“Every company is already at work,” write Yvon Chouinard & Vincent Stanley in The Responsible Company, “to dismantle a creaky, polluting, wasteful, and increasingly expensive industrial system.” Here’s hoping! Naturally some are trying harder than others, like Patagonia which Chouinard founded with his trusty co-author by his side. Their book is a slim, spirited guide to doing the right thing,…
Book Report – The Velvet Rope Economy by Nelson D. Schwartz
Growing up as I did – big family, big house, big neighborhood – there was plenty of chaos yet no clearer rule: you cut, I choose. When we’d tussle over that king-sized Charleston Chew, no one could argue the core fairness of one of us dividing said Chew and the other picking first, ensuring a perfectly divided Chew. Kids could…
Book Report – Pharma by Gerald Posner
On the same day I prepared to review Pharma by Gerald Posner, I tested positive for COVID-19 (or what the wittiest among us call Corona). Figure I had it coming for one of three reasons: too few “Hope you’re staying well during these unprecedented times!” messages in the inbox to ward it off; too much belief that plagues miraculously disappear…
Book Report – Beach Reads
The last thing anyone wants to hear about in July is a business book, right? To wit, below are a handful of books for pleasure I’ve found to be every bit worthwhile. May you enjoy any of them during your downtime. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – As she proved again recently with her novel Commonwealth, Patchett is a…
Book Report – White Working Class by Joan C. Williams
On his first post-Beatles LP, John Lennon paid testimony to the “Working Class Hero,” those he told an interviewer he saw being “processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery.” In 1970, the year his song first hit the airwaves, nine in ten 30-year-olds earned more than their parents at that age; as of 2014, only half did. Over…