UEFA Champions League
Buy used
£3.69
FREE delivery 25 - 28 April. Details
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by Goldstone-Books
Condition: Used: Very Good
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

John Browne
Follow
Tommy Stadlen
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Connect: How companies succeed by engaging radically with society Hardcover – 10 Sept. 2015

by John Browne (Author), Robin Nuttall (Author), Tommy Stadlen (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
Get 3 for the price of 2 Qualifying items | Terms
if you qualify Qualifying items | Terms
The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller.

Drawing on the experience of John Browne, former CEO of BP, and the insight of two McKinsey experts, Connect articulates and explores the recurring rift between big business and society, offering a practical manifesto for reconciliation. This timely and important book features candid interviews with global leaders at the heart of this debate, from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein to Tony Blair and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

Connect shows how companies and executives can enhance their performance by engaging radically with the world around them.
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-10
    0753556928
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0753556924
  3. Publisher
    WH Allen
  4. Publication date
    10 Sept. 2015
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    16.2 x 3 x 24 cm
  7. Print length
    320 pages
Next slide of product details
Amazon Books Sale
Shop early deals up to 70% off. Learn more.
Save 15% on Baby Einstein

Product description

Review

"This bold and timely book helps us redefine the way we think about business and serves as a compelling blueprint for the future." (Arianna Huffington)

"More than ever before, the world, both developed and developing, is going to need its businesses to survive and prosper. As a start, the 2,000-year-old history of anti-business sentiment needs first to be understood and then acted upon. Gaps need to be closed; gaps not just of perception but of reality. And it will be businesses, not society, who will need to make the bigger moves. This intelligent, practical book suggests what those moves should be. Of immediate value, I believe that only three years from now it will be seen to have been a trail-blazer." (Sir Martin Sorrell)

"The mission statements of corporations often include shareholders, customers and employees, but as Browne shows, a commitment to society at-large has been largely absent. Rather than transparency and engagement, businesses have become more closed and isolated. Connect shows why and how business must radically change to thrive in the 21st century." (John Hennessy)

"This book redefines three discredited words: Corporate Social Responsibility. Far too often they exist as a bit of window dressing or conscience-salving. John Browne wants to put them at the centre of businesses – both because it’s right and because success in business is inextricably linked with sustainability. It’s all the more compelling because of Browne’s own years at the top in business." (Alan Rusbridger)

"Connect offers a radical and different way of thinking about business. Typically of John Browne, he has put together an inspiring call-to-arms to create the companies society deserves." (Alastair Campbell)

Book Description

Connect fundamentally redefines the role of business, combining captivating stories from inside today’s boardrooms with absorbing history and original research.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ WH Allen (10 Sept. 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0753556928
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0753556924
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.2 x 3 x 24 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 32 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Tommy Stadlen

    Tommy Stadlen

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Tommy Stadlen is a Founding Partner of Giant Ventures, the global venture capital firm backing purpose-driven technology founders. Giant has offices in London, LA and Copenhagen.

    Tommy is Co-Founder of the Tailwind group, which has launched three public companies with a combined market cap of over $1bn. He is Chairman of Tailwind International (NYSE: TWNI), and Board Director of Tailwind Two (NYSE: TWNT).

    Tommy Stadlen was previously Co-Founder of Swing, a consumer technology company chaired by Twitter founder Biz Stone. In 2017, Swing exited to Microsoft where Tommy held product leadership roles.

    Tommy is the best-selling author of ‘Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically With Society’, written with former BP CEO Lord Browne. He is a frequent contributor to media outlets including the New York Times, Financial Times, BBC and Bloomberg.

    Tommy Stadlen is a former McKinsey consultant and previously worked for President Obama. He graduated with First Class honours from Oxford and holds an MSc (Distinction) from the London School of Economics. Tommy has been recognised by the Financial Times as a top 50 Global Ally Executive and by Entrepreneur’s ‘Best Companies in America’ award.

    See more on the author's page
  2. John Browne

    John Browne

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
32 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Mr D O'leary
    5.0 out of 5 stars How Corporations can communicate with Credibility
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent! Anyone who has had to work with in the 'Corporate Stakeholder Communication Worlds' will appreciate this clear thinking, concise expose of a better way! Browne to be congratulated again!
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • CHRIS J. ARNOLD
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Business with ideas that translate through to ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Great book. Business with ideas that translate through to marketing but essentially about money. It's message is that companies need to connect with community and society to be successful. Hardly a inspirational though, but written by the e CEO of BP - one of the biggest polluter of all time - it probably is anew thought. B2C redefined as Business to Communities. It's seen through the eyes of financial minded people (bottom line and shares) so not very ethically minded people. The author dismisses CSR as an idea that didn't deliver bottom line - I think he missed the point. Lots of stories and case studies. I've worked with Jalebi, who deliver this thinking and the next stage on, so found the book a few years behind progressive community engagement thinking in marketing. Worth checking out Browne's videos on YouTube too.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Mayfly
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Great insight. A must for all leaders wishing to do it the right way. Jeremy at Mayfly Consulting uk
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Londoner
    3.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable tales of Corporate communications, but nothing special. Useful.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 June 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Ok but PC and packages the obvious
    Helpful
     Report
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Very good!
    Helpful
     Report
  • james003
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Thoughtful and inspiring.
    Helpful
     Report
  • TOR89
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2015
    Connect is an easy and engaging read (unlike so many ‘business’ books). This is a must read for anyone interested in corporate history, or in the relationship between ‘big business’ and society at large.

    This not a theoretical book. It’s punctuated throughout with interesting and relevant historical case studies, and the interviewee list reads like a who’s who of the business and societal elite.

    The basis of the book is simple - business is not engaging with society in the right way, to its (and society’s) cost. To often the short-term focus on shareholder return and token nods towards ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ leaves business out of touch, and if they’re not careful, out of pocket or out of business. The authors lay out a clear remedy for how business needs to connect with society.

    Some have commented that the remedy is simple, and perhaps even predictable. This begs the question - why aren’t businesses doing it already then? The thrust is the remedy might be simple to understand, but simple to implement it is not. For many companies this remedy isn’t a nugatory change in what they do, it’s a fundamental shift in how they think about their role in society. Browne, Nuttal and Stadlen lay out a compelling case that companies will have to do this if they are to succeed in the modern world.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • James Murphy
    2.0 out of 5 stars Only Connect?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 September 2015
    Lord Browne’s many fans in the business community are really not well served here.

    Although Connect claims that CSR is “dead” what it really says is that CSR could be done a whole lot better if delivered by the right leaders. But no-one who believes that companies should do no more than build shareholder value is going to be moved in another direction by the analysis here - nor is anyone who believes that CSR has brought substantial benefits to corporate organisation and to society at large in this century already.

    For this is a confused, evasive and selective history of the frictions between enterprise and community. Long sections on the misdeeds of the East India Company and Cecil Rhodes and co in Africa read like undergraduate padding while the very obvious bullets resting in the mouth of this whole story are simply not bitten. Why, for instance, precious little on recent banking scandals, super-bonuses, fines, imprisonments?

    Given the declared goal of re-balancing the search for profit against the needs of people (employees, for example), it is striking that Lord Browne seems to have spent his prep time talking only to fellow CEOs (Hank Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein, Paul Polman, Howard Davies, etc - all heavily referenced here). Why no conversations with the McDonald’s workers embittered by their low wages in the US? Or with some of those immigrant workers in the Gulf justifiably concerned at poor safety standards? Without any such voices, the tone of Connect is relentlessly patrician.

    And the drift towards the saddest banality is, one suspects, a consequence. Try : “Governments simply have to be more intelligent if they are to help business play a more useful role in the world”. Or : “It is in the long-term interests of both society and business to have effective, proportionate regulation”. Or : “Society will need to ask companies to go beyond win-wins (sic) but the low-hanging fruit can take us much further than many observers realise”. Honestly!

    More, Lord Browne is too easily convinced by the Reservoir of Goodwill theory of reputational assets, ie that companies who invest in strong reputation-building will be protected against public outcry if a bad mistake is made or a scandal breaks. There are business consultants who have been laughed out of boardrooms trying to sell that one. For it is a very naïve proposition indeed, one that cannot depend on a few judiciously chosen anecdotes and examples. Does Ryanair depend on the Reservoir of Goodwill Theory? Amazon? Uber?

    Lord Browne wants to make the world a better place. Good for him. But he writes with such sermonising unpersuasiveness that you could weep.
    18 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • Frank Calberg
    4.0 out of 5 stars Connect
    Reviewed in Germany on 11 April 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Takeaways from reading the book:
    - Location 1400: Technology driven transparency is shifting the balanced of power away from traditional institutions such as governments and companies towards individuals. Social media has redefined the way we interact with the world - democratizing the publication process. Companies and governments need to adapt by engaging with people, inviting people in, learning from people, involving people.
    - Location 2100: Connecting with external stakeholders can set companies apart in several ways: From new revenue steams and reduced regulatory risk to reputational enhancement, market access and lower resource costs.
    - Location 2300: Lord Leverhulme, who founded Unilever, invented a soap that he used to help reduce infant mortality in Britain. Also for Paul Polman, former leader of Unilever, purpose must play a strong role for a company.
    Report
  • KK
    5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it!
    Reviewed in India on 22 February 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Thank you. Very good book for aspiring business leaders.
    Report