2009
• The popularity of social enterprises has exploded in recent years – this is the authoritative guide to starting and running one
• Offers practical, from-the-trenches advice from two leading social entrepreneurs on confronting the challenges and seizing the opportunities social enterprises present
• The newest book in the Social Venture Network series – over 50,000 books in the series sold to date
• A step-by-step guide any organization can use to build an effective, ethical marketing strategy
• Features examples from such companies as Patagonia, General Mills, Clif Bar, and many others
• Written by two award-winning entrepreneurs known for their inventive marketing approaches
2007
• By the cofounder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies--the nation's most prominent advocacy organization for local businesses--and the founder of the internationally known children's clothing company Hanna Andersson
• Details specific business practices that will enable local businesses to strengthen both their communities and their bottom lines
• Offers a host of real-world examples from companies such as Greyston Bakery, Wild Planet Toys, Powell's Books, and many others
The first book to show small and medium-sized companies how to go green not just cost effectively, but profitably.
Offers detailed, specific advice and tools for greening every area of an organization
Copublished with Social Venture Network, one of the nations leading socially responsible business organizations
If you run a small to medium-sized business and youre wondering whether or not to go green, this book probably isnt for you. Although David Mager and Joe Sibilia do include ten reasons that sustainability makes economic and ecological sense, theyre not here to convince you why. Street Smart Sustainability is about howdetailed, nuts-and-bolts, step by step advice on how to green business green profitably.
Read cover to cover this is a comprehensive A to Z handbook, but each chapter also works as a self-contained stand-alone guide to a specific business function. So if you need to you can go right to whichever chapter speaks to your needs at the moment.
Mager and Sibilia begin by discussing how to get employee buy-in to and motivate your company into becoming sustainable. Then they cover how to get startedauditing your current sustainability position, developing a plan to move forward, and quantitatively measuring your progress.
With a plan and metrics in place, Mager and Sibilia move on to the particulars. They detail how to design products to be sustainable from the get-to, green your facilities, use renewable energy, minimize your carbon footprint, find green vendors to work with, reduce harmful emissions, and recycle waste products. The book is filled with real-world examples from a variety of businesses and industries. The emphasis is always on practicalitybesides seasoned advice Mager and Sibilia provide a wide range of tools you can use immediately to implement their suggestions
Street Smart Sustainability is a road map to the sustainable low-hanging fruit at a time when the public is hungry for businesses that demonstrate genuine respect for the environment. It provides simple tools so you can make continuous, cost-effective improvements in your sustainability practicespractices that diffuse into the organizational DNA and become fixtures, shifting the prevailing corporate culture.
Entrepreneurs are hungry. But it's not just because they're living on ramen and adrenaline while they pour their all into their business. Peter Cohan has found it's something deeper: a hunger to create the kind of world they want to work in.
Entrepreneurs are hungry. But it's not just because they're living on ramen and adrenaline while they pour their all into their business. Peter Cohan has found it's something deeper: a hunger to create the kind of world they want to work in. To leave a legacy, they build carefully with limited resources and maintain control of the venture's direction.
For years, students have told Cohan that the seminal business strategy guide, Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy, was too big-company focused. So Cohan -- who once worked with Porter-has written the first business strategy book to address start-ups' very different challenges.
Cohan focuses on six key start-up choices-setting goals, picking markets, raising capital, building teams, gaining market share, and adapting to change-explaining the unique rules start-ups must follow. For example, when setting goals, large corporations try to maximize their long-term return on equity, but resource-poor start-ups have to plan by setting a series of short-term goals-and how they do this will mean the difference between blazing a trail or flaming out. When entering a new market, well-fed companies can invest substantial time and capital before ever launching a product, but hungry start-ups must get an adequate prototype in front of customers fast, get feedback, and quickly develop a viable business model or they'll starve to death.
For each of these six areas, Cohan provides a decision-making approach and lively case studies of what actual entrepreneurs have done. He extracts hard-hitting lessons not only for start-ups but also for investors and even established companies. Hungry Start-up Strategy offers a full menu of vital information for anyone seeking to cook up a thriving business from scratch.
Entrepreneurs are hungry. But it's not just because they're living on ramen and adrenaline while they pour their all into their business. Peter Cohan has found it's something deeper: a hunger to create the kind of world they want to work in. To leave a legacy, they build carefully with limited resources and maintain control of the venture's direction.
For years, students have told Cohan that the seminal business strategy guide, Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy, was too big-company focused. So Cohan -- who once worked with Porterhas written the first business strategy book to address start-ups' very different challenges.
Cohan focuses on six key start-up choicessetting goals, picking markets, raising capital, building teams, gaining market share, and adapting to changeexplaining the unique rules start-ups must follow. For example, when setting goals, large corporations try to maximize their long-term return on equity, but resource-poor start-ups have to plan by setting a series of short-term goalsand how they do this will mean the difference between blazing a trail or flaming out. When entering a new market, well-fed companies can invest substantial time and capital before ever launching a product, but hungry start-ups must get an adequate prototype in front of customers fast, get feedback, and quickly develop a viable business model or they'll starve to death.
For each of these six areas, Cohan provides a decision-making approach and lively case studies of what actual entrepreneurs have done. He extracts hard-hitting lessons not only for start-ups but also for investors and even established companies. Hungry Start-up Strategy offers a full menu of vital information for anyone seeking to cook up a thriving business from scratch.