Prelims

Half Title Page

Radical Business

Endorsement

“Read John Davis’s new book, Radical Business. Why? Because the challenges in today’s world are compelling leaders and their companies to determine how they will contribute. Assuming that ‘business-as-usual’ will work is wrong because data show that people worldwide expect companies to be more positively engaged with society, and that means they must transform. The question is how. John’s new book shows what companies and leaders must do to become a collective ‘force for good’ in a world craving solutions.”

–Sharmla Chetty, CEO, Duke Corporate Education

“This is an important book – a tour de force for good. Radical Business is a provocative and inspiring guide to leadership in the 21st century. A time in which the best companies must step up to their responsibility as stewards of social change or risk obsoletion. Yet, at this time of brutal uncertainty, the path to stakeholder value creation is complex and risky. With insights from a career in the front row of leadership, Davis charts a course for those leaders wanting to explore and embrace the challenges facing them. He inspires with examples of leaders who have energized their organizations to live up to their full potential whilst breaking down the formidable task ahead into an achievable framework of ideas, questions, and actions to pursue. This book may be the wake-up call that prompts you to action; it may be part of your organization’s risk exploration process or your guide to translating stakeholder insights into transformative solutions. Being a force for good may seem like radical business now but tomorrow, it will simply be business.”

–Tremaine du Preez, PhD, Decision Scientist and author of Decide – The Science and Art of Choosing Wisely and Raising Thinkers

“John Davis delivers an inspired call to action showing us how business can succeed while also being a force for good. Through his rich use of metaphor and examples from around the world, readers will feel empowered to do the same within their organization. John is a welcomed and needed optimistic voice for the 2020s.”

–Michael Netzley, PhD, CEO, Extend My Runway (Singapore)

“At this point in time, organizations are key activation engines for a viable, livable, desirable future. For this to be realized requires a new kind of leadership that draws on ‘softer’ capabilities – courage, empathy, and dare I say, love. John Davis generously charts a path for this future. One that’s grounded, no nonsense, and full of actionable wisdom. The cost is high stakes: you may have to change your mindset and skill up. You may have to question assumptions. It may be uncomfortable or scary. However, failure to change is far higher stakes that can take us all down. This is our moment. Read this book if you lead or seek to lead.”

–Renee Lertzman, PhD, Climate psychologist and Founder, Project InsideOut

“As the world appears to continue to spin out of control, Davis’ new book offers hope. Taking a values-based approach, the book presents a practical framework for leaders to reassess their organization’s contribution to the world, guiding conversations to bring about meaningful, measurable, and substantial change for humanity’s biggest problem – ourselves – whilst mobilizing employee engagement, bottom-line impact, and societal good.”

–Professor Dr Andrew Sharman, Managing Partner, RMS Switzerland and Chairman of One Percent Safer

“With today's social unrest, unknown economic impacts, and health crisis, it is a challenge for organizations to create societal value. To help companies navigate through this ever-changing environment, John Davis wrote an excellent book, providing Boards and Executive teams with a guide on how to future-proof their business and realize the company’s dream. The book contains practical examples and inspiring insights from various thought leaders. It is empowering. A must read for those companies who do not just want to thrive in today’s and future world, but want to drive sustainable change and make an impact.”

–Anouk De Blieck, Board Advisor, Non-Executive Director Elliot Scott HR, Senior Industry Advisor WhitewaterTX

“Radical Business courageously and justly directs companies to be fit for purpose in an age when we are learning that our long-held assumptions and criteria for success are no longer adequate.”

–Adam Kingl, Adjunct Faculty, UCL School of Management and Hult International Business School

Author of Next Generation Leadership: How to Ensure Young Talent Will Thrive with Your Organization

Climate, Biodiversity, and Inequality are some of the severe, connected, and accelerating global crises threatening our dignity and well-being as human beings on this planet.

We must mobilize all available forces for positive change to build the future we all want. We need the contributions from all key partners in society: policymakers, opinion leaders, and the private sector!

Business cannot thrive in societies that fail. Innovation and business development for a better world is probably the most important and most rewarding role of modern companies in the coming decades! Solving environmental and social problems with business models makes sense and makes profits when you get it right.

Business has amazing powers to drive innovation and transformative change! That’s good news because we need to change many things to sustain our world. The not so good news is that the business cases of those changes are often unclear, and the complexities of the issues can be overwhelming for business leaders. Both represent barriers for the priorities and actions we need to see in business.

The very good news is that John Davis, with his book Radical Business, delivers great help to make business leaders understand, navigate, and succeed in the necessary and rewarding transformation of the role of their companies in society. John provides lots of evidence, examples, insights, and useful tools to help busines leaders rethink their approach to business and organizational development and help to embrace the sustainability challenge as you would embrace any other business opportunity.

The meaningfulness and economic reward from solving environmental and social problems with busines models is huge, today, and even more tomorrow. Business leaders who want to be part of that mission for the benefit of their employees, customers, shareholders, and the world should read Radical Business and transform their companies to become more future fit.

Dr. Claus Stig Pedersen Head of Global Sustainability Novozymes A/S

Title Page

Radical Business

How to Transform Your Organization in the Age of Global Crisis

By

John A. Davis

BrandNewView LLC, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Copyright © 2022 John A. Davis.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80262-808-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-807-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-809-8 (Epub)

Dedication

To Barb, Kate, Chris, and Bridget. Your love makes anything possible.

Acknowledgments

I've had the pleasure to interview hundreds of leaders over the years. Those featured in this book are accomplished, diverse, and inspiring, and I thank each of them for sharing their insights with me. Thank you to: Ravi Kumar, Kate Gordon, Anthony Guerrero, Steve Leonard, Helle Bank Jørgensen, Kevin Czinger, Jonathan Reichental, Rangsiyopash Roongrote, Chip Conley, Mac McKenzie, and Janice Lao. Their examples show that positive change is possible and leads to meaningful impact. Thanks, too, to my Agent, Nick Wallwork of NewsomWallwork, and to Charlotte Maiorana and her team at Emerald Group Publishing.