Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil

by Christine Bader

There is an invisible army of people deep inside the world's biggest and best-known companies, pushing for safer and more responsible practices. They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don't always succeed. Christine Bader is one of those people. She worked for and loved BP and then-CEO John Browne's lofty rhetoric on climate change and human rights--until a string of fatal BP accidents, Browne's abrupt resignation under a cloud of scandal, and the start of Tony Hayward's tenure as chief executive, which would end with the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Bader's story of working deep inside the belly of the beast is unique in its details, but not in its of feeling like an outsider both inside the company (accused of being a closet activist) and out (assumed to be a corporate shill); of getting mixed messages from senior management; of being frustrated with corporate life but committed to pushing for change from within. The Evolution of a Corporate When Girl Meets Oil is based on Bader's experience with BP and then with a United Nations effort to prevent and address human rights abuses linked to business. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other "Corporate Idealists" working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.

Genres: Sustainability, Nonfiction, Business, Environment, Book Club, Contemporary

264 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 2014

Reviews

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was supposed to read this for a sophomore year class about business and human rights...whoops! Glad I still got around to it.

I hope one day this book's subject matter won't be such a niche topic. I think a lot of my friends in the corporate world would find value in reading it.

Book's overall structure and timeline could have been clearer.

[Bibliovoracious · Rating 5 out of 5]

A window into a world I know nothing about, and quite a reassuring and uplifting take-home message: within corporations everywhere, there are people working with passion for the greater good.

[Nicole Latos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is important and very helpful to those of us who identify as “corporate idealists”. I’ve seen little other literature on this subject and I was very excited to read it. Many points resonated with me and gave me new perspectives on how to a. Job search and b. turn my idealism into practical action items at corporations.

My main issue with the book is actually the “gendering” of the cover art. The hearts, teal blue, and subtitle “when girl meets oil” are CLEARLY meant to market the book towards females. But to me, this book is just as relevant to females and males. At no point in the book is gender a discussion (although I could understand if it was). It bothers me so much because it seems to just commoditize the book, which is on a subject matter that I’m passionate about.

Another concern with the book is a paternalistic tone throughout. It’s important to note that corporate idealists are not morally superior to anyone - not activists, not laborers in Indonesia, and not corporate executives. I think the key is that is more about bringing new perspectives. There were some very clear examples of paternalism which weakened the book.

Finally, the book is very poorly organized. Concepts are introduced multiple times, sometimes in chronological order, sometimes not. It’s unclear whether this is supposed to be a memoir or what the real objective is, but better organization could have enhanced key points.

[Caroline Petruzzi McHale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christine Bader is a source of inspiration. favorite line: "the challenges we face are systemic and complex. but that doesn't mean I can't do anything about them."

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's 5 stars for the first half and 2 stars for the second.

The author should have stopped at the logical end of her own story and not have dwelwed into career advise for sustainability professionals and random bits of wisdom from (long-retired) other sustainability experts.

It feels as if the author ran out of material but the publishers kept asking for more - thus were added the miscellaneous anecdotes and thoughts. It came at a price though - the logic, storyline, and just the order of things got completely scrambled.

I read the first 80% of the book in 20%of the time - just gulped it down, it was great at first... But struggled to finish the final 20%.

Oh well, perhaps other readers can just enjoy the good half of the book and rate it higher! My average for the entire book came down to 3 stars, alas.

[Ra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some interesting ideas about working as an idealist from inside the corporate world. How companies do it, but mostly how individuals find their way into the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the challenges they (and their companies face). More of a roadmap of the territory, and less of a deep exploration of the subject. At times I felt it read like a long resume of the author.
Comments specific to the audio version: I felt that the narrator misrepresented the author's character. The few passages Ms Bader read in the introduction and conclusion made her sound genuinely warm, mature and quiet, while the narrator sounded like a "new adult" looking for a party.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christine Bader’s book is a cogent and concise book that introduces readers into the world of corporate idealists and their impact on CSR. Through her anecdotes of her role as a corporate human-rights specialist for BP in Indonesia and China, Bader makes an argument that even some of the globe’s largest firms have some sort of moral compass.

[JD Morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

After 6 years in my bookshelf, I finally finished reading this book about "corporate social responsibility" by #christinebader.

The takeaway from this book: big corporations control governments and influence communities; and CSR is optional (and not required).

[Desislava · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting insight into Corporate idealist world. As a sustainability professional, I definitely recognize some of the challenges and internal struggles, experienced by the author.

[Anton Nikolov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sneak peek into the corporate world illustrating that there are many people trying to do things right and with ethical approach but the sheer complexity makes things not that linear.

[🏒📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

every business major needs to read this

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Low five. I am fascinated by the stories shared by these corporate idealists. Corporate social responsibility is a tricky topic but these stories bring up a ray of hope.

[dumpling2141]

Reminds me of the time an OCI recruiter told me that Darth Vader writes her checks

[Ted Lehmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil by Christine Bader (Bibliomotion, 2014, 266 pages, Kindle price $10.99) is an important book for several populations to read. It is aimed quite accurately at those people who wish to work inside corporations to make them more ethically, morally, and socially responsive to organizations, those who would view multi-national corporations as rapacious, greedy organizations paying no heed to the social, economic, environmental, or safety needs of workers, and the media which publicize conditions and disasters with little attention to context or the challenges presented. Bader succeeds in meeting these goals by exploring her own doubts and fears, accomplishments and failures as she works in corporate, United Nations, and non-governmental organizations to make a difference in the areas of corporate responsibility and means of communication.

After earning her undergraduate degree at Amherst College, where she was on the squash team, and an MBA at Yale, Bader joined BP, helping direct projects involving human rights and community safety. Her earliest assignment was to the Tangguh region in Papua, New Guinea (Indonesia) where BP was seeking to develop a huge Liquified Natural Gas project in a remote, undeveloped area of the country. Based on the company's and her knowledge of previous difficulties encountered by both BP and other extractive corporations, particularly Exxon/Mobil's disastrous and expensive incident's in Aceh Province, BP, under the leadership of Chairman John Browne became committed to finding a different road, which would avoid the environmental damage and social unrest often created by such large projects. Achieving these goals involved developing new, sensitive approaches to communicating with indigenous populations as well as unstable governments and corrupt officials to gain their willing cooperation. Such negotiations require that all stakeholders be thoroughly involved in the process of development, coming willingly on board. In what is often called “the paradox of plenty,” newly found riches often lead to the destruction of the moral and cultural life of local people and governments leading to resistance and huge cost in security and lives.

Along the road to seeking solutions to such problems, Bader learns negotiating and interpersonal skills as well as cultural sensitivity that helps BP avoid the disruption often caused by development and mulit-nationals' not heeding the local power structure or communities while dealing mostly with the government at the top. Bader suggests that for both business and moral reasons, corporate willingness to take stands by making the correct moral choices is almost always the right thing to do. It is essential, she says, for corporations to avoid complicity in human rights abuses. The risks, ranging from causing disruptions in family life to excusing accidental death as a cost of doing business can only increase resistance to a company's presence. Often, human rights specialists wish to publish transparent reports about local and world issues while company lawyers hold back, fearing publicity and liability, always taking “worst case scenarios.” Bader tags Reebock, Nike, BP, and Apple as leaders in helping set global supply chain standards despite the adverse publicity they have received. Read the rest of my review on my blog here: http://tinyurl.com/mhwtpr4

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received the ARC of this book through Edelweiss. Thanks!

It's rare that a business book holds my attention all the way through, but this one did. Bader recounts her time working for BP and struggling to make a difference in the human rights issues the company faced. There's quite a lot of hero worship for John Browne in this book--the author is clearly quite taken with him, even plugging his upcoming book. I'll admit that I'm now considering reading it, so she talks him up successfully, at least.

Bader also spent time working with the UN and other organizations on human rights activism. She pulls quotes and anecdotes from other "corporate idealists" that she's befriended throughout her years of work, and these tidbits add depth to the story. I had mixed feelings about her internal struggle after leaving BP; it's hard to write "what if I could have made a difference?!" without sounding very self-important, and she does a credible job of not crossing the line into eye-rolling territory. Still, it's a bit awkward to read.

The book feels a bit disjointed in some places as we move through time and experiences. Unfortunately, the ARC version for Kindle did not have an font differentiation between Bader's voice and the quotes from other corporate idealists, so it was often confusing trying to track where their voices ended and hers began again. I assume this is not an issue in the print version.

I found the discussion of corporate idealism to be very interesting. Bader points out that corporate idealists are insiders to the public but outsiders in the company--to the public, they are part of the corporate problem of too much focus on profits, but within their companies they are often perceived as problematic for not focusing enough on profits. It's a unique position to be in, and part of the takeaway message of the book: there are good people everywhere, fighting the good fight. Just because you may not see them, doesn't mean they're not out there.

[Richard Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is rather dense, but by necessity, not by whim. To effectively communicate complex issues such as those which arise at the intersection of business, government, and international human rights requires extensive experience and extensive research - both of which author Christine Bader possesses in droves.

Anyone interested in Corporate Social Responsibility should read this because Bader expounds upon how she got started in this line of work, her various roles and responsibilities over the years, and her personal and professional learnings from each move. Perhaps more important is her argument that the process by which this work is done is even more important than the work itself - a theme which resonates whether Bader is in the trenches of Indonesia or the United Nations headquarters in Geneva - because it has the potential to encourage other companies to follow suit, eventually creating industry-wide standards.

I also believe that this should be essential reading for executives at multinational corporations, especially those who aren't familiar with the idea that conducting operations in a socially responsible manner can lead to greater long-term profits, or those who recognize this but don't have a path forward to execute on this knowledge.

Nevertheless, I must dock a star. While I believe the book is incredibly informative, at no point did it have an emotional impact on me - even as Bader was discussing some of the most grievous scenarios she's been privy to personally. To cite one of my favorite quotes in the book, from Harvard Business School professor John Kotter: "People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.

Bader goes a long way to show the truth here, but a little more pathos would certainly help.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is best read by college students and/or those new to the, or thinking about joining, the "corporate idealist" profession. I do quite like that Bader seamlessly integrates human rights, sustainability, and social/economic/environmental issues broadly, recognizing that people working in these fields are all essentially fighting for the same things, part of the same tribe, and that
these issues aren't divisible.

The early chapters about Bader's Indonesia and Chinese projects, and her time at London headquarters can feel a little too close to navel gazing. She also repeats certain basic facts in each chapter, I believe with the intent that one chapter can be taken out and read separately and discussed outside of the rest of the book, perhaps in a class. Since I was reading the whole book, these sorts of "here, let me tell you what you read last chapter" were mildly irksome. This is more on the lines of a pet-peeve than an actual critique of the book, I suppose, so short were these re-caps.

It ended stronger than it began. The last two chapters are about "Corporate Idealists", identity, different theories on affecting change, the interplay of different roles(mainly NGOs and corporate idealists) were, I believe, the most relevant and interesting part of the book.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it possible to work inside a company like BP and have a desire to make the world a better place? Christine Bader believes that it is, or at least was, when John Browne was CEO. Under Tony Hayward, we had the Deepwater Horizon spill and a general pullback from alternative energy work – not so easy to be a Corporate Idealist there and then.

Christine Bader’s story raises some fascinating questions about the extent to which you have to be sympathetic with the hero of the story to listen to the tale. I found myself debating her position, that there was good work to be done from the inside, at every turn. I found it hard to believe her sincerity. And I wondered why she just didn’t quit. So of course she did. Now she’s working for a non-profit on corporate responsibility and raising twins.

Fair enough. Her TEDx talk is similar: poised, confident, and not authentic enough to grab you the way you need to be grabbed these days.

[Ruth Chippendale · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone working on environmental issues from within a major energy company I had never thought of myself as a 'corporate idealist' - however, many of the issues and dilemmas discussed in the first part of this book struck a chord.

It was surprising to realize that social and environmental issues have only relatively recently started to be considered as part of project development. Most companies having learned the hard way, this is standard practice now for many with a lot of structure and process around it. But Christine Bader seemed to be doing all this, almost for the first time, as recently as the 1990s.

I enjoyed the second half of the book less than the first, I found the real world projects she was working on more interesting than the protracted policy negotiations in the UN work. So I expect did the author.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the way large companies deal with social and environmental issues - the good and the bad.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

easy read, interesting, and provides insight into the business world.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice, and it doesn't underplay the many ambiguities involved in working inside for-profit companies to make the world a better place.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more practical/actionable books I've read on this topic, which is a little ironic considering that it's a memoir. Very well done.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Loved it. Kept me interested the whole way! Love her perspective