Published on April 29th, 2008
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Editor’s note: This week’s post from our friends at Eco-Libris seemed much appropriate for Ecopreneurist: an interview with author Jill Bamburg about her book Getting to Scale: Growing Your Business without Selling Out. While the book is two years old, Jill’s ideas about how mission-driven businesses can grow and thrive are still very timely. This post was originally published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008.
Getting to Scale is the second book so far that Swedish publisher Bookhouse Publishing translated and balanced out with tree plantings by Eco-Libris. They are doing great work over there and we encourage all our Swedish speaking readers to check them out.
How can you structure your green or mission-driven business, so that you can grow and even possibly sell it one day, without compromising your ideals, beliefs and mission? How can you fund your growth without finding out too late that your new investors are not at all interested in what you are doing for the environment or society, but only in the financial bottom line? While Getting to Scale is not a “how to” guide, it describes a wide variety of case studies that illustrate key findings. It is based on extensive in-depth interviewes with dozens of CEOs and founders of mission driven businesses such Ben & Jerry’s, Stonypoint, American Apparel, and many others.
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Published on March 25th, 2008
Seeking new sources for inspiring business ideas, leading-edge strategies, and eco-entrepreneurial ventures? Look no further than the inaugural Axiom Business Book Awards, sponsored by the Jenkins Group, Inc. The awards committee combed the globe in search of the year’s best business books before naming awardees in 25 categories including entrepreneurship, business ethics, and philanthropy. If you’re in need of a new book to add to your gym bag or carry-on bag, try one of these winning titles:
Leadership
Business Ethics
Economics
Additional categories: Read the rest of this entry »
Published on February 28th, 2008
Business books by and about eco-entrepreneurs are all the rage these days. Biographies of newly famous entrepreneurs vie with “How to” books on greening your business to get your attention.
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan, takes a slightly different tack and explores how altruistically minded people operate a bit differently in the business arena than typical entrepreneurs.
Published by Harvard Business Press, this book reminded me a bit of, Blink and The Tipping Point, both by Malcolm Gladwell as the authors discuss how a small movement can gain momentum until reaching critical mass. Filled with case studies from around the world, ranging from Whole Foods to Band Aid, Elkington and Hartigan demonstrate how compassionate entrepreneurs use market based solutions to tackle problems and opportunities in a variety of situations.
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