There is a ton of value in reading this book as it causes one to think about complicated ethical issues and provides one person's perspective on them. I was already familiar with many of the industry stories and there a few parts that felt overly simplistic to me, however, there were many, many examples and scenarios that I found interesting and challenging. I also learned of a couple of new team norms that I found intriguing such as "How do you want to be remembered?" and "Is there any part of this document/project that makes you uncomfortable?" What a great question to ask. The author, being a lawyer, is very focused on providing specific rules to cover as many areas as possible. I did struggle with that approach a bit. At two startups that I was part of the leadership team we had a value of being the easiest company you have ever done business with for our employees, customers, vendors and investors. Having a ton of rules would have made that near impossible. I believe there is a risk/benefit trade-off in having too many rules vs guidelines.

I'll close with a couple of quotes that I hadn't heard before that resonated with me:

"Bad news is good news if you do something about it" James Morgan

"As a leader the character of your company will never exceed your own" James Morgan

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review (even if it took me a bit to get to this one:)

I actually loved a lot about this book.
For starters, it is written by an attorney who served as in-house counsel for several big internet companies, like eBay, Chegg, and Air BnB. I don't think I have ever read any business/management books written by the in-house counsel before. It is a different perspective. Less focus on vision casting, more on policy implementation.
Perhaps because of that, this book feels practical. It doesn't rely on hackneyed catch-phrases or cute stories. It grounds things in the real world and provides a game plan for handling difficult situations. I particularly appreciated the author's comments on his own policy for socializing with subordinates. (Which really comes down to...he doesn't.)
He also highlights the importance of consistency in company brands. I like how he explains the difference in Wal Mart's policies about gifts versus Air BnB's. It was a tangible, illustrative contrast of how a purpose drives ethics in a company.
Because he is an attorney, the writing feels tight and engaging. This was a slow read for me over several weeks but not because I wasn't engaged. It was more that I was chewing it over. (Which is always a good sign.)
But...I think I can actually point to my frustration right in the title. "How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution."
An ethical revolution for what?
A revolution to end harassment in the workplace? Keep people under 21 from buying guns? Prevent bribes to border guards in third-world countries?
If his thesis is that companies should feel confident sticking to their ideals even amidst political pressure to cave, then I am all for it. But this book seems to advocate more generally for...well, advocacy.
And advocacy for advocacy's sake is exhausting.
He creates a helpful road-map for the purpose of doing...something. What thing? Something ethical. What ethical thing? That depends on your company's purpose. But it has to be more than making money.
Which, again, I am all about but I feel like I'm still not making the leap. It is like the author popped his head out of the Silicon Valley bubble long enough to encourage businesses to 'do good!' but I'm still left wondering what he means by good. It is easy to pick on Nazis and critique Google for promising not to do evil, but not everything is that cut and dried and his somewhat cursory examples left me wanting a more in-depth analysis at times.
This book provides a road map for how to view your values as aligned with your company. And it will suggest how to create and impose those values. But because of the author's background, and heavy reliance on his experiences at eBay and Air BnB, the road-map feels stilted.
It is a scope issue, really. I found this book useful initially because it talks about creating and enforcing a moral code. But the more I read about his version of creating a moral code, the more I felt how much his world centers around Silicon Valley type businesses that start in a garage and morph into huge companies. He presumes a diverse workforce readily available to give input. He presumes Google-type execs and multifaceted problems that still...look very Fortune 500.
He gets specific occasionally, but his specificity often brought more confusion than help and reinforces the experience problem. For example, I really appreciated the chapter on sexual misconduct in the workplace. There are some practical insights about reporting that would prove useful if developing a system for your own company. But he focuses a lot on the #metoo movement in a corporate office type environment. Which maybe is the work environment of the general reader of this book. Certainly topics like travel and alcohol at work are fairly universal. It is not that the problems he mention are unique to giant tech companies, but, shall we say, giant tech companies manifest them differently.
So, here is my takeaway: there are some really helpful insights in this book. But because the examples draw almost exclusively from Silicon Valley type businesses, most of the advice primarily applies to environments like those. It was a thought-provoking read. And who knows, maybe in a few years I will find myself in a position to come back to it. But I am walking away with more practical tips from the author's experiences as a lawyer than I am buy-in with his thesis.

I was given an Advanced Reader Copy of this book by the publisher, St. Martin’s Publishing Group, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Today a leader can come from anywhere and look like anything. There isn’t a look of a leader. What matters is how they behave. They have to have a much longer time horizon.” This quote from the author’s CEO at Airbnb towards the end of the book was one of my favorite parts, and how applicable it is today, when these types of leaders are so needed and seemingly hard to come by. I think the quote nicely sums up the idea behind Intentional Integrity— it’s doing the hard work of determining your values, and your company’s values, and acting in honest, ethical, strategic ways that protect and reflect those values, even when the short term “cost” may appear steep.

The “Code Moments” at the end of each chapter— ‘based on a true story’ examples of how complex these issues can be— were also a nice touch. My only criticism is that in most of these, the ‘wronged’ party was a straight female harmed by a male, and while this certainly occurs (and disproportionately), I know harassment and lack of integrity sadly exists in all directions in 2020.

Overall, I enjoyed Mr. Chestnut’s perspective as ethics officer for major tech brands like Airbnb and EBay, and he reminds me of my current legal counsel at work — who is also a great example of leading with Intentional Integrity. And how privileged I am, indeed.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm guessing this is the last time that happens.

This is a book on corporate ethics by an exec at Airbnb. Googling "Airbnb, ethics" turns up multiple articles about how the company undermines fair market competition and causes all sorts of problems around the world by intentionally avoiding regulations and taxes. Those articles were pretty interesting! How does the author respond to these very serious accusations of irresponsibility? Not. I even word-searched the book for "tax," etc. Where is the Intentional Integrity?

I am reviewing this book in the September-October issue of Global Business and Organizational Excellence, a Wiley publication. If you contact me via email, I will send you a pdf when the article goes to print.

Also, I usually tweet about the article when it comes out, and post something on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for sharing this book with me - very timely.

An interesting, if polyannaish look at corporate culture and suggestions for how companies can create a more ethical workplace. A top down approach, so the audience for this book may be quite narrow.