Conscience Economy: How a Mass Movement for Good is Great for Business

by Steven Overman

A generation of people around the world, from Boston to Bangkok, from New York to New Delhi, are making everyday choices in ways that defy traditional logic. They are judging where and how their clothes were made, not just how they fit. They are thinking global but buying local. They are spending their money and their time, forming loyalties, casting votes and even enjoying entertainment based increasingly upon their desire to make a positive impact on others and the world around them. This new generation believes they can and must make the world better, and they expect business and government to get with the program. The implications of the Conscience Economy are not "soft." Ignore it, and your consumer or voter base will rebel, using a host of free tools and cheap connectivity to spread their rejection to peers around the world in real time. Leverage it, and Conscience Culture is a wellspring of financial upside. The Conscience Economy is the must-read guide to this unprecedented shift in human motivation and behavior. Author Steven Overman, Chief Marketing Officer for Kodak, provides context, inspiration and some basic tools to help readers reframe how they evolve and grow whatever it is they lead--whether it's a community, a business, a product, or a marketing campaign. From the boardroom to the startup loft, from the State Department to the pulsing marketplaces of the developing world, The Conscience Economy will help international leaders, influencers, investors and decision-makers to manage, innovate and thrive in a new world where "doing good" matters as much as "doing well."

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Audiobook

216 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2014

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Publisher Says: A generation of people around the world, from Boston to Bangkok, from New York to New Delhi, are making everyday choices in ways that defy traditional logic. They are judging where and how their clothes were made, not just how they fit. They are thinking global but buying local. They are spending their money and their time, forming loyalties, casting votes and even enjoying entertainment based increasingly upon their desire to make a positive impact on others and the world around them. This new generation believes they can and must make the world better, and they expect business and government to get with the program.

The implications of the Conscience Economy are not “soft.” Ignore it, and your consumer or voter base will rebel, using a host of free tools and cheap connectivity to spread their rejection to peers around the world in real time. Leverage it, and Conscience Culture is a wellspring of financial upside.

The Conscience Economy is the must-read guide to this unprecedented shift in human motivation and behavior. Author Steven Overman, Chief Marketing Officer for Kodak, provides context, inspiration and some basic tools to help readers reframe how they evolve and grow whatever it is they lead—whether it’s a community, a business, a product, or a marketing campaign. From the boardroom to the startup loft, from the State Department to the pulsing marketplaces of the developing world, The Conscience Economy will help international leaders, influencers, investors and decision-makers to manage, innovate and thrive in a new world where “doing good” matters as much as “doing well.”

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Exactly what it says on the tin. A corporate exec is talking to his fellows in front of us, making the point that there's lotsa money out there chasing Doing Good projects and products. This is news we don't hear that much...like the very real progress made on slowing down climate change in under a decade...that we could *just*maybe* not lose everything as Earth shrugs her shoulders to dislodge the fleas and ticks that we resemble.

Lower rating for using the corpocratic speechifyin' tone mixed with self-aggrandizement, but not the citations and suchlike gubbins one would expect to back it up.

[Kelsey Boyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ended up returning this book without finishing because I just got so frustrated every time I picked it up. I came looking for some hard evidence I can bring back to an employer/clients to prove value and all I got as proof of concept was the fact I picked up this book. IN EVERY CHAPTER.

Maybe I could have read farther and found more of what I was looking for but didn't seem worth it.

[Steve Vellines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Very interesting. I have been in "the business world" for many years and I tend to be cynical. However, Overman states his case clearly and it is actually hard to argue with his findings. I am going to recommend this book to others in my company.

[Ra · Rating 2 out of 5]

My commute listen for a few weeks. It has some good but really obvious ideas about how people are moving from an economy of pure profit to an economy that puts conscience and doing good first.

The narrator has a boring soporific voice so I used him to fall asleep a few times. I also listen on a slightly faster pace to get the book over with. I would not say it added anything profound to my life or knowledge.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's interesting (and likely true) thesis is flawed by buzzword-filled ramblings, irrelevant personal anecdotes, jerky changes of topic and tone, and too many self-congratulatory references to his work at Wired.

[Mickal Adler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The business value on a scale of 1 to 10 is about a 5. I would recommend reading a summary of this book, not that the whole book took very long, but I found the actual science to be lacking and the "evidence" primarily anecdotal.

[This book · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book idealistic af

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven's book resonates with me and so many in this age of technology we live in currently. It's brilliantly written and truly one of the best books I've read this year.