Author: Dr. Bruno R. Cignacco
Publisher: Routledge – Taylor & Francis Group – 303 pages
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram
The author Dr. Bruno Cignacco begins this book with a prologue in which he quotes Albert Einstein:
A human being is part of a whole called by us as the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection to a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
He points out that most business owners and managers today have been taught and operate under the paramount assumption that competition with rivals is the key to success.
Cignacco also lays out and discuses beliefs that most business organizations’ executives and employees hold dearly, as essential to success.
First of all, that a business is a zero-sum game in which there is a single winner and a single loser, or a single winner and many losers.
Among the other beliefs (which he later shows do not necessarily have to guide owners and managers towards successful outcomes) are: competitors as threats, imperative innovation, limited resources, difficult customers, belief in the might of technology, unloving work environment, commoditized people, and widespread conflicts.
The author then writes that he asked himself at several points in his career: “Is there a way to perform business activities more humanely?. After years of dwelling on this thought-provoking idea, the answer to this paramount question can finally be found in this book. In the following chapters, I will elaborate on the relevant aspects of business which have been dismissed in most relevant business bibliographies.”
As you can note from the titles of the chapters, the author discusses business as having a purpose and a mission, that its owners, managers, and even employees have a passion to serve, as well as a prosperity mindset for themselves. Notice how many times he uses the word ‘love’ !
- Purpose and Mission
- Relentless Passion
- Prosperity Mindset
- Additional Aspects of a Prosperity Mindset
- Love and Business Activities
- Stakeholders and Love
- Loving Ways to relate to Stakeholders
- Natural Conversations with Stakeholders
- The Use of Positive Language with Stakeholders
- Adopting a Loving Attitude toward Employees
- Additional Aspects of a Loving Attitude to Employees
- Adopting a Loving Attitude toward Customers
- Adopting a Loving Attitude toward Other Stakeholders
- Love and Creativity
- Additional Aspects of Love and Creativity
Appendices
- Appendix A: Stress and Business Activities
- Appendix B: Mindfulness and Business
- Appendix C; Marketing and Manipulation
- Appendix D: System Thinking and Organization
- Appendix E: Compassionate Negotiation
- Empathetic Use of Social Media
- Additional Ways to Generate Intuitive Insights
This truly a different sort of book and the author spells out a refreshingly new and innovative approach so that all entities in a company end up winning!
Author:
Bruno R. Cignacco, PhD is an international business consultant, international speaker, and business coach. For 20 years, he has advised and trained hundreds of companies on international trade activities and international marketing. He is also a Principal Lecturer in Marketing. He teaches international marketing, marketing management, product innovation, public relations and research methods at GSM London (in partnership with Plymouth University).
He taught business modules at other universities in the United Kingdom, such as Birkback University, Lancaster University, University of Wales, and University of Central Lancashire, among others. He has also taught business modules at universities in other countries. He has been lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels for more than 17 years. He is a member of the Center for Research and Executive Education at GSM London.
He is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. He is also a Master Life Coach and Master Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner. He has studied disciplines related to personal development for more than 20 years and has delivered countless talks and seminars, and has held conferences in several countries.
He is the author of Fundamentals of International Marketing for SMEs (Atlantic Publishers, 2011), which has also been published in Spanish (Maachi Publishers, 2004), and Portuguese (Saraiya Publishers, 2009). His other business book is Techniques of International Negotiation (Maachi Publishers, 2014). He is also the author of several books on personal development in several languages.
Visit his two websites: www.BrunoCignacco.com and www.HumanOrientedEnterprise.com
