An expert on ethical command analyzes the complicated history of business people who tried to marry the quest for income with virtuous organizational practices-from Uk industrialist Robert Owen to American dealer John Cash Penney and skinny jeans machine Levi Strauss to such modern-day entrepreneurs Anita Roddick and Tom Chappell.

Today’s business leaders are more and more pressured by residents, consumers, and government officials to handle urgent sociable and environmental issues. Although about The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to accomplish Well by Doing Good some commercial executives remain deaf to such calls, during the last two decades, a handful of business leaders in America and Britain have attempted to produce business organizations that were both rewarding and socially accountable.

In The Enlightened Capitalists, James O’Toole tells the largely forgotten stories of men and women who adopted forward-thinking business practices made to serve the needs of their workers, customers, communities, and the natural environment. They wished to verify that executives didn’t have to make trade-offs between profit and virtue.

Combining a wealth of study and vivid storytelling, O’Toole provides life to historical numbers like William Lever, the inventor of bar soap who made the most profitable firm in Britain and used his cash to greatly enhance the lives of his workers and their own families. Eventually, he lost control of the business to lenders who quickly terminated the enlightened methods he previously initiated-the fate of several idealistic capitalists.

As a new generation attempts to address social problems through enlightened organizational command, O’Toole explores a significant issue being posed today in Britain and America: Are virtuous corporate practices compatible with shareholder capitalism?