The Corporate Alexander

Corporate Social Irresponsibility focuses on ethical failures in order to relate corporate responsibility to business ethics, corporate governance, and organization effectiveness. The book advocates a strategic approach to CSR – ethical management cannot, and should not, be divorced from effective management. Corporate social responsibility has transitioned from oxymoron into a defining challenge of the twenty first century. Taking the recent financial crisis as a starting point, Alexander examines the underlying ethical and legal crises these events expose in the business world. The problems that have come to light go beyond issues of firm financial performance into the integrity of the manufacturing and marketing processes, and relations with consumers. As such, the book presents a model that resolves the apparent conflict between maximizing shareholder value, and meeting the interests of other firm stakeholders. Alexander presents a balanced view, contrasting her model with alternative approaches. The book also covers the impact of globalization on management, the ethics of outsourcing, the limits of regulation, as well as poverty alleviation and social entrepreneurship. Blending a comprehensive theoretical framework with a broad range of cases, this book covers the latest major changes in US legislation, as well as recent corporate scandals making it a valuable accompaniment to any course in CSR, business ethics, or business, government and society.

Can employees emulate the rules that make business owners succeed? How do you navigate through twists and turns at your work place? Is your career sorted? Do you know the secrets you learn only when you earn? Peek into the life of Manas, a budding business graduate, who starts as an intern and navigates through the challenges on his way to the top of the ladder. The book, which draws from real-life incidents, reveals the secrets he needed to learn and unlearn to get there and the bunch of well-wishers who helped him on the way.

Corporations with a Conscience Corporations today are embedded in a system of shareholder primacy. Nonfinancial concerns—like worker well-being, environmental impact, and community health—are secondary to the imperative to maximize share price. Benefit corporation governance reorients corporations so that they work for the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. This is the first authoritative guide to this new form of governance. It is an invaluable guide for legal and financial professionals, as well as interested entrepreneurs and investors who want to understand how purposeful corporate governance can be put into practice.

A revised edition of the bestselling classic This book covers strategy for organisations that operate more than one business, a situation commonly referred to as group-level or corporate-level strategy. Corporate-level strategy addresses four types of decisions that only corporate-level managers can make: which businesses or markets to enter, how much to invest in each business, how to select and guide the managers of these businesses, and which activities to centralise at the corporate level. This book gives managers and executive students all the tools they need to make and review effective corporate strategy across a range of organisations.

Advance praise for Corporate-Level Strategy. "At last a book that cuts through all the corporate jargon and academic generalizations to answer the question 'Does the corporate parent create or destroy value for the organization?' The authors suggest a simple yet compelling framework for making this determination. Must reading for students and practitioners alike." -Robert Cizik Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Cooper Industries "In an era when the role of corporate-level management is quite justifiably being questioned and challenged, it is refreshing to find a book that clearly shows how parent companies can add rather than destroy value in their businesses. As we would expect of these world class authorities, Goold, Campbell, and Alexander have leveraged their fascinating research findings into an eminently readable and highly practical book." -Chris Bartlett Professor Harvard Business School "A vital and deeply researched contribution to thinking about corporate strategy." -Gary Hamel London Business School "I am very impressed by the extensive work on which this book is based, and by the concept of parenting advantage that it puts forward." -Yasutaka Obayashi Senior General Manager, Corporate Strategy Canon "Great companies grow, they don't just cut. With breakups and restructuring done, corporate parenting is coming back. Goold, Campbell, and Alexander have produced a comprehensive and intelligent book which should become a standard guide on the subject." -Tom Hout Vice President The Boston Consulting Group "A perceptive and valuable insight into an often underestimated area of strategy. This book clearly demonstrates the importance of parenting to the longer term development and prosperity of multibusiness companies." -Alan R. Jackson Chief Executive, BTR "I am glad someone has so well and so fully shed light on this important body of thinking." -Sigurd Reinton Director, McKinsey & Company, 1981-1988

What is the difference between the duties of a business owner and the duties of a senior executive in a company? If you are a business owner, you probably have already asked yourself this question. But at the same time you may have never seen a complete, detailed, step-by-step description of all the basic duties of a business owner of a typical company. The author of this book is an entrepreneur and a practical man who has established a few successful companies. His description of each individual duty of a business owner is amazingly simple and systematic. It is astonishing how easy and applicable these descriptions are in real life. Each duty is described in a separate chapter with many examples from different business areas. Undoubtedly this book can be called the first professional manual for a business owner of any company. “The book, which you have in your hands, is written for those who started their business, encountered some difficulties and is searching for a way to succeed. The author of this book, Alexander Visoltsky, is not a theoretic who is talking about business at the desk. He is practician, who generalized the extensive experience of running his own business. His observations and recommendations are very useful for those who start this exciting game called “Business.” Small business is not simple at all! It is difficult to run a small business because it creates a lot of problems an owner has to solve. It has a lack of resources and possibilities and big staff turnover. The only solution is skillful and modern management. One needs to create a successful company. But how? At the beginning of his activity the author did not have an idea of how to manage. How to restore order in "your home", organize work and beat competitors. He decided to figure it out and help others. The author proposes solutions based on his experience. These solutions are results of his efforts of solving problems he encountered in his business. They turned out to be typical for all small companies. If you want your business to be successful, use solutions this book gives you!”—A.V Doctor of Economics, Professor “Dear Alexandr! I had read “A Job Description For The Business Owner” book and decided to write down my opinion. This book is not just relevant. I consider that any business owner, despite his achievements, needs this book like air. It is written in simple language. Today not many business companies have “personal face” and your book will help a lot of people to make up their mind and change their viewpoint on the world of “money”. I think it will become a handbook for those who had read it thoughtfully – this is the highest mark for a book and an author. I wish you prosperity, continue creating!”—A.K Owner

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation. Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition. Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation!"

Alexander Raven Thomson outlines the (pre-WW2) British Union of Fascists economic proposals to "Democratise" Britain's economic system. The Coming Corporate State sets out in clear and precise terms the economic infrastructure that would be put in place once the British Union of Fascists came to power. British Union would transfer ownership of all industrial and commercial organisations above a certain size to one of eighteen Corporations covering every aspect of business activity. "The Corporate State is a means of equating economic forces to the needs of the Nation. It is designed to end the chaos and disorder of the present economic system, and replace them by an organised economy. It is designed to break the hidden dictatorship of vested interests and alien financiers who exploit present conditions for their own benefit. These powers have driven Labour Governments out of office, they dictate the policies of National Governments, but they will never control a Corporate State." It is interesting to note that many points of the British fascist program have actually been silently realised not only in Britain but also in Europe and America. A must read for everyone.

Super Coaching is for anyone wanting to succeed in a frenetic and unpredictable world. Coaching is an extremely successful new trend: a coach is a cross between a psycho-analyst and personal trainer, someone who is there to motivate and inspire you to work things out for yourself. This book means that you don't have to find your own personal coach - everything you need to know is here. Getting the job done is no longer good enough: relationships, whether with colleagues, customers, friends and family, are our greatest asset and the key to career success and personal happiness. Ben Renshaw's many media credits include relationship coach for C4's award-winning series Perfect Match. Graham Alexander is the founder of business coaching in Europe with just under 20 years' experience in the field. Together they make a unique team, showing you how to follow coaching principles to achieve everything you want in a career and life.

In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded. Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander’s death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra. In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander’s astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing—which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us.