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John Wood Publishes Latest Book, ‘Purpose, Incorporated: Turning Cause Into Your Competitive Advantage', Urging Business Leaders to Unite Purpose with Profitability

January 17, 2018

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John Wood, bestselling author and founder of Room to Read, a global non-profit focused on literacy and girls’ education, today announced the release of Purpose, Incorporated: Turning Cause Into Your Competitive Advantage. Wood’s previous books include the internationally acclaimed, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children, and Creating Room to Read: A Story of Hope in the Battle for Global Literacy. Wood will be donating all of his author profits from Purpose, Incorporated to Room to Read with the goal of opening ten new libraries in the book’s first year, serving 4,000 children.

Purpose, Incorporated is an in-depth exploration of today’s growing shift from traditional free-market capitalism to the deep integration of purpose into the values and business model of today’s companies. It explores the myriad ways business leaders around the world are rejecting the notion that doing good is antithetical to profit and are finding ways to align purpose or societal impact with their business goals.

Purpose, Incorporated documents this transformation, drawing upon the authors' interviews with over 100 global thought leaders and executives at companies including Atlassian, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Google, Salesforce, Starbucks, and Tatcha. Purpose, Incorporated illuminates how companies are using purpose to build a bond with customers, win the war for talent, motivate employees, increase social media influence, and attract the best investors, all while inspiring and shaping a generation of future business leaders. For CEOs, boards, and leadership teams that are contemplating conscious capitalism, the book provides crucial insights into the conditions in which purpose can be harnessed as a key competitive advantage to enhance enterprise value.

“My hope with Purpose, Incorporated is to inspire conversations among work teams and employees at every level of an organization about building purpose into their organizations and careers. We are no longer constrained to a binary system that chooses profitability over improving society. Rather, there is the option and, in fact, reward that comes with the marriage of cause and capitalism,” said John Wood, author and founder of Room to Read. "The years ahead offer us a different alternative, where the path is paved with purpose."

Co-authored by Amalia McGibbon and published by Big Purpose Press, the book is available on Amazon (both physical book and Kindle version) and iBooks. More information is available on Twitter at @PurposeIncBook and on the book's website at http://www.purposeincorporatedbook.com.