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Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World
A fresh, realistic guide to help companies navigate the new ethical challenges and risks in a volatile global landscape. Today's headlines are full of employee unrest over racial injustice, communities infuriated by corporate environmental impacts, staff anxiety over surveillance, and discoveries of child labor in supply chains. We’ve traveled far and fast from the old world of business ethics, where black-and-white concerns about bribery and fraud could be addressed with rules and processes. Simply maximizing shareholder value while not breaking the law is no longer an option, but we've never been so confused about what it means to do the right thing. In this eye-opening, indispensable book, NYU ethics professor Alison Taylor argues that amid stakeholder demands and transparency pressures, we can no longer treat ethics as a legal and reputational defense mechanism. Leaders at Davos and the Business Roundtable have called for a new corporate responsibility paradigm, but how to implement their ideas remains an open question as organizations struggle in an atmosphere of heightened expectations and intense suspicion. Offering vivid stories and examples, Taylor brings this complex, risky environment alive to provide a blueprint for how leaders should rethink and reshape their practices. How can CEOs cut through the noise to set robust environmental and social priorities? When should they speak out on contentious social and political issues—and how? What does it really take to build a healthy organizational culture? How are we to approach corporate values when society is so divided? Higher Ground will show leaders how business can navigate this messy paradigm shift, build trust, and achieve long-term strategic advantage in a turbulent world.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 13, 2024
77 people are currently reading
1710 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 7, 2024
3.25/5
The book is well written, and this may have a lot to do with my job, but I didn't learn much. Even for folks who do not know a lot about ESG, I couldn't help but wonder what's an action they, personally, could take tomorrow to make their business better. While there is a ton of good advice for what businesses can do to not be trash (again, none of which was new to me), the reader would have to be a decision-maker within the company to make that happen. Additionally, a lot the suggestions, a main one being to conduct a materiality assessment, cost money. The reader would need leadership buy-in to be able to do that, and Taylor isn't providing a ton of hard evidence to arm the reader with in order to make the case for a materiality assessment.
I think the book would've been a lot better if it was focused more on storytelling than general advice giving with a few short examples scattered throughout. The long quotes from the different business representatives were the most interesting part of the book. I would've loved to learn more about how that person came to the conclusion. For instance, how did the Impact person at Chobani learn to focus on where the business can actually make impact? What's the full story there?
Again though, I do have a background on this topic, and a lot of this was review for me. So maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as others seem to. Overall, I wouldn't not recommend this book if the title speaks to you, but just note that unless you're an executive at a company, there's probably not much you can actually do with the information in the book. It will just give you more ammunition to be annoyed when you see your business leaders doing the exact opposite. SMH.
The book is well written, and this may have a lot to do with my job, but I didn't learn much. Even for folks who do not know a lot about ESG, I couldn't help but wonder what's an action they, personally, could take tomorrow to make their business better. While there is a ton of good advice for what businesses can do to not be trash (again, none of which was new to me), the reader would have to be a decision-maker within the company to make that happen. Additionally, a lot the suggestions, a main one being to conduct a materiality assessment, cost money. The reader would need leadership buy-in to be able to do that, and Taylor isn't providing a ton of hard evidence to arm the reader with in order to make the case for a materiality assessment.
I think the book would've been a lot better if it was focused more on storytelling than general advice giving with a few short examples scattered throughout. The long quotes from the different business representatives were the most interesting part of the book. I would've loved to learn more about how that person came to the conclusion. For instance, how did the Impact person at Chobani learn to focus on where the business can actually make impact? What's the full story there?
Again though, I do have a background on this topic, and a lot of this was review for me. So maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as others seem to. Overall, I wouldn't not recommend this book if the title speaks to you, but just note that unless you're an executive at a company, there's probably not much you can actually do with the information in the book. It will just give you more ammunition to be annoyed when you see your business leaders doing the exact opposite. SMH.
April 30, 2024
I came into this book with low expectations. Just another business psych/leadership book. It exceeded those. I think Alison does a great job showing there is no one perfect approach, but there are ways to align organizational strength with ethics and impact. I really liked the focus on avoiding mission creep and focusing on what you can control and owning up to weaknesses in a business being a competitive advantage. If you’re interested in sustainable and ethical business I highly recommend! Not preachy, feels like it meets you on the level.
September 23, 2024
Author does a good job covering the complexity of doing business ethically in today's complex environment. I liked the approach of starting with defining your company's purpose, and looking at impacts of your actions to all stakeholders, before deciding on a course of action. A good primer and a good approach for any busienss leader to read.
February 13, 2024
How we conduct business, and how we can do it better, has always been a ready-made topic for every coffee bar, classroom, or corner store. The world is awash in recommendations, but few make me stop to peruse each comment slowly, carefully, with a visceral experience of ideas that fit my own experience. Fewer yet get me to return to the text multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Alison Taylor’s new treatise, Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World now rises to the front of this conversation. Her book goes beyond insightful to serve as a helping hand to any business prepared to accept the demands from consumers, workers, civil society, and government to be better and deliver more.
The 21st Century has brought us a very different kind of business leader. We still expect business executives to provide our world with a steady flow of jobs, income, and benefits, along with a glittering array of products and services. But society at large now demands these results across a work environment that is fully equitable, reflecting deep respect for culture, gender, and nature, and in full transparency. Ultimately, we want a business world we can trust. The bottom line: we don’t just want to buy shoes, new tires, pet food, or coffee. We want our transactions to be an integral part of the social and political relationships that forge our democracy. Our political system decided corporations get the same rights as people. We now want them to behave like people and be part of progressive social change. In this new world, quarterly reports aren’t going to do it any longer.
This sounds like a lot to ask, and it is. But it is also completely reasonable. It doesn’t take a deep dive to see how many businesses are missing the mark. They may be talking about these issues and highlighting them in glittery ads. But pay scales, advancement opportunities, diversity, and meaningful reductions in climate impacts are superficial at best and missing in action in too many cases. The business and financial world do hold an enormous responsibility for these problems, and they should bear a fair share of the responsibilities, including the costs, to mitigate them. But building a new generation of business persona is an enormous ask from any MBA program. How do we prep our next community of business and financial leaders to embed these skills and traits in their basic motor functions? Where will we find the training ground to prepare this next generation of business leaders?
Taylor’s Higher Ground is the perfect place to start. She takes on the challenge with her sleeves rolled up, and a clear-headed vision of precisely what needs to change, and how to get there. Higher Ground is artfully structured, building a solid foundation through intimate stories of the challenges business face, all framed within Taylor’s more than 25 years of personal experience in the trenches with a dizzying diversity of businesses. She scaffolds up from here to provide a multi-storied structure of critical insights, again consistently conveyed through personal real-world stories. We get to sit in on corporate conversations with global powers like Exxon-Mobil and Coca-Cola, and with smaller West African start-ups. Her insights lead us around the world on new tech adventures across America, Asia, and the Pacific, constantly in search of what “good business” looks like, and, more important, how to get it on the ground. Taylor’s treatise also maintains a consistent reminder that the next generation of workers, executives, and consumers expects much more, and has no intent to accept less.
Higher Ground deserves to be in the corner of every business manager and executive’s desk. It is a toolkit and roadmap gracefully interlaced, and it should be consulted each time confusion seeps back into the planning and decision-making process. The text speaks eloquently to managers and executives – they know these issues, demands, and needs can be the difference between higher sales and obscurity. Higher Ground arrives deftly organized around the most pressing issues straining their days - building trust, incorporating social and environmental priorities, tackling corruption, seeing the impacts your business has on human beings, responding to politics and the law, being transparent.
I could see quickly that this is not just a book for the overlords. The insights synthesized across page after page also speak directly to everyone in the business chain – employees, investors, and consumers. Taylor’s careful breakdown of the core issues and responsibilities lays out the key ingredients in a successful 21st Century business plan. But it also frames the arguments of many workers struggling to improve their lot in the production cycle. It also tells me, as a consumer, what I need to demand from those who deliver my daily supply of goods and services. And it helps me see when a business is truly being successful.
As a Professor in NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, Alison Taylor gets to spend lots of time with the next generation of business leaders. She wisely and correctly points out that her students are not hoping for careers with ethical businesses. They expect them. I would go further. My students don’t just expect to work for businesses that are climate neutral, gender inclusive, worker responsive, and transparent – they demand it. They will make lattes for a fairtrade organic coffee shop before they take a job with a non-responsive corporation. And their demands are growing. Taylor has conveniently given them a concise road map to guide them in their personal and professional negotiations. She doesn’t give them a book of answers, which is good, because that is not what they want. Instead, she gives them a collection of insights from her experience that will drive their own critical thinking. Every business student wants to have this book in their backpack, and needs to flip through it slowly, patiently, running their fingers over the key insights, one after the other. And each teacher and business educator should make certain these students have found this impressive work. How we get to Taylor’s Higher Ground is the conversation we need to be having.
The 21st Century has brought us a very different kind of business leader. We still expect business executives to provide our world with a steady flow of jobs, income, and benefits, along with a glittering array of products and services. But society at large now demands these results across a work environment that is fully equitable, reflecting deep respect for culture, gender, and nature, and in full transparency. Ultimately, we want a business world we can trust. The bottom line: we don’t just want to buy shoes, new tires, pet food, or coffee. We want our transactions to be an integral part of the social and political relationships that forge our democracy. Our political system decided corporations get the same rights as people. We now want them to behave like people and be part of progressive social change. In this new world, quarterly reports aren’t going to do it any longer.
This sounds like a lot to ask, and it is. But it is also completely reasonable. It doesn’t take a deep dive to see how many businesses are missing the mark. They may be talking about these issues and highlighting them in glittery ads. But pay scales, advancement opportunities, diversity, and meaningful reductions in climate impacts are superficial at best and missing in action in too many cases. The business and financial world do hold an enormous responsibility for these problems, and they should bear a fair share of the responsibilities, including the costs, to mitigate them. But building a new generation of business persona is an enormous ask from any MBA program. How do we prep our next community of business and financial leaders to embed these skills and traits in their basic motor functions? Where will we find the training ground to prepare this next generation of business leaders?
Taylor’s Higher Ground is the perfect place to start. She takes on the challenge with her sleeves rolled up, and a clear-headed vision of precisely what needs to change, and how to get there. Higher Ground is artfully structured, building a solid foundation through intimate stories of the challenges business face, all framed within Taylor’s more than 25 years of personal experience in the trenches with a dizzying diversity of businesses. She scaffolds up from here to provide a multi-storied structure of critical insights, again consistently conveyed through personal real-world stories. We get to sit in on corporate conversations with global powers like Exxon-Mobil and Coca-Cola, and with smaller West African start-ups. Her insights lead us around the world on new tech adventures across America, Asia, and the Pacific, constantly in search of what “good business” looks like, and, more important, how to get it on the ground. Taylor’s treatise also maintains a consistent reminder that the next generation of workers, executives, and consumers expects much more, and has no intent to accept less.
Higher Ground deserves to be in the corner of every business manager and executive’s desk. It is a toolkit and roadmap gracefully interlaced, and it should be consulted each time confusion seeps back into the planning and decision-making process. The text speaks eloquently to managers and executives – they know these issues, demands, and needs can be the difference between higher sales and obscurity. Higher Ground arrives deftly organized around the most pressing issues straining their days - building trust, incorporating social and environmental priorities, tackling corruption, seeing the impacts your business has on human beings, responding to politics and the law, being transparent.
I could see quickly that this is not just a book for the overlords. The insights synthesized across page after page also speak directly to everyone in the business chain – employees, investors, and consumers. Taylor’s careful breakdown of the core issues and responsibilities lays out the key ingredients in a successful 21st Century business plan. But it also frames the arguments of many workers struggling to improve their lot in the production cycle. It also tells me, as a consumer, what I need to demand from those who deliver my daily supply of goods and services. And it helps me see when a business is truly being successful.
As a Professor in NYU’s prestigious Stern School of Business, Alison Taylor gets to spend lots of time with the next generation of business leaders. She wisely and correctly points out that her students are not hoping for careers with ethical businesses. They expect them. I would go further. My students don’t just expect to work for businesses that are climate neutral, gender inclusive, worker responsive, and transparent – they demand it. They will make lattes for a fairtrade organic coffee shop before they take a job with a non-responsive corporation. And their demands are growing. Taylor has conveniently given them a concise road map to guide them in their personal and professional negotiations. She doesn’t give them a book of answers, which is good, because that is not what they want. Instead, she gives them a collection of insights from her experience that will drive their own critical thinking. Every business student wants to have this book in their backpack, and needs to flip through it slowly, patiently, running their fingers over the key insights, one after the other. And each teacher and business educator should make certain these students have found this impressive work. How we get to Taylor’s Higher Ground is the conversation we need to be having.
January 16, 2025
I'm a brand purpose advocate so this book definitely leaves many things to ponder about.
Its view comes from a risk-mitigation perspective, that standing up for something will put a target on your back so why bother?
Nonetheless, I totally agree that corporations need to get their fundamentals right first (developing good product, harmless business and treat their people right) before they seek to influence forces outside the company.
The book also argued that employees don't need to be handed values or purpose from organisations or above, as they can seek those themselves within or outside the company. I would argue that while everyone has different goals and values, because they're in the same company, they have to compromise for the team's ultimate goals, which should be clear to them before joining.
Its argument probably meet where most businesses are, just trying to get by, rather than seeking a higher purpose. And that's okay. But companies shouldn't never shy away for doing right for their brands, people and societies they operate in, knowing that it will cost them rather than hoping to make more money.
Its view comes from a risk-mitigation perspective, that standing up for something will put a target on your back so why bother?
Nonetheless, I totally agree that corporations need to get their fundamentals right first (developing good product, harmless business and treat their people right) before they seek to influence forces outside the company.
The book also argued that employees don't need to be handed values or purpose from organisations or above, as they can seek those themselves within or outside the company. I would argue that while everyone has different goals and values, because they're in the same company, they have to compromise for the team's ultimate goals, which should be clear to them before joining.
Its argument probably meet where most businesses are, just trying to get by, rather than seeking a higher purpose. And that's okay. But companies shouldn't never shy away for doing right for their brands, people and societies they operate in, knowing that it will cost them rather than hoping to make more money.
January 24, 2024
This book has an eye opening content on ethical business, dealing with employees and stakehokders, navigating through changing landscapes and doing right things the right way. This book talks about building a business and facing demanding expectations and challenges of today's world. There are tools and frameworks, thought provoking ideas that lead to finding your higher ground. Couple of points (as example):
- Dealing with humans and how they are affected
- Having a closer look into business transparency
- Practicing corporate responsibility
- Evolving ethical business operations in a corrupt environment
- Supporting sustainable business operations.
All the above and more points uncovered in the book and we'll illustrated with real life examples. Highly recommend reading.
- Dealing with humans and how they are affected
- Having a closer look into business transparency
- Practicing corporate responsibility
- Evolving ethical business operations in a corrupt environment
- Supporting sustainable business operations.
All the above and more points uncovered in the book and we'll illustrated with real life examples. Highly recommend reading.
June 5, 2024
The thing I think most valuable about this book is Alison's attempt to incorporate "values" into the active management of business. In addition, she has a good seasoned working list of suggestions of ways to enhance active dialogue when making management decisions for actions that have or should be taken by company leadership. Healthy "dialogue" is something that seems to be eroding from our culture these days with so many issues or opinions becoming polarized and stifling conversations that challenge differing viewpoints.
May 27, 2025
Read this book for a class on ESG and sustainability policy. It was interesting, not too dense, and I enjoyed Taylor’s use of anecdotes from her fascinating career helping companies do business ethically. I felt like it got a bit repetitive towards the end, and less useful for someone like me outside of a class context. Some of her prescriptions seem obvious (focus your company’s ESG goals on where you impact people directly) but this world has gotten so overly complicated that sometimes the simplest advice is the best.
August 3, 2025
Very dry read. Great topic, but would have liked to see more concrete examples of other companies and their solutions in action (similar to the Chobani discussion toward the end of the book) or even more detail about their shortfalls since those are more common.
Many of the solutions felt pretty obvious as well - although, in light of the state of the world, I guess people need to be told some of these things after all 😔
Many of the solutions felt pretty obvious as well - although, in light of the state of the world, I guess people need to be told some of these things after all 😔
October 21, 2024
This is a book to be read not only by senior managers but by every employee. It shifts the way of thinking about corporations- as the “creatures” for which we all should be taking care of.
short, to the point, engaging and excellently written.
short, to the point, engaging and excellently written.
July 8, 2024
The author does an amazing job of conceptualizing the complex problem of how to run an ethical business and gives tools for how to thrive in the present business age.
December 19, 2024
Definitely some excellent nuggets and perspectives in this book, But I found some of it not as clear-cut as I would have hoped. More of a 3.5 for me
January 11, 2025
Brilliant, crisp read, esssential for every CEO and business student
June 6, 2024
Fantastic book. Definitely a worthwhile read
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews