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Publications

Studies, playbooks, reports, articles, and practical frameworks from the Institute for Real Growth.

Row of international flags against the sky. Cover image for Not a CSR Organization: What the UN Global Compact Actually Asks of a Company.
Interview

Not a CSR Organization: What the UN Global Compact Actually Asks of a Company

Sanda Ojiambo on the letter that has to come from the chief executive, the three things a company can do there, and the question she keeps asking about
Modern drugstore aisle with shelves of products. Cover image for Fewer Ten-Packs, More Ten-Million-Dollar Deals: How CVS Paid for Leaving Tobacco.
Interview

Fewer Ten-Packs, More Ten-Million-Dollar Deals: How CVS Paid for Leaving Tobacco

Norman de Greve on the arithmetic behind the decision everyone quotes, why none of the innovations that followed came from marketing, and the difference between a mission and
Interview

One Sentence Changed Overnight, and What It Cost to Live Up To

Patagonia replaced a comfortable four-part mission with a single line about saving the planet. Two of its leaders describe what that did to hiring, to marketing, and to
Interview

Grief, Acceptance, and the Order in Which a Company Gets Happy

Deepak Chopra reads the pandemic year as a passage through the stages of grief, and puts employee well-being first in a chain that ends with investors.
Interview

Four Stakeholders on One Scorecard, and a Letter That Started with Numbers

Diego Scotti describes how Verizon put four stakeholders into a single measured scorecard tied to leadership pay, and how a request for agency diversity data became a forcing
Interview

Four Kinds of Commerce, and What Each One Does to Brand Value

Lucas Perraudin maps how people still shop, how they increasingly shop, and how they are starting to shop. The four modes coexist, and each rewards a different marketing
Interview

Brand Do, Not Brand Say: A Chief Executive on Purpose That Holds Up

Alan Jope explains why a brand only earns the right to campaign on what it has already done, ranks employees first among seven stakeholders, and describes the agility
Empty chair at a long boardroom table. Cover image for Marketing Kept One of the Four Ps: A CMO on Why the Role Is Disappearing.
Interview

Marketing Kept One of the Four Ps: A CMO on Why the Role Is Disappearing

Raja Rajamannar on the companies that removed the role and what they were reacting to, the promotions that fund their own social programs, and the five hours he
Signing a document with a fountain pen. Cover image for Nobody Took It to the Board: What the Roundtable Signatories Thought They Were Signing.
Interview

Nobody Took It to the Board: What the Roundtable Signatories Thought They Were Signing

Colin Mayer traces corporate purpose back two thousand years, defines it as profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet, and explains why the crisis broke the