Change for Good: An Action-Oriented Approach for Businesses to Benefit from Solving the World's Most Urgent Social Problems

Description

Written by a leader with 35 years experience, Change for Good explores businesses' new bottom line: helping to solve social problems. Featuring personal experiences and practical tools that will help businesses, their employees, and the public to take action and make change. An action-oriented approach for businesses to solve the world's most urgent social problems - and benefit from doing so. More than a year into a global pandemic, profit and shareholder value are no longer the primary metric of business success. Customers, shareholders, and communities are demanding that companies do good, do more, and do better. In Change for Good, Paul Klein shows how companies must move beyond what he calls "corporate social responsibility light" and demonstrate how they can help solve social problems that have been defined as UN Sustainable Development Goals. Change for Good is a new system for making social change through business that reflects Paul's experience over the last 35 years. One of the core principles of Change for Good is including people with lived experience of social problems in identifying promising solutions and collaborating to bring these solutions to life. This methodology can create impactful and sustainable social change in society in ways that aren't possible when executives make decisions in their boardrooms that are intended to impact the lives of vulnerable people. Through personal experiences, case studies, and practical tools, Change for Good will inspire readers and their organisations to make the shift from a passive social responsibility to taking action to help solve the world's most pressing social problems.

Paul Klein is a global authority on helping businesses benefit from solving social problems. In 2001, Paul founded impakt, a B Corp that helps corporations improve their social impact on the world. Paul is also the founder of the Impakt Foundation for Social Change, an organization that creates pathways to employment for vulnerable people. He resides in Toronto, Ontario.

"Change for Good needs to be read by every CEO (actually, by every leader of every organization or institution, regardless of title). Paul Klein asks some tough questions in this important book: Do you think of your organization in the wider context of society, or are you only fixated on the bottom line? Is your organization really interested in helping to create a better world or are you content to practice what Klein calls 'CSR Lite'? Do you understand that committing to change for good will actually make your organization stronger? This last question is at the heart of the book, as Klein doesn't just want to point to our problems -- he is more interested in offering solutions. Through three decades of experience in social change activism and professional work, Klein has developed models and best practices for corporations to follow that can help them actually change for good. As Klein makes clear, the case for change is more than clear in light of significant challenges that most people now recognize as fundamental threats to society. As he argues, now is the time for businesses to place social change at the core of their corporate culture." -- Dr. Barry Craig, President and Vice-Chancellor, Huron University College "Paul Klein strips back the rhetoric on corporate social responsibility to tell it like it is: most businesses practice CSR Lite, mere communications fluff. What the world needs today is meaningful and measurable social change that targets the world's biggest challenges. In Change for Good, Klein lays out chapter and verse exactly how that can be done. This engaging and highly readable book is for serious business leaders ready to tackle 21st-century challenges." -- Tim Draimin, Senior Fellow, Community Foundations of Canada "Paul's big heart, brain, and commitment to real impact stand out in Change for Good. Guiding skittish business leaders to make a real difference is never easy, but Paul asks thoughtful questions and outlines practical ways to help you come to grips with the apparent contradiction of impactful business. Rather than a contradiction, it's a path to succeed and make a positive impact. Time to take the next step." -- Rod Lohin, Executive Director, Lee-Chin Institute at the Rotman School of Management "The crises of recent years have shown that for companies there is a moral imperative, and they have a social responsibility to contribute to the achievement of SDGs. With Change for Good, Paul Klein undoubtedly shows a new and promising strategy for how businesses can shift from taking passive corporate social responsibility to contribute to active and intentional societal change. He does this with more than 20 years of experience and countless examples in clear language, never intrusive and always instructive, vivid, and entertaining. And modest: the last words in the book belong to others." -- Markus Lux, Senior Vice President of Global Issues, Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH "When Jerry and I built Ben & Jerry's we had to invent a way that our company could help solve social problems and be profitable at the same time. In Change for Good, Paul Klein provides a roadmap to do just that. By sharing stories, examples, tools, and inspiration, he shows businesses how to become more successful by taking action to change people's lives and make the world a much better place. I wish we had this book forty years ago!" -- Ben Cohen, co-founder, Ben & Jerry's