How many times have you heard someone say, "It’s not personal; it’s just business"? That attitude reflects a belief that business needs to be cut-throat, that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, that the pursuit of profit is the only thing that matters, and that the only way to succeed is to beat the competition. But none of this is true: business doesn’t have to be that way. The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship is a prescription for living the American Dream and for finding the fulfilment that comes from helping employees and customers improve their lives. In his 30-year career in international business strategy, economic development, and entrepreneurship, author Andreas Widmer has seen firsthand numerous companies both succeed financially and also build a people-centered venture in the process. He shares his favorite success stories and details five key principles for conducting business in ways that combine personal virtue, the latest entrepreneurial tools, and long-term perspective in order to make business a win-win proposition for everyone. At a time when the number of new business startups is at its lowest point in 50 years and more than half the workforce at existing businesses struggles with motivation, finding a better way to do business is more urgent than ever. For any entrepreneur, manager, employee, or business student seeking to build people-centered businesses and teams, The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship is an insightful, practical guide to how businesses can be run to be both virtuous and profitable.

Whether you are an entrepreneur (or aspiring entrepreneur), a business or nonprofit professional, or a business student, Holy Ambition: Thriving as a Catholic Woman at Work and at Home will help you navigate work and life with Christ at the center of it all, recognizing that our most ambitious calling is to be saints. Authors Taryn DeLong and Elise Crawford Gallagher draw from Catholic Women in Business, their online community of more than five thousand Catholic professional women, to answer some of the most pressing questions about what it means to fully live out your vocation as an ambitious Catholic businesswoman, recognizing that the specifics can vary from woman to woman and from one season of life to the next. Each chapter includes wisdom and insights from saints and courageous women past and present who serve as mentors, role models, and friends. Some of the questions addressed in Holy Ambition include the following: Am I discerning God’s will for my life correctly? (Learn from St. Teresa of Calcutta, who persevered during times when she could not hear God’s voice.) Is it OK to be ambitious and build wealth? (Be encouraged by St. Jane Frances de Chantal, who used her ambition and wealth for good—to protect her children.) How can I practice my faith in a secular environment? (Be inspired by St. Gianna Molla, who built up her medical practice with unwavering faith.) How can I cultivate good relationships and get along with difficult people? (Meet St. Thérèse of Lisieux, whose “little way” enabled her to love even the most irritating and disagreeable of her religious sisters.) How can I succeed at work while being open to new life? (Discover how St. Zélie Martin found the balance between work and family life.) How can I make a difference as a Catholic entrepreneur? (See how Catherine de Hueck Doherty fought against Communism by helping the poor, the very people targeted by the Communists.) With the turn of each page, you will deepen your understanding of the feminine genius and discover how “women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling” (St. John Paul II). The lived experiences of these women will encourage you to discover and thrive in God’s unique and unrepeatable plan for your life. Chapter questions for reflection and discussion make this the perfect choice for book clubs and small-group discussions.

Former-Swiss Guard, CEO and business leader, Andreas Widmer gives a behind-the-scenes look into Pope John Paul ll, "the most authentically human person I've ever met," and reveals how those memories shaped and forged his success as a corporate executive.

Computer science has drawn from and contributed to many disciplines and practices since it emerged as a field in the middle of the 20th century. Those interactions, in turn, have contributed to the evolution of information technology â€" new forms of computing and communications, and new applications â€" that continue to develop from the creative interactions between computer science and other fields. Beyond Productivity argues that, at the beginning of the 21st century, information technology (IT) is forming a powerful alliance with creative practices in the arts and design to establish the exciting new, domain of information technology and creative practicesâ€"ITCP. There are major benefits to be gained from encouraging, supporting, and strategically investing in this domain.

A celebration of sixty innovators in art, design, fashion and other creative fields.

“The ‘inside-the-box approach’ can reveal key opportunities for innovation that are hiding in plain sight” (Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive). The traditional attitude toward creativity in the American business world is to “think outside the box”—to brainstorm without restraint in hopes of coming up with a breakthrough idea, often in moments of crisis. Sometimes it works, but it’s a problem-specific solution that does nothing to engender creative thinking more generally. Inside the Box demonstrates Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), which systemizes creativity as part of the corporate culture. This counterintuitive and powerfully effective approach to creativity requires thinking inside the box, working in one’s familiar world to create new ideas independent of specific problems. SIT’s techniques and principles have instilled creative thinking into such companies as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and other industry leaders. Inside the Box shows how corporations have successfully used SIT in business settings as diverse as medicine, technology, new product development, and food packaging. Dozens of books discuss how to make creative thinking part of a corporate culture, but none takes the innovative and unconventional approach of Inside the Box. With “inside the box” thinking, companies of any size can become sufficiently creative to solve problems even before they develop and to innovate on an ongoing basis. It’s a system that works! “Boyd and Goldenberg explain the basic building blocks for creativity and by doing so help all of us better express our potential” (Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational).

Over the last decade the neo-institutionalist literature on comparative capitalism has developed into an influential body of work. In this book, Colin Crouch assesses this literature, and proposes a major re-orientation of the field. Crouch critiques many aspects of this work and finds a way of modelling how creative actors trying to achieve change - institutional entrepreneurs - tackle these constraints. Central to the account is the concept of governance, as it is by recombining governance mechanisms that these entrepreneurs must achieve their goals. In seeking how to analyse the spaces in which they operate, Crouch criticises and deconstructs some dominant approaches in socio-political analysis: to typologies, to elective affinity and complementarity, to path dependence. He develops a theory of governance modes, which includes potentially decomposing them into their core components. Finally, he proposes a reorientation of the neo-institutionalist research programme to take more account of detailed diversity and potentiality for change. The book is primarily theoretical, but it makes liberal use of examples, particularly from studies of local economic development and politics.

Horowitz offers the latest addition to the deluge of morally-centred business tomes. In one way, it's an overturning of traditional corporate wisdom -- see your competitors as your allies, not your adversaries, Horowitz suggests -- but it's also something we've been hearing an awful lot of lately: build meaningful relationships with your customers, view your employees as your partners and so on. Nevertheless, the arguments are all sound and illustrated with the customer-obsessed success stories of ventures like Saturn and Nordstrom. Horowitz is at his best when displaying his canny understanding of the media world, advising how to fit your business's message with the media's need to produce timely, relevant stories.

Recent economic development and the financial and economic crisis require a change in our approach to business and finance. This book combines theology, economy and philosophy in order to examine in detail the idea that the functioning of a free market economy depends upon sound cultural and ethical foundations. The free market is a cultural achievement, not only an economic phenomenon subject to technical rules of trade and exchange. It is an achievement which lives by and depends upon the values and virtues shared by the majority of those who engage in economic activity. It is these values and virtues that we refer to as culture. Trust, credibility, loyalty, diligence, and entrepreneurship are the values inherent in commercial rules and law. But beyond law, there is also the need for ethical convictions and for global solidarity with developing countries. This book offers new ideas for future sustainable development and responds to an increasing need for a new sense of responsibility for the common good in societal institutions and good leadership.

This research study focused on providing insights to the Catholic Church on how well Catholics understand well-defined Catholic terms, and to know what the words she currently employs actually mean in the vocabulary of those who listen to her, and if that meaning does not overlap with the Church's definition of that word or term, what alternate term would do so. A list of the core Catholic Social Doctrine phrases, principles and thoughts we tested for in our research: 1. Human Dignity: By the phrase human dignity, the Catholic Church means that men and women are made in the image of God and destined for eternal life. 2. Justice: To each his due. 3. Social Justice: By the phrase social justice, the Catholic Church means that groups and individuals receive what is rightly owed to them. 4. Common Good: By the phrase common good, the Catholic Church means all the conditions in society that allow individuals and groups to reach their fullest human good, both in this life and the next. 5. Solidarity: By the principle solidarity, the Catholic Church means unity arising from love of neighbor. 6. Subsidiarity: By the principle subsidiarity, the Catholic Church means that higher groups in society should not take over tasks that lower groups would like to perform, unless the lower group asks for help. In other words, social functions should occur at the lowest possible level so that individuals and groups have a true sense of purpose. 7. Universal Destination of Goods: God gave the good things of the earth to the whole human race. 8. Charity: The love of God and neighbor. 9. Preferential Option for the Poor: Charity requires us to place the needs of the poor before our own needs. 10. The purpose of Social Life: Social life should be aimed at the common good. 11. Private Property: Private property is good - through ownership we imitate God. 12. Entrepreneurship and Business: Economic initiative is a fundamental value and human right. 13. Hiring and Firing: Owners should make the dignity of employees central in their decision making, though sometimes firing is necessary. 14. Relationship between charity and operating a business: Owning and operating a business is itself an act of charity for a Christian. 15. The role of Truth in Society: A free society must affirm some truths as absolute. 16. Wages: Wages should be sufficient for families to support themselves and also save something. We also sought to measure some underlying perceptions of and engagement with Catholic Social Doctrine: - Catholic Church's "tone" about business and market economy. - Catholic Church's understanding of your professional work. - Relevance of Catholic Social Doctrine for individual Catholics in their daily life. We stared by researching the resonance for some key terms of Catholic Social Doctrine. This is done to ascertain how emotionally engaging a term is. We all have a personal reaction to various terms: faith, progress, hierarchy, sublime, and environment. Terms resonate with us on a continuum from positive to negative. Negative resonance closes us up, positive resonance causes us to engage.