The Integrity Advantage

by Dana Telford and Adrian Gostick

Book Overview

Where are you right now?
The Integrity Advantage give you tools to take stock and to solidify or revamp the integrity in your business life.
"They'll tell you (with a wink) that these days, nice guys finish last. If that's what you've been hearing, may we respectfully suggest you're running with the wrong crowd. And we've got some folks we'd like you to meet," say Adrian Gostick, a respected business writer, and Dana Telford, a Harvard researcher.
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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586852469
• ISBN13: 9781586852467
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Length: 107 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Do the Right Thing...It Works

This thin and easy-to-read book looks at a number of companies, most of them quite well-known--and shows how their ethical commitments to treat their workers fairly, be honest with their customers, and minimize negative environmental impact all help create a healthier bottom line. Citing examples from Canadian Tire (Canada's #1 rated employer to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to an unknown insurance agent whose refusal to lie about a policy's starting date to cover a pre-existing claim led an initially greedy client to give him over a million dollars worth of business, the authors demonstrate that standing up for what's right generates more profit. Unlike my own Principled Profit, the examples don't really look at the marketing benefits--but it does look closely at the difference in public perception of a Johnson & Johnson or a Gillette that does the right thing, and an Enron that does not. And they occasionally look beyond the business context, as in the powerful example of Clarence Jordan, leader of an interracial and egalitarian Christian community in the segregated American South of the 1950s. When he tried to buy chicken feed from a local merchant, the storekeeper would only sell to him if Jordan publicly renounced his views on integration. He answered, "I just came in to get a bag of seed. My soul is not for sale." The authors identify and explore 10 characteristics of integrity--including, ironically enough, the feeling that people of integrity are quiet, humble, and don't "spearhead large ethical crusades." I hope they'll forgive me for touting their virtues in spite of my own campaign for the Business Ethics Pledge [...] . And when faced with ethical quandaries, they suggest a four-step process for evaluating the decision. Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.

Social Resp & Profit Motive, mutually exclusive?

Over the last few years, corporate performance has taken a back seat to corporate governance. With every scandal that rocks Wall Street; Enron, Adelphia, Anderson, and WorldCom to name a few, issues like ethics, morals and social responsibility are plastered on the top of the fold of rags ranging from the NY Times to the Morgan City Daily Review. Through interviews with some of the world's most respected CEO's, Adrian Gostick and Dana Telford's book "The Integrity Advantage" sheds an interesting perspective of corporate integrity and how this integrity, in fact, is truly a competitive advantage. The authors describe ten characteristics that are consistently displayed by people with integrity. Although none of these are compelling and shed new light on integrity, the authors emphasize the importance through the experience of the CEO's and demonstrate how incremental improvements in each one develops the reader's decision making enhancing their own reputation of integrity. It would seem, on the surface that integrity is an easy concept to understand and apply. However, the NIKE example speaks to how this is not the case. Although conceptually we can grasp integrity and how this may, in fact, be a competitive advantage, what the book does not address is how it fits within the construct of social responsibility. In other words, is integrity as described in the book, aligned with Milton Friedman and Elaine Sternberg's view of corporate responsibility? Or does it follow the framework put forth by Elizabeth Anderson and R. Edward Freeman? I am inclined to believe the spirit of the book falls somewhere in the middle. The book quotes some of the most successful smartest CEO's in the world. And although social responsibility and certainly integrity are of primary concern, each one of these individuals has a profit motive for being in business. Otherwise, they would be heading up a nonprofit organization. It seems to me these two, integrity and having a profit motive should not be mutually exclusive. Although as Friedman states, social responsibility as a motivating factor in decision making is in fact taxing the shareholders of whom you have a fiduciary responsibility to act in their best interest. As Sternberg states, you have to be able to differentiate between business and other institutions. There should be a distinct line, roadmap if you will, to address both, but make no doubt that the business is the first and foremost responsibility of the executive. That said, there is something to be said of Anderson's and to some degree Freeman's views of social responsibility. The corporation should consider and behave in a way that considers both benefits and consequences to its stakeholders. This does not mean that it should act to promote the greatest benefit to its stakeholders, in doing so it ignores the aforementioned fiduciary responsibility. In my humble opinion Freeman is wrong, they do not have nor should have legal "requirements"

A valuable book of values!

If you want to know how some of the most successful businessmen and women integrate integrity into how they hire employees, run their businesses, and guide their lives -- get this book. If you want to know why integrity is a real business asset -- get this book. With interviews from some of the biggest names in the business world, Telford and Gostick have crafted a simple, effective roadmap to understanding integrity, understanding yourself, and understanding the tremendous power of integrity. Without being self-righteous or preachy, "The Integrity Advantage," provides sound, practical business advice that is needed more today than ever. Whether you're a CEO, a manager, or a manager-to-be, get this book.