Shapeholders : business success in the age of activism / Mark R. Kennedy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kennedy, Mark, 1957- author.

Series:

Columbia Business School Publishing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social responsibility of business.

Corporations--Public relations.

Corporations.

Corporations--Moral and ethical aspects.

Corporate governance.

Strategic planning.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Today, all it takes is one organizational misstep to sink a company's reputation. Social media can be a strict ethical enforcer, with the power to convince thousands to boycott products and services. Executives are stuck on appeasing stakeholders-shareholders, employees, and consumers-but they ignore shapeholders, regulators, the media, and social and political activists who have no stake in a company but will work hard to curb what they see as bad business practices. And they do so at their own peril.In Shapeholders: Business Success in the Age of Activism, former congressman, Fortune 500 executive, and university president Mark Kennedy argues that shapeholders, as much as stakeholders, have significant power to determine a company's risks and opportunities, if not its survival. Many international, multi-billion-dollar corporations fail to anticipate activism, and they flounder on first contact. Kennedy zeroes in on the different languages that shapeholders and companies speak and their contrasting metrics for what constitutes acceptable business practice. Executives, he argues, must be visionaries who find profitable-and probable-collaborations to diffuse political tensions. Kennedy's decision matrix helps corporations align their business practices with shapeholder interests, anticipate their demands, and assess changing moral standards so that together they can plan a profitable route forward.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: From the Heart of a Businessman

Who Are the Shapeholders?

1. Shapeholders

2. Social Activists

3. The Media

4. Politicians

5. Regulators

Seven Steps to Shapeholder Success

6. Align with a Purpose

7. Anticipate

8. Assess

9. Avert

10. Acquiesce

11. Advance Common Interests

12. Assemble to Win

13. Pope Francis, a CEO Worth Emulating

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231542784

OCLC:

1038468047