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.
“A fresh, realistic guide to navigating the complex social and political pressures businesses face today. ”
Chief Impact Officer
“Corporate ethics is generally thought of as a boring, dry topic. Higher Ground un-dries it, makes it lively, and explains how to use it to navigate today’s—and tomorrow’s—stormy economic waters.”
Global Curator
In Higher Ground, Alison Taylor tackles some of the most challenging questions faced by business in an increasingly turbulent political and social environment. In striking contrast to most similar efforts, she avoids both cheerleading platitudes and hymns as well as conspiratorial condemnation of the corporations she surveys. While there are myriad stories told with clarity and wit, including many in which she had personal experience, her advice can be distilled down to a simple action plan. Corporations should prioritize a small number of cases in which their business has large impact on society (i.e., externalities). They should build trusting relationships with external and internal stakeholders to learn how positive impacts can be enhanced and negative impacts curtailed. They should seek to implement such adaptation through collective action at the system-level. She works through the how with modesty and insight in the difficult cases of corruption, human rights, and corporate political activity. She critically exposes the shallowness of the safe strategies of transparency, rooting out bad apples, choosing good leaders and zero tolerance. Instead, she advocates repeatedly for systems-level thinking that acknowledges the role of CEOs and employees, communities and politicians, consumers and suppliers in building “moral muscle”that can strengthen individuals, organizations and the systems in which they interact. In such systems the data from materiality maps and financial models informs human reflection and critical thinking before organizations move slowly, cooperatively and with integrity to ensure that harmony among these elements and with their stakeholders is developed and maintained. Doing so enables them to ascend to higher ground both in competition with their peers and in contribution to society.
Vice Dean and Faculty Director,
The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Initiative. Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management in Honor of Russell E. Palmer, former Managing Partner
“The words ‘corporate ethics manual’ and ‘gripping page-turner’ do not naturally spring to mind in the same breath, but Alison Taylor makes the pages fly, reminding us, one fascinating, horrifying tale after another, that public norms can seemingly move at the speed of light.”
founding Chairman, Climate Governance Initiative
“In the acrimonious debate about how corporations should govern themselves in a society where freedom of belief is a core value, important common ground can be forgotten. Most Americans believe that businesses should treat their workers, their customers, their communities, and the environment with respect. Alison Taylor charts a sensible path for businesses that want to deliver profits for their stockholders while respecting those whose lives their conduct affects. Her practical recommendations to do the right thing build on common ground, transcending partisan labels at a time when restoring the ties that bind us is an urgent priority.”
Former Chancellor and Chief Justice, Delaware; Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
“Join Alison Taylor for a globe-spanning trek to higher ground through some of the most pressing issues of our time. Filled with insights from her remarkable career and told in her sharp and engaging style, Higher Ground is a timely and compelling read.”
Chief Ethics +
Compliance Officer
“Finally, a book about business and ethics that’s fit for the twenty-first century. Every executive should pay attention to this book.”
University Professor +
Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration
“In Higher Ground, Alison Taylor masterfully connects the dots between governance, compliance, ethics, sustainability, and the purpose of a company. She untangles the complexity with surgical precision while remaining empathetic with those who honestly try to do the right thing without being perfect. Definitely a must-read!”
Chief Ethics, Risk,
AND Compliance Officer +
member of the
Executive Committee
“In today’s volatile, complex, emotional, uncertain, and politicized business world, Alison Taylor provides a set of thoughtful, nuanced, and realistic approaches that recognize the very real challenges facing business leaders. Higher Ground is a refreshing antidote to the many superficial approaches that can drive businesses to ‘tick the box and miss the point.’ ”
business leadership adviser;
author, The New Political Capitalism
“A blunt, surprising, inspiring, no-bullsh*t guide to what it really means to be a solid business today and into the future. If you’re looking for a way out of the rhetoric and confusion, start with this book and follow Alison Taylor’s insightful critique of the evolving business and society landscape.”
Chief Sustainability Officer
“A practical guide to holding on to your values in a polarized world of work. Alison Taylor has extensive experience working with leaders on responsibility and ethics, and her recommendations are principled and pragmatic.”
#1 New York Times bestselling author, Think Again + Hidden Potential
host, ReThinking podcast
“This book is a must-read. Alison Taylor offers a hugely insightful and timely guide for anyone in the private sector committed to moving beyond compliance to integrity and to building an authentic integrity culture throughout all the functions in the company.”
Chair
(2017–2023)
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“Our organizations are at a watershed moment. Their participation in the growing social and environmental problems we face—and their crucial role in finding solutions—can no longer be denied. Activist stakeholders are speaking up and demanding action. Higher Ground is the go-to book for those wishing to navigate this tumultuous territory, and Alison Taylor’s expertise in this area is second to none.”
Professor of Leadership + Dialogue,
Hult International Business School; coauthor, SpeakUp
“This is a very timely, welcome, and well-written book. Arguments about what companies should and shouldn’t do have reached a fever pitch. Extremes on both sides are spouting ideology rather than thoughtful commentary, which is exactly what this book provides. Taylor has very pragmatic views about companies. She recognizes the many conflicts they are facing—some of their own creation—and has some hard-headed, clear-eyed advice about what they should do.”
Visiting Professor of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, Oxford University;
founding Chairman, Sustainability Accounting
Standards Board (SASB)
“Engaging, practical, and insightful. Taylor’s Higher Ground challenges conventional wisdom in the world of business ethics and brings fresh ideas by embracing the complexities of the real world and offering practical guidance. With compelling narratives drawn from experience, ideas, and research, Taylor takes her audience to higher ground with a clear compass and a steady steering wheel.”
Senior Adviser, R&G Insights Lab;
former Compliance Counsel Expert,
US Department of Justice
“Business ethics books tend to be either unrealistically idealist, unconstructively critical, impractically theoretical, or naively simplistic. Alison Taylor has found the sweet spot with Higher Ground. With an impartial, critical eye, she offers valuable practical tools and options for practitioners. A must-read for any business leader.”
CHAIRMAN
“Authentic, incisive, and practical, whether you’re a student who wants to understand how significant ESG and ethical issues are handled by the pros or an experienced executive who believes we never stop learning.”
former Senior Vice President and Chief ESG Officer
“Standing on higher ground, you see further, and you have a different perspective. Reading Higher Ground provides a real step up, a complete tool kit any business leader should have.”
serial entrepreneur;
cofounder, Burger & Lobster Restaurant Group
“The transition from businesses focusing only on shareholders to a broader focus on stakeholders is not an easy move. Read Alison Taylor’s book and use her experience, research, insights, and accessible style to be guided and inspired to become a truly responsible business.”
Coauthors, The Grey Zone
“In a world filled with hypocritical rhetoric and genuine human suffering, spin and legalistic compliance can’t pass for corporate ethics. In this groundbreaking book, Alison Taylor shows a way to higher ground, guided by valuing humans.”
Professor of Organizational Psychology, Vanguard University of Southern California;
author, The Canary Code
“Alison Taylor is a rarity: an experienced, articulate truth-teller. Her book is a timely and vital guide to help leaders navigate the polarized and shifting landscape and get far beyond the supposed shelter of banal purpose statements.”
Professor of the Practice,
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
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If you are a corporate leader who would like to know what it takes to be a trusted, ethical business today, Higher Ground will provide practical suggestions for how to navigate a cacophony of voices, set direction, focus, and integrate your efforts. Higher Ground explains how to build stakeholder trust, manage environmental and social pressures, integrate governance efforts, get serious about corporate political responsibility, navigate transparency pressures, and rethink ethical culture.
Higher Ground was written with my MBA students in mind. While the book has a narrative flow, each chapter provides a stand-alone discussion on a critical topic, with a wealth of practical examples, advice, and key takeaways. This means that educators can assign specific chapters to provoke discussion on topics such as stakeholder trust, corporate political responsibility, speaking up, and culture.
If you are interested in building a more ethical and effective business but struggling to find realistic guidance that won’t drown you in bureaucracy and box-ticking, Higher Ground will help you set strategic direction, focus, and integrate your efforts.
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Alison will be speaking at RI USA 2023. The Responsible Investor USA conference is back for its 15th year to provide sustainable finance professionals with an unrivaled platform to learn from the leaders in the industry and come away with actionable insights on current sustainability issues. With an agenda curated to spark conversation and find common ground amidst the anti-ESG backlash, hear from thought leaders on both sides of the debate on the practicalities of responsible investing. The speaker line-up includes representatives from Utah State Pension Fund, R Street, the Bipartisan Policy Center and more.
In this session, New York University ethics professor Alison Taylor argues that amid stakeholder demands and transparency pressures, we need a new, more dynamic approach to doing the right thing. Taylor illustrates this complex, risky environment and provides 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?
Taylor will show leaders how business can navigate this messy paradigm shift, build trust, and achieve long-term strategic advantage in a turbulent world.
Aarhus
Smedien, Værkmestergade 7, 8000 Aarhus C
16:00 PM - 18:30 PM
Copenhagen
Langelinie Pavillonen, Langelinie 10, 2100 Copenhagen
8:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Virtuel/Online
Live Stream
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Join thousands of fellow readers and be the first to know about future releases and media. All new subscribers will also receive a free copy of Jonathan Haidt's foreword to Alison's new book, Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World!
