Books

How consumer desire for sustainability is powering the first demand-driven, transformative megatrend—and how business leaders can make the most of this important moment.

Sustainability is rocking the business world as profoundly as any global trend of the past, from electrification to digitalization. But unlike previous revolutions, this one is being driven by consumers, for whom environmentally sound practices matter as much as price, quality, and brand. In The Demand Revolution, Andreas von der Gathen, Nicolai Broby Eckert, and Caroline Kastbjerg offer a strategic framework for winning these consumers—and taking advantage of the vast commercial opportunity presented by sustainability as the first demand-driven, transformative megatrend.

The first movers in the Demand Revolution will be able to create enduring competitive advantages and high entry barriers built around redesigned business model ecosystems and customer loyalty, the authors explain, but this will require a critical adjustment in thinking and approach. Companies, first of all, have to catch up with consumers, who see themselves on a demand curve far beyond what companies currently perceive. Business leaders must shift their focus from the cost of sustainability to its potential for generating growth and long-term profits. This, in turn, means recognizing that the classic adoption curves for innovations—and the strategic playbooks derived from those insights—no longer apply. The Demand Revolution shows business leaders how to look beyond easy fixes and incremental outcomes and instead pursue high-risk, high-reward moves geared toward the source of exponential growth: the world’s consumers.

A practical and timely guide that shows employees how to craft the jobs they want and managers how to shape their organizations in ways that are conducive to such job crafting.

How business leaders can move their DEI efforts from intention to impact through strategy and culture change.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, corporate America has doubled down on its public intentions to be more inclusive and equitable. Yet beyond the pledges it is difficult to see which system changes make a real difference. In From Intention to Impact, Malia Lazu draws on her background as a community organizer, her corporate career as a bank president, and now her experience as a leading DEI consultant to explain what has been holding organizations back and what they need to do better. First and foremost, she recognizes that truly moving from intention to impact means targeting and changing the traditions and culture that normalize whiteness.

From Intention to Impact shows what organizations, leaders, and people at all levels must do to create more inclusive environments that honor and value diversity. Lazu shares a seven-stage guide through this process as well as a 3L model of listening, learning, and loving that readers can use from the initial excitement of doing “something” to the frustration when the inevitable pushback comes, and finally to the determination to do the hard work despite the challenges—on corporate and political fronts. Most compelling, From Intention to Impact shows that, while commitment from the top is paramount, for DEI to be most effective, it needs to be decentralized—among managers, within teams, and across the organization.

A crucial read for anyone looking to future-proof their company, From Intention to Impact goes beyond the “feel good” PR-centric actions to showcase the real DEI work that must be done to create true and lasting systemic change.

In his bestselling first book, Eric Siegel explained how machine learning works. Now, in The AI Playbook, he shows how to capitalize on it.

How business leaders can grow profits and competitive advantage by doing the right thing.

Acting on values—doing good for the benefit of all—can substantially benefit the bottom line, but many business leaders mistakenly believe that doing the right thing lowers profits. This belief is the greatest barrier holding businesses back from being more financially and competitively successful—and delivering more good for the world. Not only can it be a winning business strategy to act on values, as Daniel Aronson suggests in The Value of Values, but it is also a savvy choice, increasing a company’s power, profit, and competitive advantage—in many cases with little additional investment or risk.

It starts with seeing what others miss. Using extensive research and real-world calculations, Aronson demonstrates that the “submerged value” of initiatives such as taking bold action to combat climate change, helping people find jobs, or creating an open, inclusive work environment is normally 4 to 10 times more than initially believed. Calculating and capturing the true business benefit of acting on values provides a much-needed update to the sustainability and responsibility playbook. Even more important, it shows executives how to harness the value of values to improve profitability, acquire customers, and turbocharge their own careers.

Written by a measurement pioneer and one of the world’s foremost experts on making ethical business count, The Value of Values trains leaders to respond smartly and credibly to today’s challenges, transforming how business can and should be done.

A clear, engaging, evidence-based guide to monetizing data, for everyone from employee to board member.

When it comes to competitive strategy, knowing what your competition is doing is good; understanding why they do what they do and predicting what they are going to do next is best.

A pioneering guide to understanding and leading workforce ecosystems, which include not only traditional employees, contractors, and gig workers, but also partner and complementor organizations that work with companies to accomplish enterprise and individual goals.

In Enterprise Strategy for Blockchain, business strategy expert Ravi Sarathy shows how companies can gain competitive advantage by developing and deploying blockchain capabilities.

Offers detailed, real-world case studies of AI-augmented jobs in settings that range from finance to the factory floor.