Love, Joy, Authenticity, and Soul:
Building Winning Businesses in the
New Age of Transcendence
• Why today’s most humane companies are blowing away the S&P 500 averages
• Increasing “share of heart”: delivering the emotional, experiential, and social value your stakeholders are demanding
• 30 powerful case studies, including CarMax®, Timberland™, Jordan’s Furniture, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, and Toyota™
Today’s best companiesget it. From Costco®to Commerce Bank, Wegmans to Whole Foods®: they’re becoming the ultimate value creators. They’re generatingeveryform of value that matters:emotional, experiential, social, and financial. And they’re doing it foralltheir stakeholders. Not because it’s “politically correct”:because it’s the only path to long-term competitive advantage.
These are theFirms of Endearment. Companies peoplelovedoing business with.Lovepartnering with.Loveworking for.Loveinvesting in. Companies for whom “loyalty” isn’t just real: it’s palpable, and driving unbeatable advantages in everything from marketing to recruitment.
You need to become one of those companies. This book will show you how. You’ll find specific, practical guidance on transforming every relationship you have: with customers, associates, partners, investors, and society. If you want to be great–trulygreat–thisis your blueprint.
We’re entering an Age of Transcendence, as people increasingly search for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today’s most successful companies are bringing love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: they are delivering emotional, experiential, and social value-not just profits.
Firms of Endearmentilluminates this, the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It’s not about “corporate social responsibility”: it’s about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era. It’s about great companies like IDEO and IKEA®, Commerce Bank and Costco®, Wegmans and Whole Foods®: how they earn the powerful loyalty and affection that enables truly breathtaking performance.
This book is about gaining “share of heart,” not just share of wallet. It’s about aligning stakeholders’ interests, not just juggling them. It’s about building companies that leave the world a better place. Most of all, it’s about why youmustdo all this, or risk being left in the dust... andhow to get therefrom wherever you are now.
Foreword xv
Prologue A Whole New World xxi
Chapter 1 It’s Not Share of Wallet Anymore; It’s Share of Heart 1
Chapter 2 New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism 23
Chapter 3 The Chaotic Interregnum 49
Chapter 4 Employees-The Decline and Fall of Human Resources 65
Chapter 5 Customers-The Power of Love 97
Chapter 6 Investors-Reaping What FoEs Sow 125
Chapter 7 Partners-Elegant Harmonies 145
Chapter 8 Society-The Ultimate Stakeholder 171
Chapter 9 Culture-The Secret Ingredient 197
Chapter 10 Lessons Learned 235
Chapter 11 Crossing Over to the Other Side 253
Acknowledgments 273