Deeply Responsible Business

Outstanding…Jones challenges head-on the notion that for-profit leaders have never been virtuous while chasing the bottom line…This is a timely and insightful read. – Larry Gennari * Boston Business Journal *
Deeply Responsible Business is a valuable catalog of notable efforts over the past two centuries by profit-seeking businesses to also pursue the common good. – Kevin J. Delaney * Charter Works *
Jones subverts received wisdom about the logic of business and capitalism. He makes a strong case for reimagining capitalism and posits that the first step in this process is to reconceptualize business and its social purpose. – Badrinath Rao * Wire India *
For the last fifty years, Milton Friedman’s idea that businesses should overwhelmingly focus on shareholders has prevailed, and our culture and laws have aligned so closely to this thinking that people have come to believe it is the natural way of doing business. This is why Jones’s book is so important and powerful. It explodes Friedman’s idea and shows how—throughout history, the world over, and in many ways—it is actually more natural for entrepreneurs to have a purpose and mission. – Christopher Marquis, author of Better Business: How the B Corp Movement Is Remaking Capitalism
Geoffrey Jones’s outstanding book provides a compelling and readable account of the long and rich history of businesses that conceived of their place in society as profitably benefiting their customers, workers, owners, communities, countries, and planet. Some might think this a new—or even controversial—idea, but its roots are deep and global. Being deeply responsible offers many benefits—but equally many challenges. Jones shows how firms navigated their conflicting responsibilities. Not only business leaders but also leaders in other sectors, will benefit from these insights, which are painfully relevant in our age. – Peter Tufano, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
A fascinating and important contribution. Jones profiles companies whose leaders, in one form or another, have promoted responsible business. He records their deep commitment to embedding humane values in their businesses and captures their considerable challenges and failures. In some cases, virtue signaling was not borne out by virtuous practices. The book argues that the presumption that responsible business is good business is simply not the case. Those who behave ethically are undermined by those who do not. Coordinated efforts across multiple companies are more likely to succeed, but ultimately it is government that must lay down the terms on which business needs to act. Insightful and informative. – Colin Mayer, author of Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good

Geoffrey Jones is Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at Harvard Business School and a fellow of the Academy of International Business. His recent books include Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry and Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship.

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