ISBN: 9781933392196 Year Added to Catalog: 2006 Book Format: Paperback Book Art: 60 b&w illustrations, appendices Number of Pages: 6 x 9, 328 pages Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1933392193 Release Date: May 15, 2006
Also By This Author
The Company We Keep
Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place
o What caused you, in 1987, to give up control of your company by selling to the employees and converting to employee ownership?
o If you had it to do all over, would you do it again?
o Do you think all businesses should be employee owned?
o What makes you think there's any future for this kind of shared ownership in the mainstream business world?
o Why do you think the socially responsible business movement hasn't more fully embraced shared ownership?
o How can you effectively use broad consensus decision-making in a business environment that requires so much expertise and sound judgment?
On Growth and Competition
o You challenge the assumption that businesses must grow to be successful. What's the basis for that challenge?
o Isn't there a danger of stagnation and low morale when a business just pokes along without sustained growth?
o In your book you talk about an unusual model for franchising. Talk about that.
o You also challenge the notion that competition is valuable. Isn't it an unavoidable and important fact of life, and the engine of productivity?
On Commitment to Place and Local Entrepreneurship
o Given that Martha's Vineyard is such a wealthy place, why are your experiences replicable, and relevant to other places?
o Can local commitment and local economies actually be a force in the face of globalization?
o You use the term "community entrepreneurism." What do you mean? How is this different from the more common term, "social entrepreneurism?"
o You have made an unusually strong commitment to the small island where you live and work, and you do your work only in that community. In an era of global commerce, isn't that terribly limiting?
On Ecological Building and Sustainable Development
o In your design/build work you have integrated the entire process, and South Mountain Company handles everything from the planning to the furnishing. Isn't this an unusual approach today, when specialization is the prevailing model?
o How did you get involved with renewable energy and green building?
o Most of the wood you use is salvage. How do you find it? Where does it come from? How can you do such refined work with discarded material?
o I've never heard of an Owner's Manual for a house. How long have you been doing that and why?
o Affordable housing seems to be an important part of your work. Isn't it an unusual combination - luxury second homes and affordable housing? Talk about the connection, and the difference between the two.
On Long-Range Thinking
o Say what you mean by "thinking like cathedral builders."
o Currently, we see solutions predicated on four year election cycles. How is problem solving different when we think in terms of 25, 50 or 100 year solutions?"
o Why is it important for businesses to endure?
On John Abrams and Business
o What do you hope the impact of your work and your book will be?
o What advice would you give to small business people who want to find more meaning in their work lives?
o How does the CEO of a thriving small company find time to write a book? What were the circumstances that compelled you to do this?
o What impact did your two sabbaticals have on your company?
o You run a business and write a book and yet you never went to college. You design buildings and never went to architecture school. You build them, and yet you never had any training or apprenticeship. How did this all come to pass?
For interviewing and contact information, please contact the Chelsea Green publicity department.
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