance in the post-crisis 21st century and Women and the New Business Leadership makes a powerful contribution to the body of knowledge and experience of what works and what hasn’t worked.

Peppered with profiles and quotations as well as input from a range of the FTSE 100 Chairmen participating in the mentoring program, this book offers a fascinating range of perspectives on women and leadership, practical directions that can make a difference and compelling arguments for more gender-diverse corporate leadership.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices   Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Dilemmas in Responsible Investment

Dilemmas in Responsible Investment

By: Celine Louche and Stephen Lyndberg

ISBN: 978-1-906093-51-8

Publisher: Greenleaf Publishing

This review first appeared on CSRwire.com on 21st December 2011

Book Description

Dilemmas in Responsible Investment examines the problems responsible investment (RI) practitioners face daily. It emphasises the importance of asking the right questions as well as getting the right answers; and the importance of process as well as product. The authors pay attention to the diversity of opinion and variety of approaches available. They also raise fundamental questions about the very purpose of investment and the responsibilities of investors, both economic and societal.

Although dilemmas in RI are not always easily resolved, Louche and Lydenberg believe that they are also a source of valuable and necessary debate about the appropriate role of corporations in society and the ability of the financial markets to appropriately serve the societies in which they operate. Such dilemmas provide a valuable framework for public debate and can encourage the emergence of innovative answers and approaches.

Commentary

Social Responsible Investment sounds easy enough.

Step 1: Negative screening, positive screening, decide and place your cash where it will do what you want it to do.

Step 2: Review the financials with set values in mind and pick your portfolio.

Step 3: Against sin stocks, for the environment, what could be simpler?

When you read Dilemmas in Responsible Investment, you realize that it isn’t as simple as it sounds. While written for responsible investment practitioners, the book has much to teach anyone with an interest in how money makes the sustainable world go round.

Dilemma 1: Conventional Money Manager & Responsible Investment

You are a conventional money manager and have become interested in the responsible investment market. You advertise your responsible investment services and four different types of potential clients approach you.

A single working mother, passionate about sustainability issues with a modest sum to invest; a wealthy investor, who is toying with the idea of directing his investments towards a more environmentally friendly portfolio; a CFO for a small church with an endowment to invest and a focus on fairness and societal justice; and the head of the board of trustees for a large pension fund, pressured by retirees not to invest in companies that manufacture landminess.

How do you prepare for these meetings? You can either start with one general presentation for all four clients or tailor your response to each one's specific needs right? Or you can target your presentations with a focus on ethical issues or sustainability issues, highlighting business risk/opportunity elements and, therefore, potential consequences for your clients' return on investment.

Dilemma One is a taster for the series of progressively more specific and detailed dilemmas or case studies (12 in total), which teach us the detailed considerations that come in to play when responsible investment is the subject. This first dilemma shows how each potential responsible investor comes with certain expectations, a greater or limited understanding of responsible investment options and the need for investment practitioners to develop customized investment products to accommodate different needs.

Dilemma One may not sound that complicated, however, so let’s consider some other dilemmas that come up:

1. A client has read about a manufacturer of electronic games in China which has abusive labor conditions, and wants you to sell the stock. However, the company in question denies the allegations and the facts are not altogether clear. Sell, buy time to investigate or tell your client not to believe everything he reads?

2. Ten years ago, you sold a large successful company that was criticized for poor labor conditions, poor environmental record, discrimination in the workplace and more. In the two years, the company has apparently turned things around and is now talking CSR. Do you continue to stay away or recommend your clients to invest?

3. You want to develop a Responsible Investment product that will have global appeal. However, responsible investment standards are different in several countries and many have conflicting demands or standards. How do you balance local values and practices in a single new investment product?

4. Your client, an environmental foundation, wants you to hold back on any investments, which include use of nanotechnology. She fears that use of nanotechnology can be potentially harmful with unpredictable consequences for human health and the environment. Scientists are divided on the issue – there is no clear cut case against nanotechnology. Do you immediately sell all nanotechnology-related stocks or do you try to persuade your client that it is premature to exit?

This is but a small selection of the interesting questions posed in the field of responsible investment.

In the book, Dilemmas in Responsible Investment, Louche and Lyndenberg dissect these issues from multiple angles and offer possibilities for action and the implications of each. A fascinating read, like I said before, for anyone even remotely interested in understanding the connections between sustainability, ethics, financial services and our global economy.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Fighting Poverty Together

Fighting Poverty Together: Rethinking Strategies for Business, Governments and Civil Society to Reduce Poverty

By Aneel Karnani

Published by Palgrave Macmillan.

ISBN: 978-0-230-10587-4.

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 24th October 2011

Description

Global poverty continues to be a major problem, one that has received much attention and resources for the last 60 years. The developed countries, international institutions such as the World Bank and United Nations, various aid agencies and civil society have contributed trillions of dollars to fight poverty; yet, there are more "poor" today than there were a decade ago. In this hard-hitting polemical, Karnani demonstrates what is wrong with today's approaches to reducing poverty. He proposes an eclectic approach to poverty reduction that emphasizes the need for business, government and civil society to partner together to create employment opportunities for the poor. He argues the only way they will ever be truly lifted out of poverty is to create jobs that provide financial support for entire local communities in developing nations.

Commentary

Aneel Karnani, who shot to fame following his Wall Street Journal article that created online uproar in 2010 by provocatively denouncing CSR, remains true to his convictions in this book, Fighting Poverty Together: Rethinking Strategies for Business, Governments and Civil Society to Reduce Poverty. We have all got it wrong, says Karnani.

What we have been doing so far has not lifted the poor out of poverty, in fact, much of what we have done so far, well-intentioned or otherwise, has helped the poor to stay poor. Karnani uses the first chapters in his book to take the shine out of microcredit (which Karnani describes as being "touted as one of the newest silver bullets for alleviating poverty") and the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) theory, which Karnani says is "riddled with unrealistic expectations and false hopes for both businesses and the poor, empirically false, logically flawed and morally problematic." Both Muhammad Yunus and C.K. Prahalad, two of the most admired figures of modern social entrepreneurship and business thinking, suffer a miserable fate in Karnani's book.

Grameen Bank: A Failed Business Model

First, Karnani explains, The Grameen Bank model has not worked. Loans provided to the poor through Grameen Bank have not lifted them out of poverty. On the contrary, since most of the money loaned is used to fund consumption, and not the growth of new business ventures, microcredit has succeeded only in postponing the bitter pill of having to pay up sooner or later with money the poor don't have. Most of the people who use Grameen services are not entrepreneurs; they just want to make a living. Even if they do have some financing, they lack the necessary skills to grow businesses. Also, microcredit interest rates are extremely high, sometimes reaching up to 100% interest, making the overall proposition unattractive as a tool for lifting poor people out of poverty, he argues.

Similarly, he goes on, the Bottom of the Pyramid theory is untenable. The BOP market is grossly overrated, estimated at only $0.44 trillion and not $13 trillion as identified by Prahalad. Additionally, explains Karnani, the total number of people living at the BOP is also grossly overestimated. So, in a small market with a much smaller critical mass of poor people – who have close to zero disposable income to purchase anything other than basic needs – the fortunes to be made at the BOP are fallacy.

A Libertarian Approach

Even Hindustan Lever, hailed as a hero for introducing Annapurna iodized salt, has not succeeded in penetrating mass markets. All this microcredit and BOP thinking creates what Karnani calls a libertarian approach, romanticizing the poor through a belief that creating the right kind of opportunities for the poor will turn them into significant value-conscious consumers, entrepreneurs and savvy leaders of a new kind of egalitarian society. Instead, these initiatives according to Karnani are simply an extension of capitalist greed in which companies look to profit from creating new markets targeting poor people, often immoral and exploitative.

Unilever's Fair and Lovely is another example quoted by Karnani: Unilever portrays Fair and Lovely, a skin whitening product for women, as supporting "choice and economic empowerment for women." Karnani says its simply sustaining racist prejudices (while making lot of profit for Unilever).

Karnani: Don’t Give the Poor Microcredit; Give Them Jobs

The key to lifting the poor out of poverty, according to Karnani, is to regard them as producers and not consumers. Give them jobs, he says. Create employment opportunities. This is the role of business.

Governments have a role to play, too. By facilitating business growth and job creation, they can ensure provision of basic services for the poor. Civil society and NGOs must ensure businesses and governments do the right thing and provide equitable opportunities without exploitation.

For example, many of the products targeted at the poor are "harmful" and not in the self-interest of the poor.

Companies repeatedly try to introduce new products that not based on a true understanding of the poor and their habits. Initiatives, such as Shokti Ladies, developed by Danone in partnership with Grameen Bank, to distribute yogurt to the rural poor with an army of trained local women micro-entrepreneurs, were not successfully commercialized. Unilever's program for Shakti women, trained to sell Unilever products in remote parts of India, did not meet its objectives, according to Karnani. Almost every initiative targeted at improving the employability of the poor has not succeeded.

Instead, business and governments must act on their primary role as creators of conditions in which equitable employment can thrive in any country.

In a free market economy, businesses create employment opportunities and NGOs support them by providing extra skills. This is all fine as long as markets thrive. When markets fail, according to Karnani, governments must regulate to protect the vulnerable poor. However, "Too much falls through the cracks between the markets and governments. It is the role of civil society to fill this gap." NGOs must act as catalysts for change as well as watchdogs to help markets regulate themselves effectively.

Karnani's arguments are presented clearly and supported by select data and some case studies. They are also very cleverly organized to support his preferred regulatory-driven approach, assigning very distinct, non-overlapping, boundaries between the roles of business, government and NGOs. He further embellishes by providing data, stories and anecdotes to prove the failure of voluntary corporate responsibility, even in the more enlightened areas of conscious capitalism such as microcredit and BOP products, claiming these approaches are subordinate to a profit-mindset and not really about the needs of the poor.

Alleviating Poverty: A New Blueprint

Aneel Karnani's blueprint is that governments should do their job, businesses should play along and NGOs should keep it all under control. It may just be, however, that while Karnani accuses many writers and public figures of "romanticizing the poor," he himself is indulging in some romanticizing about the role government can and will play.

Not every country can be Norway, highlighted as an example of a proactive, sustainability-minded government. And yet, the doubts about microcredit and BOP approach hold a certain truth. Data does show that the Millennium Development Goal of "eradicating extreme poverty and hunger" is still far from being achieved by 2015.

Fighting Poverty Together challenges current mainstream thinking and raises important questions about ways in which our developed societies can address the economic and moral issues related to poor people and how governments should act to correct market failures and inadequacies. The issues Karnani presents attack very specifically the "silver bullet solutions," which he maintains haven’t worked.

Over two billion people are still living on less than $2 per day. Karnani claims that the poor are misunderstood and that solutions to date have not met their true needs. Karnani's answer: create employment opportunities suited to the poor, ensure the poor have adequate access to public services, market beneficial goods to the poor at prices they can afford and use the power of government to protect the vulnerable poor. Appealing in its simplicity but, I feel, no less challenging.

Many questions remain as to how these solutions can be practically implemented on a scale large enough to make a difference.

Karnani makes it clear: "To significantly reduce poverty requires resources. Only the business sector and the government can provide resources on the scale needed." Perhaps the winds of change are blowing in Karnani's direction. The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street citizen uprisings have gained voice.

Time will tell whether these interventions create the kind of consensus Karnani advocates or if political consensus to eradicate poverty is just another romanticization of the will and capabilities of governments and business to act in the interests of anyone but themselves.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

The Green Executive

The Green Executive: Corporate Leadership in a Low Carbon Economy


By Gareth Kane

Published by Earthscan.

ISBN: 9781849713344

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 8th August 2011



Description

The Green Executive: Corporate Leadership in a Low Carbon Economy provides everything you need to know to develop a winning sustainability strategy and the leadership skills you require to implement that strategy.

The first part of the book explores the business case for action taking into consideration opportunities, threats of inaction, risks of action and the ethical dimension. This is followed by an overview of global environmental problems, including the big three: climate change, resource depletion and toxic materials, and global solutions – including eco-efficiency and industrial ecology. The third part translates these large-scale solutions into practical actions for a single business ranging from simple housekeeping measures through to innovative business models. The final, crucial part introduces the sustainability maturity model and provides an insight into how the highest level of that model can be achieved.

A range of personal views is provided in the form of 18 exclusive interviews with senior level executives from a wide range of sectors including retail, transport, manufacturing, logistics and the service sector, from small businesses through to international giants like Canon, BT, Marks & Spencer, National Express and GlaxoSmithKline.

Commentary

Having attended a fascinating webinar where Gareth Kane, author of The Green Executive: Corporate Leadership in a Low Carbon Economy, presented some of the key themes of his book, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. There are many books around that talk about what it means to be green, how to do it and what insights can be gained from all of them. What's so appealing about the way Gareth goes about presenting this subject is not only his skill in covering all aspects of green and sustainable business with clarity but also his very down-to-earth, pragmatic and plain language approach.

The Green Executive is structured logically: first comes the business case for becoming a green executive, next an explanation of what creating a sustainable economy actually means, then the actions required and finally the processes that need to support the actions. Each chapter closes with a helpful summary and is followed by an interview with a range of senior executives from a diverse group of companies. Each chapter is fairly short and almost can be taken as a standalone lesson in sustainability.

Rather than using this review to describe the details of how to become a green exec (yes, sometimes you just have to buy the book!), I thought I would share some of the insights from company execs. Here are my faves:

"The mainstream consumer wants performance and value and sustainability." Peter White, Procter and Gamble.

"Initially we wanted to develop a feel good factor among the staff." Julie Parr, Muckle LLP.

"The sustainability programme saved Northern Foods £2 million last financial year." Paula Widdowson, Northern Foods.

"We launched 31 new products during the recent recession." Nigel Stansfield, InterfaceFLOR.

"Give responsibility for sustainability to someone with a real passion for it." Sally Hancox, Gentoo Housing Group.

"The most important driver is to protect and enhance our brand." Richard Gillies, Marks and Spencer.

"Reputation has become a much more important part of the corporate structure than it was in the past." James Hagan, GlaxoSmithKline.

"The single most important quality in this game is perseverance." Roy Stanley, Tanfield Group.

"We've received many awards for reporting, diversity, and for specific sustainability projects." Chris Tuppen, formerly BT.

"Senior management commitment is essential." Roberta Barbieri, Diageo.

"Our next big challenge is water." Stephen Little, The Sage Gateshead.

"We have been instrumental in the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles." Martin Blake, Royal Mail.

"You have to start breaking all the old rules of business." Vic Morgan, Ethical Superstore.

"We see the low carbon future as a really exciting, positive future." Nick Coad, National Express Group.

"We have found it very useful to get an external set of eyes to come in and do an audit – this gave us an action plan of how to move forward." Glen Bennett, EAE Ltd.

"A big challenge is to motivate middle management. The top level management can be committed, the general staff can be committed but middle management have sales targets, costs targets and organization to run…." Surrie Everett-Pascoe, Canon Europe Ltd.

"Sustainability is fast becoming a reputational issue for our clients." Chris Jofeh, Arup.

The Green Executive is an essential book for those who want a leadership view of how to make a business sustainable, from how to address the risks to how to exploit the opportunities. The book is nicely populated with models, frameworks and ways to advance, and is pitched exactly right to make it interesting without getting bogged down in academic texts. Using tools that include Gareth Kane's Sustainability Maturity Model or his summary of new and emerging green markets, green executives may just become a mainstream feature of business.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach
By Mark S. Schwartz

Published by Broadview Press.

ISBN: 978-1-55111-294-7

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 25th July 2011




Description

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach. The term corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often used in the boardroom, classroom and political platform, but what does it really mean? Do corporations have ethical or philanthropic duties beyond their obligations to comply with the law? How does CSR relate to business ethics, stakeholder management, sustainability and corporate citizenship? Mark Schwartz provides a concise, cutting-edge introduction to the topic, analyzing many case studies with the help of his innovative "Three Domain Approach" to CSR. Corporate Social Responsibility also provides a chronology of landmark contributions to the concept of CSR and includes CSR resources on organizations, global codes and criteria, corporate CSR reports, and websites and blogs.

Commentary

Corporate Social Responsibility, for some of us, may have become a regular part of our approach to business, but the concept is still one that invokes debate about its real meaning, boundaries and scope. Even though we think we are clear about the underlying ethical foundations of CSR, sometimes a book comes along which raises questions that reinforce the fact there is no one right answer, no mathematical formula for ethics and no option but to go back to basics and rethink our underlying assumptions and values. CSR, at its root, is driven by ethical considerations as much as by strategic business thinking. Ethics may mean different things to different people but the need to recognize an ethical question and develop an approach to address it intelligently is common to all of us in business and, indeed, life. This is the contribution of Mark Schwartz' book, Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach. Mark takes us back to first base and gives us a thorough grounding in the different aspects of the ethics debate, which should be part of the toolkit for all students of business ethics or managers of ethical businesses.

Mark Schwartz defines seven "moral standards" that can be used to analyze and guide the moral behavior of firms: Core Ethical Values, including trustworthiness, caring, responsibility and citizenship; Relativism; Egoism; Utilitarianism; Kantianism; Moral Rights; and, Justice/Fairness. If you don't know what differentiates each one of these, well, neither did I, so Mark's thorough explanation of each one was enlightening.

The heart of the book, however, is a grand debate between Milton Friedman and The Body Shop positions on a range of CSR-related case studies. Friedman and The Body Shop represent the extreme ends of the spectrum of business behavior and the conflict between profit and purpose. After a detailed analysis of both approaches, the author uses a set of case studies as the backdrop of an examination of the possible responses according to Friedman or The Body Shop. For example, how would Friedman have responded in the Ford Pinto case in which a design defect was potentially life threatening but a recall expensive? Would Friedman have advised pursuing profits and continuing sales without disclosure of the defect because the assessment was that even if an issue arose, it would be less costly to the company than the profit generated by maintaining sales? On the other hand, how would Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, have responded in the Ford Pinto case? Is there any doubt at all The Body Shop would have recalled all cars known to be faulty? (Ford went the Friedman route and it wasn’t until 27 people had died and some years after the issue arose internally that a recall became unavoidable.)

Similar treatment is afforded to other cases studies on the Union Carbide Bhopal disaster, the Johnson and Johnson Tylenol contamination and the river blindness story and Merck, the pharmaceutical company. None of these cases are new to most of us, I suspect, but Mark Schwartz' treatment of them is fascinating and even somewhat entertaining.

Finally, Schwartz closes with his proposal for a new analytical tool for understanding the behavior of corporations. He calls this the Three Domain Model and it has three core parts: economic, legal and ethical (not people, profit and planet). This model is influenced strongly by Archie Carroll's Pyramid of CSR, but modified by Schwartz (for example, it excludes philanthropy, which, in the author's view, does not constitute a responsibility but more a discretionary activity). This is an interesting approach that could help students of CSR and managers in business understand and even guide motivations for decision making and the impacts of decisions on society and the environment.

Designed for use in the study of ethics and CSR rather than as a general interest book on ethics, Mark Schwartz provides an informative, creative and comprehensive discussion of business ethics from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. Oh, and if you don't know your Kantianism from your Utilitarianism, go read this book!

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Responsible Management in Asia

Responsible Management in Asia: Perspectives on CSR

Edited by Geoffrey Williams

Published by Macmillan Publishers Limited.

ISBN: 978-0-230-25241-7

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 25th July 2011

Description

Responsible Management in Asia: Perspectives on CSR covers the history and development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Asia and how it has helped to create pathways to social and environmental sustainability across the region. Drawing on case studies from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere, leading specialists describe the emergence of CSR from philanthropy and charity to a uniquely Asian form of responsible management. Community-based partnerships between business and civil society are discussed from a practical, Asian perspective. Decent work programmes through social partnerships and concrete action programmes at the factory level offer new insights into workplace management.

Commentary

Whether CSR is the same world-over or differs substantially from country to country and culture to culture is an important question and one which I have often pondered. It seems to me that basic universal true-north values are pretty much the same anywhere, but ethical standards definitely differ based on local cultural norms, and socio-economic and business circumstances in a particular country (and at a particular time) may dictate a set of material issues which provide quite a unique setting for the advancement of CSR. So it was with relish that I started reading a compilation of perspectives of CSR in Asia, edited by Geoffrey Williams, a senior figure in the CSR world in Asian circles.

The book did not disappoint. Whilst it may not be an exhaustive account of CSR in such a wide range of countries that make up the Asian continent, it certainly offers often fascinating perspectives on a wide range of issues including human rights, public policy approaches, social partnerships, responsible tourism, green building, socially responsible investment and sustainability reporting from an Asian standpoint. To what extent must CSR strategy be guided by a local setting? This was the question in my mind when I turned to Geoffrey Williams' introduction to this book, which refers to "a strong emergence of a separate Asian dimension to CSR, with several key drivers which differ from those in the West."

The compilation includes works from a range of credible and experienced authors from business, not-for profit and academic sectors, each providing insights or research-based knowledge on one or other aspects of CSR in one or other Asian country. The book is peppered with case studies from local businesses, many of which, not knowing the Asian market well, I had never heard of before, which is refreshing. (Most CSR books lead with case studies from the large MNE's that we all know and with stories that we have almost always already heard.)

Some of the highlights for me included:

A deep-dive into CSR practices in Bangladesh which concludes that CSR is played out primarily in the form of discretionary responsibilities, not deriving from legal or ethical pressures, but voluntary contributions to social causes such as health, education, female empowerment, disability etc. In other words, CSR has not reached the level of core business strategy but remains as separate social projects in the communities in which businesses operate, despite the fact that "many business organizations in Bangladesh are not conducting their business in a socially responsible way."

The role of civil society in Asia offers several interesting NGO stories such as Magic Bus in India and its "sport for development program for children; Dasra, India, a catalyst for social change ; Kehati Biodiversity Foundation in Indonesia; Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation in the Philippines and Tenaganita in Malaysia, operating to support human and migrant rights. The sense is that the time is right for the rapid advance of NGO influence in Asian countries.

The development of the Factory Improvement Program and ILO training in Vietnam which has led to over 50% of factories undergoing major changes in their operation and over 20% going through transformative change. However, the call for greater regulation to advance change in a more broadscale way is still needed.

The case of Hero supermarket in Indonesia which used CSR-related themes to resolve a labor dispute in a collective bargaining approach with the local union. Real economic business issues were resolved resulting in a win-win for all.

A good overview of the issues for responsible tourism, in particular child prostitution and gender equality within the industry. A real opportunity for businesses in Asia to add real social value through ethical practices and capitalize on a growing industry.

An interesting overview of climate change risk implications discussing green energy development and strategies for Asian companies, summarizing the diverse targets set by 10 Asian countries and the implications of effective carbon management over the next 15 years.

A study of Asian financial institutions' approach to green building based on qualitative research among 8 members of the Banking Association of Hong Kong. The research shows that all participating institutions have a strong commitment to CSR and see CSR as integral to doing business.

Finally, in answer to my question: "To what extent must CSR strategy be guided by a local setting?"; Geoffrey Williams pulls it all together, concluding that "CSR in Asia is not the same as it is in the West." A key recommendation by the author is that Western companies cannot use a "one-size-fits-all" approach to CSR base on Western premises and that companies should engage more deeply to understand their new Asian stakeholders. Responsible Management in Asia serves to highlight some of those areas in which differences may be found that might inform Western companies expanding into Asia. The book does not provide a checklist of "How to do CSR in Asia" but certainly provides some enlightening insights. Next time in am in China, Malaysia or Bangladesh or the Philippines, I will certainly feel more informed.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

The Whistleblower

The Whistleblower - Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice

By Kathryn Bolkovac and Cari Lynn

Published by Palgrave Macmillan

ISBN: 978-0-230-10802-8

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 31st May, 2011

Description

When Nebraska police officer and divorced mother of three Kathryn Bolkovac saw a recruiting announcement for private military contractor DynCorp International, she applied and was hired. Good money, world travel, and the chance to help rebuild a war-torn country sounded like the perfect job. She was soon shipped to Bosnia, where DynCorp had been contracted to support the UN peacekeeping mission. She was assigned as a human rights investigator, heading the gender affairs unit. The lack of proper training provided to her sounded an alarm bell, but once she arrived in Sarajevo, she found out that things were a lot worse than she imagined. At great risk to herself, Kathy began to unravel the ugly truth about officers involved in human trafficking and forced prostitution, and their connections to private mercenary contractors, the UN, and the U.S. State Department. Soon, she was demoted, then fired. Feeling threatened with bodily harm, she fled the country, bringing the incriminating documents with her. Thanks to the evidence she had collected, Kathy won a lawsuit against DynCorp, finally exposing what they had done. Here, Kathy warns of the inherent danger when we contract out our wars and that it is our responsibility to protect the weak and disenfranchised in times of peace. Both gripping and inspiring, this amazing true story of courage and honour in the face of insurmountable odds shows that just one voice can make a difference.

Commentary

Now an award-winning movie taglined "a drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal," The Whistleblower is much more than that. It's an exposure of the worst kind of corruption, human rights abuse, vile self-interest, lies, fabrications and corporate cover-ups present at the intersection of the United Nations, the U.S. Government and military contractors who exploit tax-payers' money by complying with human rights crimes in the name of peace. It is also the compelling story of a woman who refused to remain silent about these abuses in the face of significant personal danger. It's a lesson for everyone involved in allocation of national budgets and procurement about the controls necessary to administer contractors and the way they fulfill their responsibilities. It's also a drama, a love-story, an action-packed thriller and a fascinating read. For anyone involved in corporate responsibility, it's a case study about ethics, human rights and the need to protect those who speak out about corrupt practices in business. Finally, it's a wake-up call to shake all those in positions of authority out of complacency and complicity and urge them to clean up the system.

Kathy Bolkovac's story begins when she applies for a role in the International Police Task Force (ITPF) in Bosnia in 1998. The organization providing these "rent-a-cop" services is DynCorp International, "a global government services provider in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives, delivering support solutions for defense, diplomacy, and international development." In this case, the contract was in the framework of the UN mandated IPTF in Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly Yugoslavia) following the Serbian attack on Sarajevo and the ensuing war for which Slobodan Milosevic was later charged with genocide. The ITPF is composed of UN member countries' national police force representatives. The U.S., not having a national police force, would play its role through providing the services of private contractors. Enter Dyncorp and their recruitment drive, which propelled Kathy Bolkovac to a role as a Human Rights Investigator.

It doesn't take the smart, conscientious and rather outspoken Kathy Bolkovac long to realized that all is not kosher in Sarajevo. She quickly starts to fight for the protection of female victims of domestic violence, winning a breakthrough court ruling which would serve as a base to advance programs addressing violence against women in the region, while unraveling the grim details of the involvement of DynCorp personnel in the trafficking of young girls across East European borders, detention of women for prostitution, visits to brothels and holding women captive for all of the above. After facing many setbacks (disappearing files, delaying tactics, intimidation, etc.) in trying to bring these issues to light, in 2000, Kathy sent a desperate email to 50 personnel involved in the Bosnia mission, entitled "don't read this if you have a weak stomach or a guilty conscience." The email detailed the difference between prostitutes and trafficking victims and the stages of how women end up as prostitutes and sexual slaves, imploring all involved in the mission to ensure they serve and protect people rather than playing a role in facilitating and engaging in human abuses and crime. Her boss immediately informed her that her email was "not a good idea" and Kathy was subsequently dismissed, ostensibly for falsification of work records, a claim which was entirely fabricated.

Bravely battling against all the corporate muscle DynCorp could muster, Kathy had her day in court (taking home a settlement of a mere $175,000) winning her case for unfair dismissal while exposing the illegal, unethical and irresponsible practices of DynCorp International and their poorly trained, inadequately managed and ineffectively deployed personnel. Kathy ends her account of her own story by making some recommendations on policies for police officers recruited for international missions. Kathy writes: "I have spent many sleepless nights… wondering why these blatantly illegal behaviors were simply allowed to be swept under the rug. And yet reports of immoral and illegal behavior among DynCorp's civilian peacekeepers …continue to make front page news with alarming regularity." You can get a sense of this from Corpwatch's Dyncorp page.

Beyond the personal story of heroine Kathy Bolkovac and the horrors of how she was treated for simply doing her job, as well as anger about the plight of defenseless women caught up in immoral exploitation, this book is an eye-opener about the inner workings of a highly profitable industry which should be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of protecting human rights, revealing it to be a hotbed of the worst kind of intrigue, politics and abuse. Questions about the responsibility of the U.S. government in monitoring the activities of its contracted service providers as well as the integrity of this multi-billion dollar corporation remain in your mind. Despite DynCorp's Code of Ethics, complete with Q and A's, The Whistleblower leaves you with a sense of despair that so much is yet to be done while few people are prepared to speak out and be accountable. The Whistleblower is a sobering, important read with all the romance, tension and intrigue of a bestseller title in the crime fiction category. Regrettably, this one is actually true. Oh, and I can't wait to see the movie.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

The HIP Investor

The HIP Investor :  Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World

By R. Paul Herman

Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd

ISBN: 978-0-470-57521-3

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 6th May, 2011

Description

In The HIP Investor: Make Bigger Profits by Building a Better World, R. Paul Herman - creator of the HIP methodology and a leading investment manager - introduces a systematic approach for investors that is designed for more attractive profits and positive human, social, and environmental impact. Based on comprehensive research of the S&P 500, HIP assesses and values measurable results over well-intentioned policies and philosophies, and shows how higher-performing companies can deliver both human impact and profit for shareholders. This HIP approach is shown to outperform the financial returns of the S&P benchmark in both up and down markets.

Written for investors of all types and their financial advisors, this detailed guide will help you construct a portfolio of firms that are boosting their bottom line by meeting five core human needs. Leading firms benefit customers, engage employees, and deliver sustainable, profitable growth for their investors through innovative products, measures, and decision making. Each chapter reveals a fundamentally strong analytical approach enriched with real-world case studies that show you how your portfolio can capture substantial financial returns and generate positive impact while also mitigating risks.

Commentary

Whether you are an investor or not, The HIP Investor will teach you a lot about how businesses can make profit while having a positive impact on society and environment. The Hip Investor is not a theoretical discussion. It's a highly practical, well-researched, coherent encyclopedic guide, full of examples of how businesses have leveraged their capabilities to create better business and a better world. The proof is that the HIP (human impact and profit) investment portfolio outperforms multiple benchmarks , for example, the HIP 100 has done 4 percent better than the S&P 100 every year between mid-2004 and 2009.

The HIP methodology was masterminded in 2004 by R. Paul Herman, after he gained a finance degree at Wharton and worked at McKinsey & Co. on incentive regulation in the energy sector and advised Fortune 500 corporate clients on investments. The HIP method identifies five core dimensions of the way companies drive financial, social and environmental value through innovating new products that improve the quality of life, operating with higher environmental efficiency and effectively managing their social impacts. An analysis of the extent to which a company embraces the concepts and practices in these five dimensions can produce a HIP Scorecard with over 20 indicators whose value indicate positive results for society, thereby providing a useful tool for investors, because, "typically, the better the human impact performance, the bigger the profits". The HIP methodology overlap to a large degree with other leading rankings of corporate responsibility or sustainability practices, though it also offers a fresh way of looking at companies and their impacts, providing specific quantifiable metrics in each of the five HIP dimensions.

The five core dimensions of the HIP methodology are:

1.Health: refers to both physical and mental well-being, including quality of life.

2.Wealth: encompasses ways for people to earn more, save more or better secure their financial future.

3.Earth: covers the water we drink, the air we breathe and the overall ecosystem balance.

4.Equality: seeks fair representation, whether classified by gender, ethnicity or income class.

5.Trust: includes open, transparent information and ethical and respectful behavior.

The HIP investor builds an investment portfolio using data collated and analyzed in these five categories to produce an overall performance scorecard, showing how HIP a company is, and how the company's HIPness stacks up against other companies in the same sector or in general.

The author has not been content to simply explain the methodology. The HIP Investor is one of the most extensive and detailed catalogs of corporate sustainability-related practices as I have read in the past few years. Examples abound from almost every company you can think of, from the leaders to the laggards, culminating in a persuasive argument which substantiates the need for a HIP mindset, HIP practices, HIP analysis and HIP investing. Additionally, the author presents a set of sector "face- offs" comparing the HIP scores of giants such as PepsiCo / Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble / Colgate-Palmolive, Dow / DuPont, Raytheon / Lockheed Martin, Verizon / Sprint, J.P. Morgan Chase / Bank of America, McDonald's / Starbucks, Microsoft / Apple, Walmart / Target and Chevron / ExxonMobil, which have also been published on Fastcompany.com.

In the final sections of the book, the author teaches potential investors how to build a HIP investment portfolio, maintaining that the HIP approach leads to more appropriate valuations than sector-weighted approaches as adopted by S&P 500 and others and providing insight on a wide range of investment options. Finally, R. Paul Herman ends up with his optimistic view that a HIP world is possible and that investors have the power to create it and reap the rewards, both in financial and non-financial terms. A HIP world is one where corporations compete in areas which add positive social and environmental impact. With $175 trillion in global financial assets available to investors, Herman maintains that there is certainly a sufficient supply of capital to make a HIP difference.

R. Paul Herman makes a convincing argument for HIP. Understanding companies from a perspective of the three core HIP investor questions (How HIP are the company's products? How is the company measuring its human, social and environmental impact? How do existing management practices reflect a HIP approach?) presents a novel way of evaluating companies' long-term sustainability and predicting their long-term financial performance. Using the 5 core HIP scorecard factors to assess companies provides a tangible framework for investment decision making. Even if you are not an investor, you are probably a customer, an employee, a supplier or even a community member and the HIP approach can help you decide whether to engage with a company in one way or another. I guess that to write a book about HIP investment, you have to be pretty HIP yourself, so I find myself compelled to round of this review with three cheers - HIP HIP Hurray - for the highly HIP R. Paul Herman and The HIP Investor.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en