University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Radical Business
Book

Radical Business

How to Transform Your Organization in the Age of Global Crisis

John A. Davis
Emerald Publishing Limited, 2022
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Stakeholders increasingly demand that businesses make meaningful contributions to the improvement of the world. As consultant and professor John A. Davis explains, managing for meaning is harder than managing for spreadsheets. He provides an encouraging analysis of today’s radically new business leadership requirements. Drawing on research and his experience as a business leader and scholar, Davis presents his case in plain, persuasive language. He offers examples from various industries and cultures to illustrate his advice for managing your organization’s quest for change and meaning.

Summary

Business as usual cannot solve today’s problems.

Making money brings corporate success, but earning profits alone is no longer sufficient in today’s changing, more responsible marketplace.Bravely facing change and incorporating meaning into your corporate processes can keep your company competitive against ever-increasing responsive, adaptive competitors. 

Technology company Infosys, for example, is building an educational infrastructure to make training available to people who lack access to higher education, but need new skills to address the problems confronting society. Infosys President Ravi Kumar emphasizes corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Your organization can’t fake distinction.

If you try to frame your business as socially responsible without taking real actions which back that story, you will fail. For example, a fashion company wanted to apply for a “Most Promising Brand” award. It engaged a consultant, not to help it meet the award’s requirements, but to favorably spin its current practices. The consultant declined that engagement. Similarly, Volkswagen created its own fiasco...

About the Author

Business school professor John A. Davis chairs Brand New View, a global consultancy. He is a frequent keynote speaker and the author of numerous books on branding, marketing, sports and strategy, including Sports Marketing: Creating Long Term Value and Measuring Marketing: 100 Key Metrics Every Marketer Needs.

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