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
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The Company We Keep
Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place
"If faced with the proverbial literary quandary--a deserted island--I most certainly would set aside all those fictional masterpieces and cart along this endearing and irresistibly hopeful book on how to reconstruct my home and livelihood on an island...
Abrams' work is a compelling and celebratory reminder that companies like South Mountain are desperately needed in a time of real estate boom and inevitable bust and the ruins left in their wake."
—Jeff Biggers, The Bloomsbury Review
"John Abrams is a philosopher disguised as a businessman. His chapter challenging the gospel of growth ought to be read by every business person struggling to keep up with a crushing workload, and wondering why we're all so determined to grow bigger and faster when it's killing us (and the planet). John shows how we can step off the treadmill and back into life."
—Marjorie Kelly, Editor, Business Ethics
"The Company We Keep . . . is a must-read for anyone considering employee ownership or striving to create sustainable companies and communities."
—Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
"John Abrams is not only one of my favorite builders on the planet, he's also one of my favorite thinkers. In this age of mergers and acquisitions, where bigger is always better and money is the only bottom line, The Company We Keep offers hope for those of us who value craft, compassion, and community."
—Kevin Ireton, Editor of Fine Homebuilding
"John Abrams gives entrepreneurs what they really need: proof that sustainable business works."
—Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and President of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
"John Abrams tells a wonderful story, full of ideas about our society. We all need the South Mountain Company--and its human lessons."
—Anthony Lewis, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner
"The Company We Keep is a great read with a great message that should have relevance to virtually any company that cares about more than making money."
—Alex Wilson, Executive Editor of Environmental Building News
"John Abrams takes readers on a journey that is as rich, fulfilling and purposeful as the company that he has lovingly helped to shape and steward over the last two decades. The Company We Keep is a soulful and refreshing reminder that businesses are no different from families, communities or for that matter any other human organization--without mission or purpose, they can be lifeless, irrelevant and even destructive, but infused with intention, they can sow the seeds for a hopeful future. Abrams' employee owned South Mountain Company serves as an example that entrepreneurs are only limited by our imaginations when it comes to prioritizing care, kindness and compassion for employees, community and the environment."
—Gary Hirshberg, President and CE-YO of Stonyfield Farm, Inc.
"I am using your book as a required text in my course on social entrepreneurship at Berkeley this semester. I recently finished reading it and really love what you wrote. . . [S]uffice it to say I think you have built a model which is exemplary and others should emulate if we want to make our lives, families, communities, nations, and the world a more meaningful, prosperous, healthy, and enjoyable place."
—Paul Frankel, Lecturer at the Center for Responsible Business, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley
"While The Company We Keep tells the personal success story of this revolutionary company, that's just the beginning of all the places it goes. Written in a down-to-earth conversational voice and laced with insightful side trips that offer additional lessons, Abrams examines the role business can and should play in creating and sustaining healthy communities. He sets down a framework for a model of employee ownership and community involvement that works."
—Seventh Generation
"Useful to organizations everywhere that appreciate that bigger isn't always better, money isn't always the endgame and true success comes from the meaningful work of dedicated people."
—E: The Environmental Magazine
"One of the best, most exciting business books I have ever read."
—Anne Alexander, Authentic Alternatives Business Breakthroughs Coaching
"The Company We Keep [is] a manifesto outlining . . . passionate belief in employee ownership, corporate responsibility, sustainable design, and the spirit of craftsmanship."
—James McCown, Boston Globe Sunday, "Vineyard Mover and Saver" (Real Estate section)
"An exceptional, insightful guide for socially conscious business."
—The Midwest Book Review
"This book has irreversibly changed my attitude toward business and life altogether. It's powerful."
—Martin Knauss, Lehigh Construction Group
"John Abrams is a philosopher disguised as a businessman . . . [He] shows how we can step off the treadmill and back into life."
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