In today’s tough economic climate, entrepreneurs are hardier and more innovative than ever. They have to be in order to get the attention of investors. This fall’s line-up of entrepreneur gatherings is power-packed. Full of exciting new ventures, entrepreneurs and the VC world are exploding with opportunity and innovation.
What’s Good About Wall Street?
Given the current market volatility and public mistrust for Wall Street, it’s refreshing to highlight financial services firms that make money the old fashioned way: Through Time-Tested Integrity Models. Hennessy Funds, a publicly traded U.S. equity asset management firm based in Novato, California manages shareholder & investor money with an unwavering committment to transparency.
Robert J. Jackson, Jr. is an expert on Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance. Before joining Columbia Law School as an Associate Professor of Law in 2010, Jackson was an advisor to the Department of Treasury and the “Compensation Czar” Kenneth Feinberg in the Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation.
Professor Jackson’s job was to convince shell-shocked and angry finance professionals to take a salary and bonus haircut in response to the outraged general public demanding it. The Professor speaks about capitalism in post 2008 America, Wall Street finance, ethical issues on compensating success and failure, Occupy Wall Street, corporate transparency, and how to bridge the gap between Wall Street and Main Street.
At a recent conference in New York, hosted by SABEW (Association of Business Editors and Writers), NYSE Chief Operating Officer Larry Leibowitz spoke of the New York Stock Exchange’s mandate: “We have an obligation to restore confidence in the system by showing transparency and integrity.”
“As an ‘impact investor’ in Grasslands, one of the true, unanticipated delights has been the amazing quality of the people the project has attracted. By connecting one’s investments with, and in the process building life experiences and careers for, real people doing real wealth creating work connected to the land, an investor experiences a profoundly different meaning in the word “value” than experienced when picking a good hedge fund to invest in. This is what we mean by the “purpose of capital” at Capital Institute.“
Podcast: An Interview with Eco$ maverick, Thought Leader and former CEO Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender and Good-b CEO Monika Mitchell. Jeffrey Hollender speaks out on his new innovations to support small sustainable business, eco-economic systems, and how business can be a force for good. Part One: CSR is not enough to change the world! Part Two: [...]
Good-b Earth: The Flatiron Nabe’s One Stop Shop! Along with its many partners, including Oscar Farinetti, Chef Mario Batali, mother and son Lidia and Joe Bastianich, Eataly New York counts Slow Food innovators among them. In case you have not heard, Slow Food is the alternative to industrialized, heavily processed Fast Food. Carlo Petrini, Slow [...]
Bhakti Yoga world-renowned spiritual leader, Radhanath Swami teaches American and western capitalists at Milken Insitute, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton how to overcome greed and find peace in service and love.
Washington Post Leadership Playlist names Good Business International “Standout Company of the Year” Share and Enjoy:
Available Now on Ebook and Bookstores!
“Conversations with Wall Street: The Inside Story of the Financial Armageddon and How to Prevent the Next One”
Headlines are screaming the days’ news regarding the financial crisis, but this book takes you inside them! Hear firsthand observations from Wall Street insiders and find out what went wrong and how to prevent another crisis!
Chandran Nair, the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) will discuss the shifting perspectives on growth with a focus on resource scarcity and the nature of consumption, as economic power shifts from West to East. Chandran Nair’s WEF invitation reflects the increasing interest in Asian perspectives on the inter-related issues of globalisation, resource constraints and economic growth.
David Jones, CEO of Havas a global marketing company, has joined the growing cadre of good business leaders. Jones has written a handbook for corporate public relations departments and C-suite executives detailing the newest and most prominent trend in marketing: transparency and social responsibility
But environmentalism is not and should not be a religion – instead, we should conceive of it as praxis for business and society. Nor do we all have to be saints; even the smallest change helps. We’re seeing this now, with the insurance industry making small steps in the direction of “climate insurance”: for instance, some companies allow drivers who drive less (and use less gas) the option of slightly lower premiums. It’s not much, but we’ve got to start somewhere.
Seats in corporate boardrooms are opening up for women. Female representation is reaching new levels European countries adopt quotas to push for more women in high-level positions.The policy marks a milestone for female equality in the workplace.
Co-authors Peter Ressler and Monika Mitchell are long-term Wall Street insiders as former partners in a bond market search firm. Their book is a page-turning account of the 2007-8 meltdown and continuing unsolved issues that will inevitably lead to the next crises. Woven throughout their analysis are conversations with dozens of top executives from Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, AIG, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and many hedge funds and private equity firms. Only the executives’ first names are used (for obvious reasons), which makes their recorded interviews with the authors more revealing, with all the vivid expletives un-redacted.
Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves – compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. Coke and Pepsi are now competing to be first to market with a soft drink bottle derived entirely from sugarcane or other plant materials.
“In a world that continues to be plagued by violence, economic hardship and environmental destruction, and a media landscape that continues to underrepresent women, particularly in empowering leadership roles, we need a GREAT Wonder Woman film in hopes that it could prove a turning point not only for media, but for our societies in general.
In the early 1990s I moved to Santa Fe, NM to work with some friends who were building Seeds of Change, the organic seed (and now food) company. Early on in my work there I become responsible for “managing” the warehouse, where the seeds were stored, packed and shipped, and where orders were processed. Its staff, about a couple dozen people, was the largest cohort in the company. As it turns out, when I paid my first visit there, about a month after my arrival, I discovered that no one from the main office (which was across town) had provided any guidance, management or support for many months, and the facility was disorganized, the team demoralized and the overall energy and productivity were low.
Organizations invest billions annually on a success curriculum known as “leadership development,” which ends up leaving so much on the table. Training and development programs almost universally focus factory-like on inputs and outputs — absorb curriculum, check a box; learn a skill, advance a rung; submit to assessment, fix a problem. Likewise, they leave too many people behind with an elite selection process that fast-tracks “hi-pos” and essentially discards the rest. And they leave most people cold with flavor of the month remedies, off sites, immersions, and excursions — which produce little more than a grim legacy of fat binders gathering dust on shelves.
Bard College introduces a new MBA in Sustainability and its future of mission-driven business education. “1 Hour MBA in Sustainability” January 24, 2012 Event. RSVP required.
Good-b Sends Big Congratulations to North America’s 2012 Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior
From early 2008 through 2010 I posted a series of comments here on the Good Business International site in a column titled, “The Spirit/Money Split.”
At first I was simply interested in observing and commenting on the sensibilities of our financial, economic, and political leaders and experts based on orientations I’ve cultivated in the realms of spiritual development and emotional understanding of self and other. These domains are where I’ve spent my career. In the blog I made a habit of remarking on reports that caught my attention in business periodicals such as “Financial Times” and “Fortune.”
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