A highly readable and thought-provoking set of interviews about leveraging wealth to make the world a better place.
Jafar presents a collection of experts’ and pundits’ reflections on the commerce of philanthropy.
In his nonfiction debut, the author paints a wide-range portrait of the current state of the world and the challenges that it poses to contemporary philanthropic institutions: “The geopolitical fractures that constitute the headlines every day—regional conflicts, political extremism, and the resulting refugee and humanitarian crises,” he writes, “are compounded by environmental challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, energy and food shortages, and global health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.” Wealth is being created at unprecedented rates everywhere in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, he notes, and whether motivated by an urge to give back to communities, religious obligations, or government incentives, “strategic philanthropy,” as Jafar calls it, has likewise been on the rise. But in many of these countries, as the author points out, “next-generation donors are demanding more hands-on and evidence-based approaches to giving, and higher standards of accountability and transparency.” In this book, he collects many detailed interviews he’s conducted with CEOs and industry leaders, young and old, and the perspectives range over many aspects of philanthropy. Naina Subberwal Batra, CEO of Singapore-based AVPN, points out that although Southeast Asian countries have been involved in philanthropic causes for centuries, it needs much more “institutional” philanthropy to meet the needs of the modern world, and Wamda Group Chairman Fadi Ghandour reflects on the connection between business and philosophy: “This story of ‘the business of business is only business’ doesn’t work anymore,” he warns. “There is a social responsibility for business, not only in the PR sense.”
Jafar’s collection of reflections on “strategic philanthropy” must contend with the common criticism that some wealthy philanthropists pursue their activities not only to help humankind, but also, as Ghandour notes, for good PR. Cynical readers are likely to find some fuel for such criticism in these pages, which feature reflections by princes, sheiks, sultans, and at least one baroness. Certainly, there are questionable moments, as when readers are told of an annual roundtable that has “welcomed nearly 40 philanthropists from around the world”—a not-inconsiderable outlay of air-traffic carbon emissions for an event that aims to address sustainable carbon emissions. However, there are also a great many earnest, heartfelt sentiments in this book about the urgent need for giving, especially in the modern moment: “We are not human beings anymore, because the word ‘human’ doesn’t exist in economic jargon,” says the well-known professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Jafar also proves himself to be a skilled interviewer, highlighting conversations that are uniformly engaging, particularly when multiple subjects bring up common concerns. For instance, Jacqueline Novogratz, the CEO of the award-winning not-for-profit Acumen, is not the only interviewee to mention how the new interconnectedness of the modern world affects philanthropic activities. Overall, this balance makes the book a compelling read throughout.
A highly readable and thought-provoking set of interviews about leveraging wealth to make the world a better place.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780008620950
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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