Recommended Books

Strategy
Strategic Change
Marketing
Stakeholder Strategy, Stakeholder Marketing
Integral Theory and Application
Sustainability
Sustainability, Entrepreneurship
Healthy Organizations
Vocation

Strategy

Hosfeld & Associates promotes the long-term success and viability of our clients by helping them develop strategies to offer something uniquely valuable to the market. Our selection of strategy books provide resources for identifying, cultivating and leveraging your unique strengths.

by Hamel, Prahalad
Written by Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad, Competing for the Future provides two seminal concepts - strategic intent and core competence -- that enable companies to construct strategic frameworks within which they can innovate and evolve, yet maintain congruence and alignment over time. Use of these concepts also allows companies to align corporate strategy with marketing and brand strategy formulation, enabling them to bring authenticity and substance to their brand promises.

by Alan Glassman and others
Shares examples from several organizations of effective strategy making that is ongoing, continual and shared throughout entire organization.

by Alan Briskin
How do breakthrough ideas and strategies come to us? Through case histories from business and social justice movements, Columbia Business School professor William Duggan explores the source of strategic intuition, how it is different from other forms of intuition, and how to cultivate it in your own workplace.

Strategic Change

Strategy implementation has the potential to create both fear and enthusiasm. It’s important to anticipate both factors and address them proactively and constructively.

by Robert Kegan
Addresses the complexity of human experience in both desiring and resisting change. Kegan's deceptively simply model helps individuals and organizations identify and address the "competing commitments" that hold us back from the changes we truly desire.

Marketing

The marketing titles we recommend are books that support various aspects or facets of the emerging model of marketing we call "transformed marketing." These titles represent new mental models, values-based practices and success stories of those who employ them.

by Harvey Hartman
The Hartman Group's approach to market segmentation -- a series of concentric circles -- makes better sense of actual consumer behavior than traditional market matrix models. It's particularly helpful for understanding strategic relationships and the use of relationship-based or social-networking types of information distribution.

by Chip Conley, Eric Friedenwald-Fishman
An excellent summarization of what comprises not just socially responsible marketing, but good marketing - period.

Stakeholder Strategy, Stakeholder Marketing

Stakeholder marketing is an approach that seeks to establish, cultivate and deepen relationships with key stakeholder groups based on trust and interest alignment. It's been shown to reduce marketing costs and help companies remain more resilient in difficult economic circumstances.

by Chip Conley
The essence of stakeholder marketing is deep investment in strategic relationships. In this book, Conley describes how he invested in relationships with employees, customers and investors using Maslow's hierarchy of needs to create layers of interest alignment with them.

by David B Wolfe
If you know the book “Good to Great,” you’ll be fascinated by “Firms of Endearment,” by David B. Wolfe, Raj Sisodia and Jag Sheth. “Most studies of corporate exceptionalism …start with financial performance and work backward. We started with humanistic performance – meeting the needs of stakeholders other than shareholders – and worked forwards,” they write. The result? The publicly traded firms in the study outperformed the S&P 500 by significant margins over 10-, 5- and 3-year time horizons. Some generated 1,026% return for investors over a 10-year period, compared to 122% for the S&P 500 and “Good to Great” companies.

Integral Theory and Application

Integral Theory seeks to create a comprehensive map of human experience and human systems that helps us understand where we are and how we can be more successful. Hosfeld & Associates' consulting processes are "integrally informed," and we utilize various integral models in organizational consulting and environmental analysis.

by Ken Wilber
Increased interest in the business applications of Integral Theory makes this pocket-sized summary a useful introduction and desktop reference. Named one the best books of 2007 by Publisher's Weekly.

Sustainability

by Marc Epstein
A nuts and bolts handbook of measurement tools essential to implementing sustainability in the corporation.

by Jill Bamburg
Our colleague Jill Bamburg, consultant and professor at the local Bainbridge Graduate Institute, based her book on intensive interviews with over 30 growth-oriented, mission-driven entrepreneurs whose stories demonstrate that it is possible for socially responsible businesses to grow and compete successfully.

by Peter Senge
Senge and his colleagues bring Fifth Discipline methods and strategies to the process of engaging individuals and companies in using sustainability to create a better future for all.

Sustainability, Entrepreneurship

This collection of stories by pioneers in sustainability provide both inspiration and insight.

by Anita Roddick
The story of the founding of the Body Shop.

by Tom Chappell
The Tom's of Maine story.

by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
The sustainability journey of Ben & Jerry's premium ice cream company.

by Paul Dolan

by Jeffery Hollender
Observations from the leader of Seventh Generation.

by Paul Hawken
Smith & Hawken founder Paul Hawken talks about his early efforts in entrepreneurship.

Healthy Organizations

Performance is enhanced when human interactions -- internally and with external stakeholders -- are characterized by respect, honesty and care, and when work and commercial exchanges are transformative. These books represents approaches and capacities that enhance the emotional and spiritual intelligence of individuals and teams.

by Baker, Greenberg and Hemingway
Utilizing the latest research in neuroscience, the authors provide strategies for how to tapping the potential of employees and organizations, and creating uniquely productive, high-performing teams.

by Pat Hughes
Describing both a philosophy and a tool for changing conversations, relationships and cultures, Gracious Space: A practical guide for working better together is a work of deceptive simplicity. Written by Center for Ethical Leadership Director of Curriculum Pat Hughes, Gracious Space is a 92-page monograph that explores the philosophy of Gracious Space and its applications to personal, organizational and community life. What makes this book so powerful is the understated delivery of a profound approach to reframing our view of ourselves and others in community.

by Cameron, Dutton and Quinn
Highly academic but a foundational book in mapping the territory of what makes organizations self-renewing and resilient.

Vocation

The organizations we create or the work we choose can be our greatest teachers. They offer us the opportunity to live out our calling and values. These books speak to the challenges of vocation and authenticity in work.

by David Whyte

by Parker Palmer

by Thomas Moore

by James Hillman

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