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Title: Good Business: Your World Needs You by Steve Hilton, Giles Gibbons ISBN: 1-58799-118-7 Publisher: Thomson Texere Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Simplistic but sometimes useful
Comment: I found it extremely hard to keep my mind on this book. I felt exactly the way the average customer feels when confronted by a high pressure used car salesman. These people were here to sell me something - and anything goes if it clinches the sale.

Having said that, there is value in the book as it demonstrates areas in which business and customers can work together to find arenas of social activity that are to their mutual advantage. It also puts forward good examples of why it is to the advantage of a company to engage in these sorts of activity and that they can turn a profit out of it as well.

The first two chapters are better forgotten. They set up the least sophisticated of the arguments against globalisation as a sort of straw man that they then tear down with decidedly simplistic and statistically dubious arguments. (It is one of the banes of this very important debate that each side presents totally 'authoritative' statistics that 'prove' the exact opposite of each other. However, these authors argue that the gap between rich and poor is not growing wider, which *really* requires some fancy definition bending.)

In the rest of the book, it is necessary to ignore the underlying theme that anybody who criticizes an aspect of business practice or the current global system is antibusiness and because some business is doing things well and responsibly all business is therefore beneficial. Neither extreme position is true. This leaves the possibility of becoming interested in the examples that they cite of good practice and thinking, with them, of how these examples could be spread and expanded. There are clearly many opportunities and it is equally clear that the authors' particular promotional skills will often be useful in identifying these opportunities and working out effective ways of getting them accepted and implemented.

Rating: 5
Summary: Business Can be Good . . . and Save the World
Comment: Enron. WorldCom. Tyco. And the list goes on. Capitalism is practically a dirty word. Conversations in board rooms, executive suites, universities, and other environments of though wrestle with how corporations can pull themselves out of the quicksand of questionable integrity. Hilton and Gibbons have a few suggestions.

The authors are the founders (1997) of a British consulting firm that specializes in social marketing. They've built an enviable track record already working with a range of clients including Coca-Cola and Nike. Their position is that companies should start becoming the solution to the world's problems instead of being seen as the cause. By using their power for social good, they can influence environment issues, human rights, and social justice.

Seven chapters carry the message: Orthodoxy, Heresy, Responsibility, Leadership, Anatomy, Possibility, and Unity. Intrigued? Prepare to read an interesting book filled with examples and stories about how business became so unpopular, but really isn't so bad after all. The heresy chapter tells the other side of the story that is pounded at us through the media: globalization makes the poor richer, corporations are good for human rights, and we can close sweatshops and end child labor. Under Responsibility, the authors explore how corporations respond to all this criticism and how they can be truly socially responsible. Leadership is needed-real leadership, not just lip service. Commercialism, profit, and social good can all live together in harmony. The authors offer some ideas about what business could do to make a real difference and how ordinary citizens can join the movement for common good.

This is an almost conversational book that is comfortable to read. You'll gain some new perspectives and perhaps some inspiration.

Rating: 5
Summary: Has a very direct and candid message
Comment: Good Business by Steve Hilton and Giles Gibbons (co-founders of Britain's first social marketing company, "Good Business") has a very direct and candid message: "If you want to change the world, then do it through business. If you want to help your business, then help change the world." Written in direct response to anti-globalization protests, Good Business demonstrates how globalization can help people everywhere and make the poor richer. But only if the virtues of globalization are used in the right way; companies must take responsibility for the profits and global well-being of tomorrow, and those who champion social justice and environmental protection need to ally with business rather than make it their enemy. Highly recommended for entrepreneurial and social activists, Good Business offers a superbly argued presentation of how business and economic forces can potentially shape a better world for us all.