True to Yourself Leading a Values-Based Business by Mark Albion
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BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650 Ken Lupoff, Senior Publicity Manager San Francisco, CA 94104-2916 Phone: 415.743.6469 Email: [email protected] Fax 415.362.2512 Tiffany Lee, Publicist www.bkconnection.com Phone: 415.743.6477 Email: [email protected] For Immediate Release True to Yourself Leading a Values-Based Business By Mark Albion “A perfect blend of inspiration and instruction, a must-read manual for anyone who aspires to a position of leadership.” —Alan M. Webber, Co-Founding Editor, Fast Company How do you build the kind of company you’ve always wanted to work in, the kind of organization you’d be proud to be part of—one that serves people and the planet while being financially successful, too? What do you do when you believe that business should serve the common good, while everyday business pressures—meeting payroll, battling competition, retaining your best employees, keeping customers and investors happy—are at a fever pitch? Leading a small business when you measure success more broadly than with a single financial bottom line is no easy task. True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business was written to help you do just that. Mark Albion has dealt with these issues for over twenty-five years. In this practical, down-to-earth guide, his insightful interviews with seventy-five forward-thinking leaders and his own experiences as an entrepreneurial leader provide hands-on examples of how you can combine profit with purpose, margin with mission, value with values. True to Yourself begins by outlining the unique values that drive small, values-based businesses and the three most important personal characteristics that you must develop—Competence, Compassion, and Commitment. These lead Albion to five critical leadership practices, each illustrated with a chapter on how successful businesspeople have put that practice into action, along with questions to help you reflect on how that practice relates to your personal experience, and a hands-on exercise to help you start making that practice an integral part of your business. Leadership is lonely. Leadership is hard work. Values-based leadership is even lonelier and harder. True to Yourself is a trusted guide to help you avoid mistakes while making your job easier, your company more successful, and your life more fulfilling. More… "If you want to build a values-based business, as I did with Kinko's, Mark Albion provides you with the practical know-how to avoid mistakes and lead your company's growth." — Paul Orfalea, Kinko's Founder & Chairperson Emeritus "If you want to build a business with social conscience, a company that reflects your core values and that people are proud to work for, True to Yourself will help you pour your heart into doing just that." — Howard Schultz, chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company "There has never been a more important moment for leadership from women. It is critical that we have equality in business as well as education and politics, as women recognize the social and environmental challenges we face and develop the courage to confront them. True to Yourself offers the practical guidance and support to allow women to meet these exhilarating challenges and help others working with them do the same." — Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder, Esprit Clothing Company& Chairperson Emeritus **** Mark Albion is a social entrepreneur who has co-founded seven organizations, including Net Impact, an international network of MBA students and professionals committed to using the power of business to create a better world. He wrote the New York Times bestseller Making a Life, Making a Living®, and was a professor at Harvard Business School. True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business By Mark Albion Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-57675-378-1 Paperback $12.00 Number of Pages: 120 Publication Date: July 2006 Announcing the Social Venture Network Series Until now, most books on socially responsible business practices have been aimed at major corporations. But small businesses are far more receptive to the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profits, because so many of them are started by people determined to bring their personal values to the workplace. And small businesses collectively are huge—they employ half the workforce. Of the more than five million businesses in the United States, only 17,000 have 500 or more workers. To serve this large and growing market, Berrett-Koehler Publishers has partnered with Social Venture Network (SVN) to produce a series of low-priced, down-to-earth paperback guides that will walk readers through the practical steps of starting and growing a socially responsible business. This series represents the merger of the Berrett-Koehler value of “creating a world that works for all” and Social Venture Network’s commitment to building a just and sustainable world through business. Far too many companies are focused on the bottom line to the exclusion of everything else. But the members of SVN and the staff of Berrett-Koehler know from their own experience that there can be a new bottom line for business—one that values healthy communities and the human spirit as well as high returns. Drawing on the expertise of SVN members, the Social Venture Network Series will show the owners and managers of small companies how easy—and how profitable—it can be to run a values-based business. The first two books in the Social Venture Network Series, Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun by Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick, and True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business by Mark Albion are due out this spring. Watch for Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Drive Your Socially Responsible Business by Chip Conley and Eric Friedenwald-Fishman and Growing Local Value: How to Build a Values-Driven Business That Strengthens Your Community by Laury Hammel and Gun Denhart in Fall of 2006. About Social Venture Network: Since its founding in 1987, SVN has grown from a handful of visionary individuals into a vibrant community of 400 business owners, investors, and nonprofit leaders who are advancing the movement for social responsibility in business. For more information, see the SVN web site: www.svn.org. .