Good Company

Is it possible for the genuinely good guys to finish first in the cut-throat business world?

The answer to this final question is yes. In fact, a new book by noted economist and human capital expert Laurie Bassi and her multidisciplinary team of co-authors Ed Frauenheim, Dan McMurrer, and Larry Costello shows that we have entered a new economic age-The Worthiness Era-in which companies will not be able to do well unless they do good.

Good Company explains how this new era results from a convergence of forces, ranging from the explosion of online information-sharing to the emergence of the ethical consumer and arrival of civic-minded Millennials. Across the globe, despite lingering effects of the Great Recession, people are increasingly demanding that companies in their lives be "good company."

The authors take a tough-minded look at whether worthiness pays off with the Good Company IndexTM, a unique ranking of the Fortune 100 companies on their records as employers, sellers, and stewards of society and the planet. The encouraging results: companies in the same industry with higher scores on the Good Company Index consistently outperform their peers in the stock market.

The Good Company IndexTM -- and its surprise ratings of businesses like Berkshire Hathaway, Walmart, and CVS --- is going to change the way we view and invest in companies. The authors also give business leaders concrete tools for adapting to this new era, in which only the thoroughly worthy will thrive.