Books with tag: business

A visionary business leader tells of how he built a successful business while working to save the planet — and how you can, too.

Gary Hirshberg, the CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt. describes how he's done well by doing good: building a $300 million–per-year business based on environmental principles and practices. And he explains how any company can do the same: working to save th ...

A visionary business leader tells of how he built a successful business while working to save the planet — and how you can, too.

Gary Hirshberg, the CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm Yogurt. describes how he's done well by doing good: building a $300 million–per-year business based on environmental principles and practices. And he explains how any company can do the same: working to save the planet while succeeding in the marketplace. In fact, Hirshberg makes a persuasive case — drawing on inspiring real-world examples from businesses like Patagonia, Timberland, Whole Foods and Newman's Own — that going green is a smart business strategy in the long run, allowing a company to cut down on trash and packaging, convert waste to energy, and build enduring relationships with suppliers and customers alike.

Stirring It Up is full of practical information and advice and fun anecdotes from Hirshberg's own experience (like how a power outage left them milking cows by hand or how a fire in a dumpster revealed the need for better packaging). It also details numerous hands-on grassroots marketing strategies, such as using the yogurt lids for messages about the environment and giving out samples to thank subway commuters for using public transit, and explains how these approaches play much better with consumers than traditional advertising.

Stirring It Up is an inspiring how-I-did-it and an invaluable how-to guide from a visionary businessman who has proved that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.

One of the nation's leading liberal thinkers, Robert Kuttner traces the decline of the Keynesian “managed capitalism” that helped drive the postwar boom and the emergence of the American middle class. Over the last three decades, the dismantling of New Deal–era institutions and financial regulations have left the middle and working class open to the risks, uncertainty and widening inequality in ...

One of the nation's leading liberal thinkers, Robert Kuttner traces the decline of the Keynesian “managed capitalism” that helped drive the postwar boom and the emergence of the American middle class. Over the last three decades, the dismantling of New Deal–era institutions and financial regulations have left the middle and working class open to the risks, uncertainty and widening inequality inherent to a market-based economy, while even the biggest and most successful corporations leave themselves open to financial collapse.

In an analysis of the economic and political factors leading to the Great Depression, Kuttner finds troubling parallels with the current distribution of wealth and political influence in America. He argues convincingly that these trends have weakened the American economy and our social fabric: iPods may be getting cheaper, but try paying for a college education, a home or health care on a middle-class salary.

The Squandering of America is a powerful argument in favor of a return to government and regulatory policies that protect the public interest and aim to create a shared prosperity. Kuttner calls for more attention to a “politics of excluded alternatives” that will widen the range of options available to citizens and elected leaders. For progressives in search of a deeper understanding of how the American economy reached such a precarious state and how we can once again strive for stability and equality, this book is essential reading.

A dazzling exposé of corporate global rule and the forces opposing it.

Naomi Klein's classic work combines on-the-ground reporting with original analysis in a trailblazing book that's as much an handbook for activists as an inspired work of cultural criticism.

No Logo describes the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing, which has evolved t ...

A dazzling exposé of corporate global rule and the forces opposing it.

Naomi Klein's classic work combines on-the-ground reporting with original analysis in a trailblazing book that's as much an handbook for activists as an inspired work of cultural criticism.

No Logo describes the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing, which has evolved to become a major shaper of culture, transforming corporations from producers of products to "branders," trafficking in dreams, aspirations and identities — in a word, "lifestyles" (think Apple, Gap, Nike, Starbucks, et al). They penetrate all aspects of life and dominate the airwaves, physical space and cyberspace. They exert "talismanic power," over young people especially, even as they exploit workers young and old in the United States and abroad.

In the second half of the book Klein describes the growing activist backlash against corporate manipulation, a wave of resistance that takes many forms and is expressed in the arts, through the courts, in politics and, of course, on the streets. She sets this rebellion in detailed economic and cultural perspective and shows how activists turn the brand bullies' weapons (technology, imagery, media) back against them — in the service of self-determination, community and genuine freedom.

A visionary argument that businesses can do right by the environment while doing well for themselves

"Hawken ... and ... the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank, have put together an ambitious, visionary monster of a book. … The authors have two related goals: first, to show the vast array of ecologically smart options available to businesses; second, to argue th ...

A visionary argument that businesses can do right by the environment while doing well for themselves

"Hawken ... and ... the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank, have put together an ambitious, visionary monster of a book. … The authors have two related goals: first, to show the vast array of ecologically smart options available to businesses; second, to argue that it is possible for society and industry to adopt them. Hawken and the Lovinses acknowledge such barriers as the high initial costs of some techniques, lack of knowledge of alternatives, entrenched ways of thinking and other cultural factors. In looking at options for transportation (including the development of ultralight, electricity-powered automobiles), energy use, building design, and waste reduction and disposal, the book's reach is phenomenal. It belongs to the galvanizing tradition of Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet and Stewart Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog. Whether all that the authors have organized and presented so earnestly here can be assimilated and acted on by the people who run the world is open to question. But readers with a capacity for judicious browsing and grazing can surely learn enough in these pages to apply well-reasoned pressure." (Publishers Weekly)

From one of America's greatest economic and political thinkers, a breakthrough book on the clash between capitalism and democracy.

Mid-20th-century capitalism has turned into global capitalism, and global capitalism — turbocharged, Web-based and able to find and make almost anything just about anywhere — has turned into supercapitalism. But as Robert B. Reich makes clear in this ey ...

From one of America's greatest economic and political thinkers, a breakthrough book on the clash between capitalism and democracy.

Mid-20th-century capitalism has turned into global capitalism, and global capitalism — turbocharged, Web-based and able to find and make almost anything just about anywhere — has turned into supercapitalism. But as Robert B. Reich makes clear in this eye-opening book, while supercapitalism is working wonderfully well to enlarge the economic pie, democracy — charged with caring for all citizens — is becoming less and less effective under its influence.

Reich explains how widening inequalities of income and wealth, heightened job insecurity and the spreading effects of global warming are the logical outcomes of supercapitalism. He shows us why companies, fighting harder than ever to maintain their competitive positions, have become even more deeply involved in politics and how average citizens, seeking great deals and invested in the stock market to an unprecedented degree, are increasingly loath to stand by their values if it means biting the hands that feed them. He makes clear how the tools traditionally used to temper America's societal problems — fair taxation, well-funded public education, trade unions — have withered as supercapitalism has burgeoned.

Reich sets out a clear course to a vibrant capitalism and a concurrent, equally vibrant democracy. He argues forcefully that the spheres of business and politics must be kept distinct. He callsfor an end to the legal fiction that corporations are citizens, as well as the illusion that corporations can be ""socially responsible"" until laws define social needs. Reich explains why we must stop treating companies as if they were people—and must therefore abolish the corporate income tax and levy it on shareholders instead, hold individuals rather than corporations guilty of criminal conduct, and not expect companies to be ""patriotic."" For, as Reich says, only people can be citizens, and only citizens should be allowed to participate in democratic decision making.