The Soul of a Business: Managing For Profit And The Common Good - Softcover

Chappell, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 055337415X ISBN 13: 9780553374155

Publisher: Bantam, 1996

Synopsis

Both a personal odyssey and a practical blueprint for new management strategies, The Soul Of A Business shows how to re-shape a business to manage for the common good: the good of the company, the good of the employees, and the ultimate good of the community that company serves.  Tom Chappell, eco-entrepreneur and co-founder of Tom's of Maine (the leading producer of environmentally-friendly personal care products in America) used his personal quest for meaning as a springboard for a new management style that emphasizes spiritual values as the basis for real commercial success. Chappell and his company have proven that working people at every level can realize personal values and meaning in their jobs without compromising excellence, and competitiveness.

About this title

From AudioFile:

Tom Chappell, the founder of Tom's of Maine, shares his business philosophy and success story. The business focuses intensely on its mission to the public and the environment without compromising ideals or product quality. Chappell reads his own story in an intimate, conversational voice with clear and well-paced enunciation. Never rushing any of the corporate situations discussed, he calmly and logically recites problems and expresses solutions optimistically. Chappell's sincere voice and speaking manner reflect the economic and ethical standards his company strives to deliver. He produces an excellent reading of his style of management. P.A.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Kirkus Reviews:

A down-east entrepreneur's slick and assured account of how he brought his company into the light, thereby showing the way for less advanced enterprises. In a narrative dense with buzzwords and bywords (``authenticity,'' ``community,'' ``cultural diversity,'' ``mission statements,'' ``social responsibility,'' etc.), Chappell recounts how he founded Tom's of Maine in 1970 with the help of his wife, Kate. At first, the Kennebunk-based concern prospered modestly by vending--originally through health-food stores--toothpaste and other personal-care products made from natural ingredients (with due care for the environment). But despite the firm's success in niche markets and subsequent acceptance by mainstream retailers, the author became vaguely discontented during the mid-1980's. In search of ease, he enrolled (at fortysomething) at the Harvard Divinity School, running the company part time; upon graduating in 1990, he returned to Tom's of Maine with a host of ideas about how to live up to the Quaker maxim of doing well by doing good. Here- -with as much piety as wit--he offers short-take briefings on how he managed to apply in a commercial setting insights gained during his protracted epiphany. On the basis of the evidence here, however, Chappell hasn't always been consistent in acting on his professed convictions: In attempting to comply with an arguably sanctimonious corporate credo, for example, he doesn't shy from reverse discrimination against other white males. Nor does he pay even lip service to the existence of putatively kindred spirits like Anita Roddick (of Body Shop fame) or the PC proprietors of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. But Chappell understands that involvement in worthy causes can benefit a business, and he appreciates that his company must be profitable if it's to contribute to the common weal. A generally--and ironically--self-centered exercise in the economics of meaning, whose appeal seems limited largely to true believers. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 055337415X
• ISBN 13: 9780553374155
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240