the 360º corporation
In a nutshell
Companies are increasingly facing intense pressures to address stakeholder demands from every direction: consumers want socially responsible products; employees want meaningful work; investors now screen on environmental, social, and governance criteria; “clicktivists” create social media storms over company missteps. CEOs now realize that their companies must be social as well as commercial actors, but stakeholder pressures often create trade-offs with demands to deliver financial performance to shareholders. How can companies respond while avoiding simple “greenwashing” or “pinkwashing”? Suggesting that the shared-value mindset may actually get in the way of progress, bestselling author Sarah Kaplan shows in The 360° Corporation how trade-offs, rather than being confusing or problematic, can actually be the source of organizational resilience and transformation. This book lays out a roadmap for organizational leaders who have hit the limits of the supposed win-win of shared value to explore how companies can cope with real trade-offs, innovating around them or even thriving within them. (Now also in Italian and Brazilian editions!)
Early reviews of The 360º Corporation
Winner! Responsible Research in Management Book Award in 2023!
Finalist in Association of American Publishers 2020 Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Awards!!
Finalist, Best Book, Social Issues in Management, Academy of Management 2022.
The Financial Times says: “But what to do when these increasingly popular ethical demands conflict with financial performance? Or when a consumer wants workers to be paid more but the product they make to stay at the same price? Addressing these paradoxes is at the heart of Kaplan’s book, a guide that aims to topple economist Milton Friedman’s dictum that ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits’. Instead, Kaplan urges us ‘to look at the stakeholders that surround companies from all directions, all 360 degrees’, from the workers in a clothes factory to the community exposed to its waste products. Only then, Kaplan argues, will companies be able to consider innovative ways to respond to these seemingly intractable trade-offs.”
In Forbes: The 360º Corporation is “a more realistic road map for creating the corporation of the future.”
Porchlight Books picks The 360º Corporation as an Editor’s Choice! “Social issues and our humanity are always going to be at the heart of business, because business can’t even begin to think about making financial profit without considering what social profit it might exist to make, what human needs or desires it might meet. At the same time, we might be desiring too much materially, and oversaturating the world with cheap stuff. We can either let those issues whither and stagnate within our organizations and society, or honor and improve them by looking at them honestly and clearly and talking about them openly. I believe Sarah Kaplan has contributed something great to the conversation.”
BizEd magazine calls The 360º Corporation: “a new way to view corporate responsibility” and Soundview Executive Book Summaries calls it “a book to watch”!
“The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation is Sarah Kaplan’s comprehensive guide for managers, CEOs, and corporate leaders to learn how to negotiate the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders—from workers and consumers to government regulators and civic groups—that corporations must serve today.”—Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of Institute for the Future; author of The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructured World (as reviewed in Stanford Social Innovation Review).
“Using organizational realities, this book puts leveraging tradeoffs instead of romanticizing shared values at the center stage of managerial decision-making. The 360° Corporation offers rare insights on how to combine humility, inspiration, and aspiration in business. A must-read for anyone interested in the potential of companies to do more than generate profits.” —Johanna Mair, Professor at the Hertie School of Governance, co-Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
“As business leaders, we evaluate and make trade-offs every day. Kaplan has prepared a cogent guidebook to help turn these events into strategic opportunities to capture value. The 360° Corporation outlines the critical criteria and a process of inquiry needed to make better business decisions, especially in today’s ever-changing stakeholder environment.” —Dave Stangis, Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Campbell Soup Company
“If you want to understand the keys to truly great corporations today, read Sarah Kaplan’s The 360° Corporation. Based on more than a decade of research and work with the world’s most innovative creative companies, Kaplan shows how the key to sustainable and enduring success lies in effectively engaging all stakeholders and managing complex tradeoffs. A must-read for CEOs, directors, executives, and future business leaders.” —Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class
“Bestselling author and award-winning researcher Sarah Kaplan offers a wise guide for business leaders facing nearly impossible demands and tough choices in their environments today. Rather than simply looking to manage trade-offs or seeking fast win-wins, she reveals how companies can take a more difficult but ultimately transformational path: embracing the tensions to co-create new models with their key stakeholders.”—Dr. Tanya Menon, co-author of Stop Spending, Start Managing: Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits
“Today, sustainability is on the agenda in every boardroom. Most executives have come around to the idea that corporations need to do more than just maximize profit—but they don’t know how. Sarah Kaplan’s book provides a clear roadmap to this goal. As she says, there are no simple solutions here; however, she sets out the tensions and trade-offs with clarity and with many fascinating examples. This book is essential for executives and advisors who are looking to take corporate purpose and sustainability seriously.” —Julian Birkinshaw, Professor and Deputy Dean, London Business School, co-author of Fast/Forward: Make Your Company Fit for the Future
“There is a burning need for companies to engage with a variety of stakeholders, but doing so is costly and creates thorny tradeoffs. So how do we do it? This profoundly important book provides a fresh perspective on that question. It’s a brilliant, indispensable guide for business leaders—and anyone else hoping to shape the role of corporations in society.” —András Tilcsik, Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society, University of Toronto, co-author of Meltdown
Published by Stanford University Press in English, Egea Editore in Italian and by Benvirá in a Brazilian edition)
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