About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherChelsea Green Publishing

ISBN-101933392193

ISBN-139781933392196

eBay Product ID (ePID)51704775

Product Key Features

Book TitleCompany We Keep : Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place

Number of Pages313 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicLife Sciences / Ecology, Entrepreneurship, Small Business

Publication Year2007

GenreScience, Business & Economics

AuthorJohn Abrams, William Greider

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight16.5 Oz

Item Length8.7 in

Item Width5.8 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

TitleLeadingThe

ReviewsSeventh Generation Vol 6 No. 11 September 2005 Required Reading: "Building a Business Foundation for a Brighter Future" It's interesting that in this day and age, so many companies continue to balk at the idea of adopting a genuine model of true social and environmental responsibility. Aside from the fact that the need for this kind of positive change has long since been past the point of obvious, it's just the right thing to do from both a moral and an economic perspective. Socially responsible business simply makes all kinds of common sense. A new book shows us how people can make it happen but why they should. Like virtually all titles in its category, The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place , by John Abrams, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2005 makes a case for strong workplace values and shows how we can ultimately profit from such a strategy. But unlike most of its fellow volumes, this book is also a personal tale, one liberally sprinkled with wisdom about ideas small and large that the author has accumulated during his 30+ year journey as founder of the South Mountain Company, a Martha's Vineyard design and building firm. Through a commitment to community entrepreneurship, Abrams has seen the company grow and prosper. At the same time, he's experimented with a revolutionary employee ownership model that challenges the traditional business model of unchecked growth. While The Company We Keep tells the personal success story of this revolutionary company, that's just the beginning of all the places it goes. Written in a down-to-earth conversational voice and laced with insightful side trips that offer additional lessons, Abrams examines the role business can and should play in creating and sustaining healthy communities. He sets down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that works. In the words of the author, "This is a book about a different way of doing business in today's world, a way based on workplace democracy, shared ownership, staying small, building community, making a commitment to place, and long term thinking." Rejecting the myth that short-term profits are the only indicator of business health and wealth, Abrams offers eight cornerstone principles. He shows how building a company upon these principals to serve the needs of employees inside, the community outside, and the environment both depend upon can create a business that's successful by traditional and nontraditional measures alike. To that end his book is part entrepreneurial business plan, part guide to democratizing the workplace, and part prescription for strong local economies. A series of detailed appendices explain how his company set up its employee ownership program, how meeting facilitation and consensus decisions work, and how Abrams performed a community visioning for Martha's Vineyard. This places much of the how-to nuts and bolts in the back of the book, preventing this technically oriented material from bogging down the breezy main text with nitty-gritty. The result is a thoroughly readable and eminently enjoyable book, and an important new addition to the library of anyone concerned with finding better ways to create a better world., "Useful to organizations everywhere that appreciate that bigger isn't always better, money isn't always the endgame and true success comes from the meaningful work of dedicated people." --E: The Environmental Magazine

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal338.7/6908/0974494

Table Of ContentForeword Cornerstones Cultivating Workplace Democracy Challenging the Gospel of Growth Balancing Multiple Bottom Lines Committing to the Business of Place Celebrating the Spirit of Craft Advancing People Conservation Practicing Community Entrepreneurism Thinking Like Cathedral Builders The Company We Keep

SynopsisA book about a different way of doing business in today's world'a way based on workplace democracy, shared ownership, staying small, building community, commitment to a place, and long-term thinking., The Company we Keep is more than the success story of a company that has set down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that has caught the interest of entrepreneurs around the country. In the words of Abrams, ìThis is a book about a different way of doing business in todayís worldóa way based on workplace democracy, shared ownership, staying small, building community, commitment to a place, and long-term thinking.î John Abrams founded his design and building firm more than thirty years ago. Through a commitment to place and community entrepreneurship, he has seen the company grow and prosper, while at the same time experimenting with a revolutionary employee ownership model that has challenged the traditional business rhetoric of unchecked growth. Rejecting the myth that short-term profits are the only indicator of business health and wealth, John Abrams shows how building a company to serve the needs of people (employees and owners), community, and the environment can be a successful business plan as well.