Editor’s comment: The soft side of business is the most difficult for most people, including me. And yet, the two most successful companies I’ve been involved in demonstrated exactly what Lenioni describes in his book , The Advantage. He writes like a consultant, which is annoying at times, and yet the book’s point is crystal clear and should be read by every organizational leader, no matter what type of business they are involved in.
Editor’s note: Okay, it’s soupy, but I selected it because I played and sang it to my wife, Alice, some 37 years ago at our wedding. Through a lot of thick and a lot of thin, she’s still my best friend.
Editor’s Note: If you notice, all of this month’s reference material comes from the 10th anniversary issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review (www.ssireview.org) from whom I have learned a lot. If your interest is keen on social innovations, I recommend you subscribe and support their efforts. This article from Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund is essentially the “dream come true” I began pursuing in 2005, when my favorite MBA professor, Jay Dial, said “Government and NGOs are doing the best they can to solve social problems but need business to take their appropriate social responsibility in order to succeed long term”. Amen, Jay, and amen Jacqueline for describing Acumen and other’s progress the last ten years.
The Business of Good serves those who serve the poor.
Editor’s Note: The founding chair of Big Society Capital explains how the UK’s social investment bank will harness entrepreneurship and capital to solve societal problems.
Editor’s Note: The story of three friends from Galveston, Texas, seems less a tribute to upward mobility than a study of obstacles in an age of economic inequality. Each showed the ability to do college work, even excel at it. With little guidance from family or school officials, college became a leap that they braved without a safety net. Their story resonates as our foundation’s vision is that all low-income and/or first-generation students will have a caring and committed mentor to help get them get to and through college.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Editor’s Note: The Bond by the “Three Doctors,” is a continuation of their first book, The Pact. In The Pact, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt tell how they became friends in high school and promised to graduate from college to become doctors. The Bond, co-written by our friend Margaret Bernstein of the Plain Dealer, goes even further into their friendship and ways that they have set out to mentor other children who are growing up in similar homes. Their story resonates as our foundation’s vision is that all low-income and/or first-generation students will have a caring and committed mentor to help get them get to and through college.
Editor’s Note: After a difficult day with a delusional friend I took a run and this song came on my iPhone. As I listened to the words, I came to realize it was not my job to make him tell the truth; rather, I only need to know my own truth.
