Value shift : why companies must merge social and financial imperatives to achieve superior performance

Pick up a copy of the day's business section. Chances are you'll read about a corporation in jeopardy due to reckless standards or practices - or one that's getting wise and taking a closer look at its impact upon the world. From Ford and Bridgestone to Sotheby's and Christie's; from Microsoft to McDonnell Douglas, managers and directors are coming to understand that for the long-term health of their companies, it's not enough to make a good profit. They have to make that profit responsibly. In Value Shift, renowned Harvard Business School professor Lynn Sharp Paine translates real-world experience as a corporate consultant into a powerful case for this new standard of performance, never losing sight of the fact that healthy companies must remain profit-driven. By building a corporate conscience, Paine argues, managers can anticipate certain "gray area" dilemmas - and by helping to avoid the wrong responses to those dilemmas, take an active role in strengthening their company or divisions. As practical as it is even-handed, Value Shift will take its place next to Built to Last and In Search of Excellence on the bookshelves of managers around the globe. In taking a hard-headed look at the ways in which values do - and do not - enhance financial performance, this book differentiates itself from two dominant streams of writing in business ethics. The first is oriented toward proving the financial merits of ethics. The second assumes that the financial question is irrelevant. By synthesizing both sets of concerns - economic and ethical - Value Shift presents an approach to management that is not only more realistic, but also more useful.