Alison Taylor is a clinical associate professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, with extensive expertise in areas such as strategy, political and social risks, culture and behavior, ethics and compliance, stakeholder engagement, anti-corruption and professional responsibility. She has held several advisory roles throughout her career, including sustainability non-profits Business for Social Responsibility, VentureESG, Pictet Group and KKR. Additionally, she is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Good Governance. Her broad professional experience and solid academic background, including an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago and an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, enrich the analyses and propositions presented in her work.In the book “Higher Ground,” Alison Taylor meticulously analyzes the current challenges encountered by companies striving for ethical and responsible growth amidst rapid social and technological shifts. The interconnectedness of society, driven by technological evolution, strongly impacts firms on all fronts. Taylor points out that, in this context, ethics can no longer be dissociated from other factors involving businesses. The fluidity of information requires companies to respond almost instantaneously to the events that involve them and neglecting ethical and social aspects is no longer an option; instead, it is a point of extreme attention for organizations. Her work aims to present tools that could help ventures understand and navigate this new landscape, empowering them to act ethically amidst contemporary stress and turmoil. For this journey, the author defines it as a goal to make a good climb to a higher ground.Taylor develops her book using publicly known cases of high repercussions as examples and referencing works carried out by other researchers on each topic. She conducts her analysis and, based on her experience, presents what she calls “tools” to be used by the companies. The book is organized into three parts with 12 chapters for this journey. The first part, “A Turbulent, Transparent World,” encompasses chapters 1 and 2. Here, the author describes how mass access to social networks has transformed people's lives, including how business is conducted today, and analyzes the tools she understands to apply to the scenarios presented. It highlights the need for managers to recognize the importance of the interests of all the company's stakeholders. It emphasizes the lack of these managers in balancing these diverse interests, which are often conflicting.In the second part, entitled “Businesses Doing the Right Thing,” the author sought, in chapters 3 to 8, to establish parameters of the right things to be done by companies. Taylor seeks to understand the impact of these actions on stakeholders, considering factors such as trust, reputational risk, engagement and respect as relational factors. The author emphasizes how organizations are overly focused on the ESG score, stressing that they often prioritize this metric above all else. Furthermore, she reinforces that metrics alone cannot quantify or fully capture some crucial aspects. She underscores the significance of conducting thorough and honest assessments to pinpoint issues genuinely pertinent to the business and its stakeholders.These chapters also discuss corruption as a detrimental factor in private organizations and devastating in public administration and suggest ways to maintain and prosper ethically in these corrupt environments. In addition to these points, Taylor also points out that the company's positive impact on human beings is a determining factor for its success today. Finally, she addresses the involvement of companies in politics, restricting her analysis to the USA, and closes this second part of the book dealing with transparency and its reflections in today's world.In the third part, entitled “Leading and Shaping the Future” (chapters 9 to 12), the author directs her attention to the organization's internal dynamics, examining how social changes affect culture, leadership, supervision and voice in the current global scenario. By exploring corporate culture, the author emphasizes the importance of establishing a social purpose in addition to profit, rules, direction, participation, incentives and prohibitions. By discussing compliance, its attributions and challenges, she extends her analysis to examine ethics in organizational culture, emphasizing the impact of corporate conditions on employees. Furthermore, Taylor addresses the changes in labor relations impacted by remote work and the need to build an ethical organizational culture. She also discusses the challenges faced by leaders, the need to train employees for autonomous ethical decisions and the relevance of reassessing the dynamics of board, compliance and engagement in the face of hyper transparency and diversity.In the conclusion of “Higher Ground”, Alison Taylor highlights business purpose as a holistic response to the current pressures facing organizations. She argues that the term purpose reflects the interconnectedness of meaning, impact and values, avoiding the punitive and legalistic connotations associated with the terms ethics and compliance. According to her, establishing an authentic purpose requires solid values, concrete actions and a clear explanation of the company's impact on society, which are essential to reach a higher level. Taylor emphasizes that to reach the higher ground, a company does not need to overstate complex rules, build a compelling story or enumerate its achievements. The key is imagination, laying solid foundations and doing the right thing.By offering in-depth analyses of the current scenario faced by companies, considering the new social dynamics, the impact of businesses on society, fluid communication, transparency, digital activism, the need to strengthen compliance and to consolidate an ethical culture within organizations, the book presents itself as a rich source of analysis. Additionally, the examples of public cases contribute to a clear understanding of the author's proposed actions. As a result, the book proves to be a valuable contribution to decision-makers, providing guidelines for conducting companies ethically and enabling them to thrive in today's complex world.Odair Cordeiro Marra is currently enrolled as a special student in the Ethics and Compliance discipline within the Master's program at the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (USP). He holds academic certificates in finance from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and in business law from Faculdade Milton Campos. Additionally, he obtained bachelor's degrees in both accounting and economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC Minas) and a bachelor's degree in law from the Faculty of Administrative Education (FEAD). Leveraging his extensive background, spanning over 20 years, he currently serves as a financial advisor and business consultant in the private sector.Gilmar Masiero is Professor of Business Administration at the Department of Business Administration of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (USP). He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and Economics from the School of Business Administration of Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He held postdoctoral programs at Harvard University, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and UNICAMP, the Center for the Study of International Relations. He was a visiting scholar at the Korean Institute of International Economic Policy, Seoul; at the Center for Research in International Relations of the University of São Paulo; at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego and at the Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo. He participated in the International Management Program at the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, Barcelona. He was an industrial process analyst at Controles Robertshaw do Brasil, Caxias do Sul, where he developed work in the area of industrial engineering related to factory projects, layout of production and manufacturing lines, time and movement studies and investment analysis. He worked as a consultant in management processes at IBM International Business Machines, Rio de Janeiro, where he developed activities related to the organizational restructuring of the company and in the formatting and implementation of customer relationship and satisfaction processes. He is the author of Business Administration: Theory and Functions (Saraiva, 2007), Business in Japan, South Korea and China: Economics, Management and Relations with Brazil (Saraiva, 2007) and Introduction to Business Administration (Atlas, 1996). Currently, in addition to teaching at USP, he develops research activities on the political and economic relationship between Brazil and Japan, South Korea and China.
Marra et al. (Thu,) studied this question.