Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Hardcover)

by Rajendra S. Sisodia (Author), David B. Wolfe (Author), Jagdish N. Sheth (Author)
Key Phrases: industry dogma, stakeholder relationship management, ultimate stakeholder, New Balance, Whole Foods, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Through a series of real-life vignettes from well-known companies, the 11 brief, well-written chapters compellingly argue that many of today's successful businesses foster intrinsic cultures that embrace values for the stakeholders as well as the shareholders; for them, it is more then just politically correct, it is the only way. This is a book that every undergraduate and every business leader should be required to read.    -- S. R. Kahn, University of Cincinnati

 

Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.  

Product Description
Love, Joy, Authenticity, and Soul: Building Winning Businesses in the New Age of Transcendence / Why today's most humane companies are blowing away the S&P 500 averages / Increasing "share of heart": delivering the emotional, experiential, and social value your stakeholders are demanding / 30 powerful case studies, including CarMax(R), Timberland , Jordan's Furniture, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, and Toyota Today's best companies get it. From Costco(R) to Commerce Bank, Wegmans to Whole Foods(R): they're becoming the ultimate value creators. They're generating every form of value that matters: emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they're doing it for all their stakeholders. Not because it's "politically correct": because it's the only path to long-term competitive advantage. These are the Firms of Endearment. Companies people love doing business with. Love partnering with. Love working for. Love investing in. Companies for whom "loyalty" isn't just real: it's palpable, and driving unbeatable advantages in everything from marketing to recruitment. You need to become one of those companies. This book will show you how. You'll find specific, practical guidance on transforming every relationship you have: with customers, associates, partners, investors, and society. If you want to be great--truly great--this is your blueprint. We're entering an Age of Transcendence, as people increasingly search for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today's most successful companies are bringing love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: they are delivering emotional, experiential, and social value--not just profits. Firms of Endearment illuminates this, the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It's not about "corporate social responsibility": it's about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era. It's about great companies like IDEO and IKEA(R), Commerce Bank and Costco(R), Wegmans and Whole Foods(R): how they earn the powerful loyalty and affection that enables truly breathtaking performance. This book is about gaining "share of heart," not just share of wallet. It's about aligning stakeholders' interests, not just juggling them. It's about building companies that leave the world a better place. Most of all, it's about why you must do all this, or risk being left in the dust...and how to get there from wherever you are now. Foreword xv Prologue A Whole New World xxi Chapter 1 It's Not Share of Wallet Anymore; It's Share of Heart 1 Chapter 2 New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism 23 Chapter 3 The Chaotic Interregnum 49 Chapter 4 Employees--The Decline and Fall of Human Resources 65 Chapter 5 Customers--The Power of Love 97 Chapter 6 Investors--Reaping What FoEs Sow 125 Chapter 7 Partners--Elegant Harmonies 145 Chapter 8 Society--The Ultimate Stakeholder 171 Chapter 9 Culture--The Secret Ingredient 197 Chapter 10 Lessons Learned 235 Chapter 11 Crossing Over to the Other Side 253 Acknowledgments 273

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing (February 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131873725
• ISBN-13: 978-0131873728
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,649 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and Inspiring, March 26, 2007

By	– Sharon P. Whiteley, CEO, ThirdAge Inc. - See all my reviews

Firms of Endearment is a critical, insightful and inspiring piece of work. One of the major contributions of this book (and there are many) focuses on the impact that employees and stakeholders have on the success of an enterprise. Many in business say how important their people are, yet it is more often than not that facts prove otherwise. When employees and leaders come to the workplace with their "hearts connected to the brains", their creativity, productivity and performance quality is exponentially greater than those who come just to do a job. People build companies - they always have, they always will. Firms that endear their people will win. Hat's Off to David Wolfe, Rajendra Sisodia, and Jagdish Sheth. You have enlightened many. - Sharon P. Whiteley, CEO, ThirdAge Inc.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sharp, New Millennium Look at Emotional Intelligence as a Quantifiable Value in Corporate America, April 16, 2007

By	Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

With the tidal wave of publicity for Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and the spotlight it has given to the green movement, it seems like a ripe time to take stock of companies who are incorporating more social responsibility into their charters. Co-authors Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David B. Wolfe make a compelling case for how such thinking is not only a much-needed injection of humanism into private enterprise in this country but also the impetus for long-term success at a time when people are seeking greater meaning in their lives. Wolfe, the only non-academic of the three, ventures the furthest in delineating what he considers the art of empathy and the power of bringing soulfulness to the workplace. Such seeming intangibles have been repeatedly dismissed by those unwilling to recognize the human equation at the base of such operations.

Wolfe's bottom line is that soft skills translate into hard numbers, and he feels the days of well-known autocratic CEOs like Disney's Michael Eisner and Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina are numbered if not over. The book's coy title actually refers to the model firms - Whole Foods, Harley-Davidson, Trader Joe's, Costco, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Patagonia, IKEA and New Balance among them - who have aligned principles of emotional intelligence with shareholder value in ways that induce more loyalty among the most valued employees. The data gathered by the co-authors suggests that firms which encourage emotional intelligence are more likely to have workers who benefit from feedback and achieve more for themselves and their companies over time. Emotional intelligence manifests itself in several ways, whether it is more modest executive salaries, open-door policies, better employee benefits, better training or a stronger focus on the customer experience. Moreover, the co-authors place high value on environmentally friendly practices and social consciousness as part of a company's vision.

The emphasis on emotional intelligence represents a major paradigm shift and one that has been working in tandem with globalization in recent years. It has given birth to the stakeholder relationship management business model (SRM), which supersedes the well-established customer relationship model with its primary focus on products and profits. Reflecting a much broader vision, the SRM is more dependent on coordinating systems which help keep healthy the company's economic ecosystem, which is the basis of its growth, development and economic health. The ensuing loyalty among employees gives rise to what the co-authors term "share of heart". It's an elusive concept but one mastered by a new breed of CEOs who manage to inspire with their idealism even when short-term profitability looks bleak. Sisodia, Sheth and Wolfe provide intriguing portraits of these leaders and the unique cultures they have managed to develop over time while still delivering on their bottom lines. If anything, this eminently readable book is a testament that Machiavellian tenets need not guide companies at the expense of the people who maintain them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading in all intro to business classes, then required reading in the last class before graduation, March 24, 2007

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

According to the authors, a Firm of Endearment or FoE is a company whose decisions are made with the social consequences in mind. This runs contrary to what many people consider to be the fundamental principles of capitalism, which is to maximize your value at all costs within the acceptable legal, moral and ethical bounds. The authors demonstrate that many companies are achieving better growth than the "hard-core capitalists" by actively considering the overall consequences of their actions. In fact, some of the most telling passages are quotes from the hard-cores about how foolish the behavior of the FoE's is. This is then followed by data demonstrating that the performance of the companies run by the hard-cores is dwarfed by the FoE's. In some cases, those who proclaim an increase in shareholder value to be the pinnacle of success run companies where the stock price has declined during their tenure.
There have been problems with capitalism and the corporations since both were first invented. In the late nineteenth century, business leaders were known as robber barons and it took government action to break up the trusts. In retrospect this was an excellent action as it allowed the free market to emerge from the previous one controlled by the powerful.
At the start of the twenty-first century we have a global economy and major threats from global warming. Capitalism also needs to change to reflect the new reality. The authors of this book show that the latest version of the robber barons that get enormous salaries for mediocre performance are a fading breed. The best new corporations have passion, heart and a sense of the common purpose of humanity. Not only are they the kind of people that you would want to have over for dinner, but they are also some of the best run and most profitable businesses. This book should be required reading in all introduction to business courses.