Customer Reviews

When Good Companies Do Bad Things: Responsibility and Risk in an Age of Globalization

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was terrible. The writer presented several interesting case studies of good companies doing bad things, and even of good companies doing good things, which was a well written 30 or so pages. The rest of the book was just nonsense or obvious ideals thrown in there so that the author would be able to sell the book instead of making it a smaller article.

Ultimately a hopeful book, When Good Companies Do Bad Things attacks the concept of corporations as monoliths. Instead, through examples, anecdotes and analysis, we see that global business corporations are more human than we think, for better and worse, and subject to change---if they [and we] choose it-- for the better. I found my questions addressed as they arose from the reading; the balanced perspective [neither "anti" nor "pro-business"]offers a real opportunity to understand a complex social issue.

The issues tackled are stuff companies might usually ignore. But unless companies do anything do about these things, who else could make a difference in this world?

I was quite disappointed by the book - rather shallow rendering of facts, practically no analysis, theoritising without any practical conclusions. Simple internet search provides more useful information...

This book is a collection of repetitive excerpts written by reds about green politics. It has little merit as a source of real data, and is very biased. I had trouble believing that some portions were even based on truth, especially when a quote was preceeded by the phrase "As one expert said..." or some such thing. What expert? What was there name? Finally, as anybody with a head on their shoulders can tell, few of the business strategies suggested in this book could ever really work. The author frequently gives the example of Ben and Jerry's and Levi Strauss as corporations who have profited while implementing the afforementioned suggestions. I ask, what about GM? Walmart? Boeing? It is clear that it is only profitable to use this book as a business manual if one has a very narrow customer base.

The issues tackled are stuff companies might usually ignore. But unless companies do anything do about these things, who else could make a difference in this world?