The Difference Makers
Foreword
…it’s easy to dream when you watch the river flow by. I guess everybody has beautiful dreams, or should have, but the real challenge is to find a way to give them practical meaning.
Georg Kell, p. 290I look at CSR and I see a bunch of people trying to encourage people to be good and to be nice. I’m all for that, but actually I think companies succeed because they are predatory, they are territorial, they are competitive…. It doesn’t engage with the guts of the DNA of the business and that’s where I think we ought to be operating.
John Elkington, p. 278
These two comments capture much of what this terrific book is all about. Many
of us dream of a better world but only a few of us have the courage and
fortitude to make it so. Sandra Waddock identified 23 remarkable people who
stepped away from the bucolic riverbank to engage the predatory, territorial and
competitive world of the modern corporation. Their goal is to constrain the
firm’s excesses and harness its capabilities to leave the world a better place.
Their stories inform and inspire.
I was reminded of Louis Pasteur’s
famous observation as I read this book: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
Chance encounters in these folks’ lives became serendipitous moments that
sparked the creation of their influential initiatives and organizations. Not one
of them tells the tale of a planned life that led them from point A to point B
in a journey of transformation. Instead, they were all shaped by early life
experiences that gave them a set of values and capabilities that, when combined
with an astute observation of what is and what could be in the world, left them
ready to seize these propitious moments. I was inspired by example after example
of how a mindful awareness of one’s values combines with dogged determination to
create a life of purpose, meaning and accomplishment.
This book is about
more than a group of remarkable people. It is also about their work. I like to
think that I am fairly aware of the corporate responsibility movement. But, even
so, my head hurts when I try to keep track of the work of AccountAbility, the
Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, Boston College’s Center for
Corporate Citizenship, Business for Social Responsibility, the Caux Round Table,
Ceres, Corporation 20/20, the Fair Labor Association, Human Rights Watch, the
Institute for Responsible Investing, NetImpact, the United Nations Global
Compact, the World Social Forum — and so many more. Sandra Waddock has done us
all a great service by not just sharing the back-story of many of these
initiatives but also by placing them in their historical context. Moreover, she
tells us just who is doing what today in the areas of accountability,
responsibility and transparency. She has given us an invaluable mental map of
this world.
And then there is the last chapter. She mined all of her
interview notes to create a kind of conversation about where we are today and
what tomorrow may hold. Reading the chapter, I felt like I was sitting in
Sandra’s living room listening to these people reflect on their current dreams
and plans to “give them practical meaning.” I wanted to jump in and offer my own
ideas. This is the ultimate power of the book. This book is not just about these
difference makers, it is about us. By sharing what others have done in such an
accessible and even intimate way, she leaves us motivated to follow their
lead.
Ultimately, this book is not just about 23 difference makers and
us. It is about 24 difference makers and us. Sandra Waddock is a
difference maker. She had the vision and perseverance to write this book. She
gave us the mental map of the corporate responsibility movement. With her own
history of incredible work in this area, she earned the respect and trust of
these people. Without that trust, this book would not exist. And, finally, she
had the wisdom to know that, by elevating and celebrating the work of others,
she would inspire us all to get off that riverbank and engage the world.
Unbeknownst to her, Sandra Waddock left us with yet another model of how one
person’s passions and unique gifts can leave the world a better place.
James P. Walsh
Gerald and Esther Carey Professor of
Business Administration, Professor of Management and Organizations, Professor of
Strategy, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
March 15,
2008
Back to The Difference Makers page