A Review of ‘Screw Business As Usual’ by Richard Branson
(Portfolio/Penguin, New York, 2011)
This book came to our attention courtesy of a Linked-In discussion launched within the Cambridge Sustainability Network (CSN) (by Richard Barrington). CSN belongs to the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, which in turn is associated with the Prince of Wales’s Business and Environment Programme.
The book is also the subject of an interview of Branson by MSNBC’s Matt Lauer, in which use of the phrase “force for good” is frequent and prominent. Although the phrase is in common use, rarely, if ever, is it paired with Cities, where as such it has been defining for us. So there was a learning opportunity here: How might our notions of Cities as Forces for Good in the Environment tally with the wealth of Branson’s empirical experience of acting as a force for good in the “real world”? How might the two be mutually and reciprocally catalytic in bringing about change? How does concept inform action and vice versa? These are questions of growing interest to our Network.
Contributed by M. B. Beck
Responses to “Screwing Business as Usual: Measuring Up to Richard Branson’s Book”