Beyond Profit

In this revealing book Peggy Chiu argues against the common belief that maximizing wealth is the primary concern of ordinary small shareholders when they make their share-buying decisions. This fascinating in-depth study of small shareholders provides both theoretical and empirical insights into their personal values and attitudes to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The author establishes that personal values are a major influence on decisions about the type of investments people make and about which companies they choose to invest in. Financial risk and return are far from being the only factors that determine small shareholders' investment decisions - irresponsible behaviour is not acceptable and will not attract investment from this significant group. Looking Beyond Profit is an essential book, not just for encouraging investment managers to look more closely at their environmental impacts, but for finance advisers and all concerned with corporate governance, either as practitioners, researchers, business educators or students.

Poor and ineffective leadership is evident in all spheres of life, especially in business. A possible reason for the current leadership crises is the application of ineffective and self-serving leadership practices that only aim to achieve selfish and short-term objectives at the detriment and longevity of people, business, society, as well as the environment. This book proposes a more effective and proven leadership approach to sustain people, business, society, and the environment, namely servant leadership. It describes the dimensions and functions of a servant leader in detail and provides practical resources to apply servant leadership in any organization. This book also provides several systematic leadership frameworks to empower people and to build high performing and significant organizations. Leaders, consultants, and practitioners can use this book as a guide to implement servant leadership in a company to ultimately create a more profitable, significant, and sustainable organization.

A trillion-dollar industry, the US non-profit sector is one of the world's largest economies. From art museums and university hospitals to think tanks and church charities, over 1.5 million organizations of staggering diversity share the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) designation, if little else. Many social justice organizations have joined this world, often blunting political goals to satisfy government and foundation mandates. But even as funding shrinks, many activists often find it difficult to imagine movement-building outside the non-profit model. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers essays by radical activists, educators, and non-profit staff from around the globe who critically rethink the long-term consequences of what they call the "non-profit industrial complex." Drawing on their own experiences, the contributors track the history of non-profits and provide strategies to transform and work outside them. Urgent and visionary, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded presents a biting critique of the quietly devastating role the non-profit industrial complex plays in managing dissent. Contributors. Christine E. Ahn, Robert L. Allen, Alisa Bierria, Nicole Burrowes, Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA), William Cordery, Morgan Cousins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Stephanie Guilloud, Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida, Tiffany Lethabo King, Paul Kivel, Soniya Munshi, Ewuare Osayande, Amara H. Pérez, Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, Dylan Rodríguez, Paula X. Rojas, Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo, Sisters in Action for Power, Andrea Smith, Eric Tang, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Ije Ude, Craig Willse

Beyond Earnings is targeted at investors, financial professionals, and students who want to improve their ability to analyze financial statements, forecast cash flows, and ultimately value a company. The authors demonstrate that reported earnings are easily gamed by accounting shenanigans and reveal how commonly used profitability measures such as return on equity can be misleading. Because earnings and P/E ratios are too unreliable for valuation, this book takes you beyond earnings and shows you how to apply the HOLT CFROI and Economic Profit framework in a step-by-step manner. A better measure of profitability results in improved capital allocation decisions and fundamental valuations. This ground-breaking book offers the first practical in-depth discussion of how profitability and growth fade, and shows how to put this information to work right away. The authors introduce their trailblazing Fundamental Pricing Model which includes fade as an adjustable value driver and can be used to value the impact of business model disruption. As the authors explain, the key to superior stock picking is understanding the expectations embedded in a stock’s price and having a clear view of whether the company can beat those expectations. The HOLT framework has been rigorously field tested for over 40 years by global investment professionals to help them make better stock picks and by corporate managers to understand the expectations embedded in their stock price. Beyond Earnings is an indispensable guide for investors who want to improve their odds of outperforming the competition.

Waste has plagued almost every industrial-age firm for the past century. In this powerfully argued alternative to conventional cost management thinking, experts H. Thomas Johnson and Anders Bröms assert that any company can avoid the waste that is generated through excessive operating costs in the short run and excessive losses from market instability in the long run. To gain more secure levels of profitability, management must simply change how it thinks about work and how it organizes work. Profit Beyond Measure details how two extremely profitable manufacturers, Toyota and the Swedish truck maker Scania, have rejected the traditional mechanistic mindset of managing by results that generates waste. Johnson and Bröms explain how Toyota and Scania achieve their legendary cost advantage through a revolutionary concept they call managing by means (MBM). Instead of being driven to meet preconceived accounting targets, the production systems of Toyota and Scania are governed by the three precepts that guide all living systems: self-organization, interdependence, and diversity. Amid a wealth of new insights into Toyota's vaunted system, Johnson and Bröms introduce the tools of MBM to show how design, production, and profitability analysis are done to customer order. They demonstrate that by following the principles that emulate life systems, even a lean and profitable company can organize work to greatly lessen its long-term earnings instability and sharply reduce its short-run operating costs. Scania has achieved sixty-five years of financial stability and longevity in the face of fierce competition. Toyota has amassed a market value since 1988 that has rivaled -- or sometimes surpassed -- the American "Big Three" automakers combined. The principles that Johnson and Bröms set forth in Profit Beyond Measure can guarantee the same richer, longer life to any company that applies them.

"Beyond Profit: The Responsibility of Businesses in a Changing World" is a book that explores the evolving role of businesses in society and argues that they have a responsibility to do more than just make a profit. The book examines how businesses can contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes while still generating economic value. The author argues that businesses can no longer afford to operate in a vacuum and must take into account the impact of their actions on the broader community and environment. The book discusses various examples of companies that have successfully integrated social and environmental considerations into their business models and provides a roadmap for other businesses to follow suit. Some of the key themes explored in the book include the importance of stakeholder engagement, the need for transparency and accountability, and the potential benefits of pursuing a "triple bottom line" approach that takes into account economic, social, and environmental outcomes. "Beyond Profit" challenges the traditional notion that businesses exist solely to maximize shareholder value and calls for a more holistic and responsible approach to corporate decision-making that takes into account the interests of all stakeholders.

Gassler (economics, Vrije U., Brussels) tries to establish some order in the chaos he sees resulting from economists expanding their portfolio to deal with just about everything in society. He does not offer a new theory, but reformulates existing theory to make it more applicable across disciplines, illuminate its limitations and point out necessary extensions, show its successes, and provide some new extensions of his own. First he sets out the scope, method, foundations, and taxonomy of the theory; then he surveys applications in such contexts as interactions, non-profits, and planets. He writes for upper-division, graduate, and professional economists who are conversant in intermediate microeconomic theory, multivariable calculus, and statistics. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).