In Good Conscience

When a customer, employee, or investor is faced with a choice of companies amidst a sea of competitors, they increasingly consider how responsible that organization is. Customers want to buy ethical and sustainable; employees want to feel a sense of purpose at work, and investors need reassurance that their investments are good for the long term. To be competitive and valuable to society, firms need to develop an organizational conscience that drives key strategic decisions and spurs sustainable and responsible innovation. 

In this book, the authors argue that organizations need to think critically about their role and to use their conscience to guide actions. With plenty of concrete suggestions based on substantive research, it shows how firms can reconcile the competing interests of stakeholders, create an organization that is fair, open and transparent and do the right thing while building a profitable business.

With integrated videos and international case studies featuring multinational companies as well as small firms, this book explains how firms can make the transition to becoming conscientious.

1 Introducing Conscience: The Structure of the Book.- The Power of Conscience: From Wedgwood to Chocolonely.- Becoming Conscientious.- The Content.- 2 What Is Conscience? And Why Does It Matter?.- Defining Conscience.- Where Conscience Goes Wrong.- Why Conscience Matters.- Conclusion.- 3 The Business of Conscience.- Soneva: Integrating Conscience.- Soneva’s Slow Life.- Putting Conscience at the Core.- The Attributes of a Business with a Conscience.- Fair.- Open.- Responsible.- Becoming a Business with a Conscience.- Conclusion.- 4 Building a Driving Conscience.- The Corporate Purpose.- Unilever and the Three Levels of Purpose.- The Corporate Principles.- The Benefits of a Driving Conscience.- Driving Conscience.- Uncovering the Corporate Heritage.- Embracing Stakeholder Co-creation.- Conclusion.- 5 Embedding Conscience.- Conscience as a Strategic Guide: La Casa de Carlota.- Curating Conscience.- How Oda Curates Conscience.- How to Embed Conscience.- Embedding Conscience in Value Creation Processes.- Embedding Conscience into Targets and Metrics.- Embedding Conscience into Culture.- Conscience and Ecosystems of Change.- The Power of Power with: Embedding Conscience Through Participation.- Power with Diversity and Inclusion.- HP’s Commitment to Equality.- Conclusion.- 6 Fostering Conscientious Innovation.- Bringing Rest to the World: Conscientious Innovation at Auping.- Four Conscientious Innovation Strategies.- Built to Last: Slow but Agile Business Models.- Cowboys and Spaceships: Circular Business Models.- Repair, Resale and Rental: Extending Business Models.- Making Lives Better: Business Models with Social Impact.- The Three Enablers of a Conscientious Innovation Strategy.- Digitalization.- Servitization.- Co-creation.- Conclusion.- 7 Communicating and Demonstrating Conscience.- Helping Stakeholders Make Good Choices.- Know Your Audience.- Own the Issue.- Tell the Story.- Using Conscience as a Differentiator.- Conscientious Communication with Financial Audiences.- Conclusion.- 8 Leading with Conscience.- Strategic Paradoxes and Leadership Styles.- The Role of the Leader with a Conscience.- The Traits of Leaders with a Conscience.- How Can One Develop Leaders with a Conscience?.- Going Beyond the Leader of the Moment.- Conclusion.- 9 It’s Up to You.- Taking Responsibility.- Thinking Critically.- Practising Transparency.- Focusing on People.- How to Think Different.- Index.