Head: (4 out of 5)
Heart: (4 out of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (5 out of 5)

The world today faces numerous complex environmental, economic and social challenges which have created a Waste Economy.  The challenges are vast and a single solution does not exist.  However, companies can fill the global leadership gap and create urgency in addressing these problems through collaboration.  Collaboration is the new economic mindset and according to the author, Eric Lowitt, it’s already underway.

In a Collaboration Economy, the private, public and civil sectors work together for their own as well as collective good, making profit, growth and sustainability possible.  Companies that establish the right collaborative partnerships – such as what Unilever, Coca-Cola, GE, and Nike, leaders of the Collaborative Economy are doing already – are able to gain competitive advantage and create prosperity in perpetuity.

The Collaboration Economy offers a plan, easy to use frameworks and tools for collaboration and equips companies of any size with adjustments that can be made in three areas:  company strategy, corporate culture and operations.  Other content includes:

• How and why the transition from Waste to Collaboration Economy is occurring, the roadblocks that must be cleared, and a replicable framework readers can use to nurture cross-sector coalitions.
• Systems of the global economy – energy, recycling, food, shipbreaking, individual consumption and water – and the challenge each must resolve to sustain over the long term.
• CEO leadership traits and lessons learned; specific tactics companies are employing to integrate social dimensions in their strategies, culture and business operations.

Leaders who want to align growth and sustainable development will want to read this book.  Buy it now.