Nader's The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right reviewed
How about some good news for a change? My book The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right—profiles ethical, imaginative, caring, successful business leaders who set an example for their bigger CEO counterparts to follow.
See below for a review of the book by Dorothea Di Cecco.
If after reading you wish to obtain an autographed copy, go to csrl.org/csrl-books. It makes a great gift for business students, friends or your local library.
See below for a review of the book by Dorothea Di Cecco.
If after reading you wish to obtain an autographed copy, go to csrl.org/csrl-books. It makes a great gift for business students, friends or your local library.
Review by Dorothea V. Di Cecco,
Professor Emerita, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University
of Connecticut Waterbury
The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right
This latest book by Ralph Nader will find a place among the hundreds of publications he has
authored over the years, and like all his past writings, continues to add a refreshing truth to the information he has chosen to feature.
Profits have always been considered a means of gaining wealth, and among the largest businesses, they reach a small, specific class of people. This book will interest readers because it introduces another view of the benefactors of the profit motive that is seldom, if ever, presented. As a subject not found on most bookshelves, it will attract the attention of young and old workers in all professions, students, and family members.
The title, The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right, immediately raises questions about the focus of the book, for Chief Executive Officers are generally regarded as respected leaders of the business world, who originate the ideology and set the tone that establishes the world’s view of their company. 12 Leaders Who Did It Right draws the readers to the book’s emphasis on a very special and seldom-mentioned question: what is the goal of most CEOs, and how does it differ from a small minority that function under a completely different ideology?
As a result of Nader’s of confronting CEOs of many different industries, he is among the most experienced in evaluating their goals and performance. He was described by Supreme Court Justice William Powell as the “single most effective antagonist of American business...the target of his hatred…is corporate power.”
According to Nader, “In this rosy (for business executives) environment, where failure means bailouts and golden handshakes, and wars mean enormous contracts, and giant corporate law firms mean destruction of freedom of contracts and essential privacies, and obstruction as to the use of the courts by the aggrieved and wrongfully injured masses, what’s not to like?” This describes the CEOs that created and control our current economic system and who “did not do it right.”
CEOs who “did it right” demonstrate many favorable characteristics, including their humanity, their respect for what their workers have to say, as well as their willingness to redirect their goal if it is causing a negative effect on the environment. Nader learned from them that it is possible to function successfully as a corporate power with an understanding attitude towards workers, without regarding them mainly as a source of profit, most of which the superrich direct to their own pockets without considering workers’ hours of labor with relatively little remuneration. He explains how the focus on profits has caused a decline in all aspects of our current life on earth.
Readers of this book will be impressed by the amount of information Nader has provided to support his choice of each of the 12 CEOs, and admits that more individuals could have been included. Devoting a chapter to each one, he details how they initially followed the typical business route using the profit motive as a measure of success, but eventually found it more rewarding to include improving the quality of our air, water, food, education and most importantly, life and the future of our planet.
Following is a brief review of two of the CEOs.
ANITA RODDICK was a British citizen who founded The Body Shop franchise, a company that sells natural skin and hair-care products. She revolutionized the retail beauty industry and became one of the wealthiest women in the retail beauty industry - and at one time in her career, became one of the wealthiest women in Great Britain. She rejected established thinking that the goal of a business is to make as much profit as possible, and spent her entire life and work as an example of this philosophy. Interest grew quickly when she used common people as models in her advertising, rather than the ultra-glamorous women to which everyone was accustomed. She promoted no testing on animals by the cosmetic industry, and introduced the recycling of class bottles to lessen pollution.
In 1984 Roddick’s company went public with a stock offering that gave employees a stake in her fortune, and she made sure that The Body Shop products and policies did not adversely affect customers or the environment. Her business was recognized around the globe and became the most successful ever to arise from Britain.
Continuing her focus on long-term good rather than short-term profits, she set up direct economic ties with many indigenous people, blending locally produced natural substances in her products. Her company’s goal was to go to the source, cut out the middleman, and trade directly with the people who raised or provided the needed ingredients.
In 1988 she became aware of an impoverished area of Glasgow Scotland where shipyards and steelworks were closed, and half of the men were unemployed. Within eight months the Soapworks factory, with a payroll of one hundred workers, was opened to supply one third of all the soap requirements for all The Body Shops worldwide. Roddick agreed to donate 25 percent of future profits to a trust for the benefit of the local community.
Through the 1990s and into the early 21st century, Roddick had to deal with single-minded aggressive stock analysts who did not like The Body Shop’s controversial social justice issues like challenging political power, corporate power, and international injustices.
She teamed up with Greenpeace, and led an international campaign against ExxonMobil calling it the “No.1 Global Warming Villain.” She was a speaker at international meetings, and marched in citizen and labor protests. The Queen of England made Anita Roddick “Dame Anita,” which she accepted to expand her audience. It was then said that “Anita is the real thing---you’d never know that she was the CEO of anything.”
RAY C. ANDERSON, an Atlanta-based industrialist and Founder and Chairman of Interface Inc. was the largest carpet-tile manufacturer in the world, doing business in one hundred countries. In 1993 the Clinton administration released a report warning about the coming devastation from “climate change” if recycling renewable resources, and the reduction of greenhouse gases did not occur. There was little or no response to this warning, as business and industry, the largest polluters, continued their current course and ignored the criticism.
In 1994, while speaking before a task force of industrialists from around the world, Anderson was asked, “What is Interface doing for the environment,” a question now more commonly asked of his salespeople by customers such as hospitals, universities, office buildings, etc. When requesting bid quotations, they required the inclusion of explicit environmental policies. Since Anderson needed answers, he began extensive research and became seriously moved to become a lifelong advocate for doing no harm to the environment. He described his earlier self as a “plunderer of the earth” and remarked, “unless somebody leads, nobody will. Why not us?” He challenged his sales managers and himself to lead the company to sustainability, or taking nothing from the earth that is not naturally and rapidly renewable.
They altered every step of their manufacturing process and measured the reductions in harm to the biosphere. They found that their costs went down. Profits increased, and demand for their products grew. Their visibility and goodwill among customers also rose higher than an expensive advertising campaign could possibly have generated. They also learned that their strong environmental ethic had no equal for attracting and motivating good people to share a higher purpose. Anderson’s reaction to all of this was “We’re making history.” Walmart CEOs visited an Interface factory in Georgia where reduced package redundancy and waste resulted in lower costs and increased profits. This influenced Walmart to apply Anderson’s specification to their 60,000 suppliers.
During public presentations, Anderson related many examples of how the life-support systems of the earth are being destroyed. Listeners identified with one or more of the causes…one polluted stream, one eroded ton of topsoil, one disrupted animal migration, one corrupt politician, one open-pit coal mine one poorly designed carpet, one poverty-stricken, or exploited human being…his list went on.
Anderson always stayed on message, as it increased sales and profits while cutting costs year-in and year-out. He received scores of awards and honorary degrees, and served on boards of major environmental groups, yet many of his suggestions, adopted by corporations, were not publicly acknowledged and did not receive front-burner publicity.
At the end of his life in 2011, many questioned whether he could be equaled or surpassed. The answer was yes. At a Global Climate Action Summit in 2018, Jay Gould, the Interface CEO, announced that its 2020 target of no negative environmental impact was accomplished, and he revealed the new goal of becoming carbon negative by 2040. As Anderson believed, “if any company can do it, every company should do it.”
Final point of interest: Interface was made a founder of the American Museum of Tort Law, for generously implementing Anderson’s promise to have its floors covered with their carpet tiles. Visitors remark on their beauty and durability. It is the only Law Museum in the world, established by Ralph Nader and located in Winsted, Connecticut.
The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right
This latest book by Ralph Nader will find a place among the hundreds of publications he has
authored over the years, and like all his past writings, continues to add a refreshing truth to the information he has chosen to feature.
Profits have always been considered a means of gaining wealth, and among the largest businesses, they reach a small, specific class of people. This book will interest readers because it introduces another view of the benefactors of the profit motive that is seldom, if ever, presented. As a subject not found on most bookshelves, it will attract the attention of young and old workers in all professions, students, and family members.
The title, The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right, immediately raises questions about the focus of the book, for Chief Executive Officers are generally regarded as respected leaders of the business world, who originate the ideology and set the tone that establishes the world’s view of their company. 12 Leaders Who Did It Right draws the readers to the book’s emphasis on a very special and seldom-mentioned question: what is the goal of most CEOs, and how does it differ from a small minority that function under a completely different ideology?
As a result of Nader’s of confronting CEOs of many different industries, he is among the most experienced in evaluating their goals and performance. He was described by Supreme Court Justice William Powell as the “single most effective antagonist of American business...the target of his hatred…is corporate power.”
According to Nader, “In this rosy (for business executives) environment, where failure means bailouts and golden handshakes, and wars mean enormous contracts, and giant corporate law firms mean destruction of freedom of contracts and essential privacies, and obstruction as to the use of the courts by the aggrieved and wrongfully injured masses, what’s not to like?” This describes the CEOs that created and control our current economic system and who “did not do it right.”
CEOs who “did it right” demonstrate many favorable characteristics, including their humanity, their respect for what their workers have to say, as well as their willingness to redirect their goal if it is causing a negative effect on the environment. Nader learned from them that it is possible to function successfully as a corporate power with an understanding attitude towards workers, without regarding them mainly as a source of profit, most of which the superrich direct to their own pockets without considering workers’ hours of labor with relatively little remuneration. He explains how the focus on profits has caused a decline in all aspects of our current life on earth.
Readers of this book will be impressed by the amount of information Nader has provided to support his choice of each of the 12 CEOs, and admits that more individuals could have been included. Devoting a chapter to each one, he details how they initially followed the typical business route using the profit motive as a measure of success, but eventually found it more rewarding to include improving the quality of our air, water, food, education and most importantly, life and the future of our planet.
Following is a brief review of two of the CEOs.
ANITA RODDICK was a British citizen who founded The Body Shop franchise, a company that sells natural skin and hair-care products. She revolutionized the retail beauty industry and became one of the wealthiest women in the retail beauty industry - and at one time in her career, became one of the wealthiest women in Great Britain. She rejected established thinking that the goal of a business is to make as much profit as possible, and spent her entire life and work as an example of this philosophy. Interest grew quickly when she used common people as models in her advertising, rather than the ultra-glamorous women to which everyone was accustomed. She promoted no testing on animals by the cosmetic industry, and introduced the recycling of class bottles to lessen pollution.
In 1984 Roddick’s company went public with a stock offering that gave employees a stake in her fortune, and she made sure that The Body Shop products and policies did not adversely affect customers or the environment. Her business was recognized around the globe and became the most successful ever to arise from Britain.
Continuing her focus on long-term good rather than short-term profits, she set up direct economic ties with many indigenous people, blending locally produced natural substances in her products. Her company’s goal was to go to the source, cut out the middleman, and trade directly with the people who raised or provided the needed ingredients.
In 1988 she became aware of an impoverished area of Glasgow Scotland where shipyards and steelworks were closed, and half of the men were unemployed. Within eight months the Soapworks factory, with a payroll of one hundred workers, was opened to supply one third of all the soap requirements for all The Body Shops worldwide. Roddick agreed to donate 25 percent of future profits to a trust for the benefit of the local community.
Through the 1990s and into the early 21st century, Roddick had to deal with single-minded aggressive stock analysts who did not like The Body Shop’s controversial social justice issues like challenging political power, corporate power, and international injustices.
She teamed up with Greenpeace, and led an international campaign against ExxonMobil calling it the “No.1 Global Warming Villain.” She was a speaker at international meetings, and marched in citizen and labor protests. The Queen of England made Anita Roddick “Dame Anita,” which she accepted to expand her audience. It was then said that “Anita is the real thing---you’d never know that she was the CEO of anything.”
RAY C. ANDERSON, an Atlanta-based industrialist and Founder and Chairman of Interface Inc. was the largest carpet-tile manufacturer in the world, doing business in one hundred countries. In 1993 the Clinton administration released a report warning about the coming devastation from “climate change” if recycling renewable resources, and the reduction of greenhouse gases did not occur. There was little or no response to this warning, as business and industry, the largest polluters, continued their current course and ignored the criticism.
In 1994, while speaking before a task force of industrialists from around the world, Anderson was asked, “What is Interface doing for the environment,” a question now more commonly asked of his salespeople by customers such as hospitals, universities, office buildings, etc. When requesting bid quotations, they required the inclusion of explicit environmental policies. Since Anderson needed answers, he began extensive research and became seriously moved to become a lifelong advocate for doing no harm to the environment. He described his earlier self as a “plunderer of the earth” and remarked, “unless somebody leads, nobody will. Why not us?” He challenged his sales managers and himself to lead the company to sustainability, or taking nothing from the earth that is not naturally and rapidly renewable.
They altered every step of their manufacturing process and measured the reductions in harm to the biosphere. They found that their costs went down. Profits increased, and demand for their products grew. Their visibility and goodwill among customers also rose higher than an expensive advertising campaign could possibly have generated. They also learned that their strong environmental ethic had no equal for attracting and motivating good people to share a higher purpose. Anderson’s reaction to all of this was “We’re making history.” Walmart CEOs visited an Interface factory in Georgia where reduced package redundancy and waste resulted in lower costs and increased profits. This influenced Walmart to apply Anderson’s specification to their 60,000 suppliers.
During public presentations, Anderson related many examples of how the life-support systems of the earth are being destroyed. Listeners identified with one or more of the causes…one polluted stream, one eroded ton of topsoil, one disrupted animal migration, one corrupt politician, one open-pit coal mine one poorly designed carpet, one poverty-stricken, or exploited human being…his list went on.
Anderson always stayed on message, as it increased sales and profits while cutting costs year-in and year-out. He received scores of awards and honorary degrees, and served on boards of major environmental groups, yet many of his suggestions, adopted by corporations, were not publicly acknowledged and did not receive front-burner publicity.
At the end of his life in 2011, many questioned whether he could be equaled or surpassed. The answer was yes. At a Global Climate Action Summit in 2018, Jay Gould, the Interface CEO, announced that its 2020 target of no negative environmental impact was accomplished, and he revealed the new goal of becoming carbon negative by 2040. As Anderson believed, “if any company can do it, every company should do it.”
Final point of interest: Interface was made a founder of the American Museum of Tort Law, for generously implementing Anderson’s promise to have its floors covered with their carpet tiles. Visitors remark on their beauty and durability. It is the only Law Museum in the world, established by Ralph Nader and located in Winsted, Connecticut.
https://mailchi.mp/nader/whats-the-matter-with-good-news-for-a-change?e=0207408050
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