Aiming Higher * David Bollier

25 Stories of How Companies Prosper by Combining Sound Management and Social Vision. This inspiring corporate text tracks twenty-five progressive companies and bold CEOs who dismantled the myth that ethics hurt the bottom line, proving that solving difficult social dilemmas actively opens new markets and drives commercial profitability.

The Story: Written by prominent policy analyst, activist, and author David Bollier, this highly regarded 1996 business work is primary-source milestone in the literature of corporate citizenship. Commissioned by The Business Enterprise Trust, a high-profile non-profit founded by legendary television producer Norman Lear, the text steps past dry academic lectures, low-friction motivation apps, and simplistic moral checklists. Instead, Bollier demonstrates that market longevity relies on treating corporate responsibility as a strategic opportunity rather than a bureaucratic burden.

The book takes corporate executives, human resource managers, and business school students through a multi-dimensional structural landscape across its 374 pages. Strategic insights are organized into six clear case-study sections detailing product innovation, workplace diversity, inner-city economic revitalization, and employee empowerment systems. The text unpeels twenty-five gritty management success profiles from a highly versatile asset pool. Readers will see how Starbucks Coffee Company expanded employee stability by providing full health benefits to part-time staff, how Prudential Insurance engineered "Living Needs Benefits" for terminally ill subscribers, and how massive enterprises like Xerox, Levi Strauss, and Vermont National Bank successfully maximized shareholder returns by directly serving their community ecosystems.

Rather than reading like a cold corporate archive, the chapters are a companion for modern process engineering and team dynamics. Bollier pairs his analytical focus with an exceptionally clear, narrative-driven tone, tracing how a dedicated focus on employee satisfaction and social vision can defuse internal office politics, protect a brand from public skepticism, and build an unyielding locus of control over corporate culture. Published as a premium trade edition by Amacom Books / American Management Association, this timeless work remains an essential pillar for leadership, business ethics, and institutional development shelves worldwide.

Perfect For: Corporate executives, startup founders, and HR directors looking for an uncomplicated, highly detailed text to master team alignment and corporate responsibility logistics; fans of data-driven leadership anthologies like the works of Peter M. Senge, Tom Gegax, or Frank Sanitate; and university business libraries.

Published 1996 by Amacom Books.