Change for Good
An Action-Oriented Approach for Businesses to Benefit from Solving the World's Most Urgent Social Problems
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
An action-oriented approach for businesses to solve the world’s most urgent social problems — and benefit from doing so.
More than a year into a global pandemic, profit and shareholder value are no longer the primary metric of business success. Customers, shareholders, and communities are demanding that companies do good, do more, and do better. In Change for Good, Paul Klein shows how companies must move beyond what he calls “corporate social responsibility light” and demonstrate how they can help solve social problems that have been defined as UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Change for Good is a new system for making social change through business that reflects Paul’s experience over the last 35 years. One of the core principles of Change for Good is including people with lived experience of social problems in identifying promising solutions and collaborating to bring these solutions to life. This methodology can create impactful and sustainable social change in society in ways that aren’t possible when executives make decisions in their boardrooms that are intended to impact the lives of vulnerable people.
Through personal experiences, case studies, and practical tools, Change for Good will inspire readers and their organizations to make the shift from a passive social responsibility to taking action to help solve the world’s most pressing social problems.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Klein—the founder of Impakt, a company that advises businesses on ways to accomplish social change—debuts with an earnest but familiar treatise on why businesses should value social change and equity as highly as profit. Inspired by the business-for-social-change efforts of Ben & Jerry's and The Body Shop, Klein takes a look at how in the 1990s businesses "began considering" strategies to support their communities, which grew beyond local involvement and into an interest in supporting society at large by the 2000s. Klein then introduces his "change for good" system, a framework for businesses to help address social problems including gender equality, poverty, and access to quality education. He outlines case studies—such as Nestlé's efforts to help children "lead healthier lives" and PepsiCo's initiative to "listen to what matters to its employees"—and encourages companies to implement employee outreach efforts and focus on empathy. He urges, too, that companies avoid doing "corporate social responsibility light," or the bare minimum, such as empty Black Lives Matter statements from organizations without a single Black board member or leader. Klein is sincere and impassioned, but his guidance is nearly identical to that found in any number of recent books on the topic. There isn't enough here to make this stand out in a very crowded field.
