Culture Redefined: A Leadership Strategy Towards Business Capitalism: A Time for Change, reviewed

We look at this book which aims to nudge us toward a better way of working. See more about the book here.

Culture Redefined: A Leadership Strategy Towards Business Capitalism:  A Time for Change, reviewed

This book is definitely aspiring us to reach a better place. It is a slim book which can be good sometimes. With this one it felt though that this book led with the theory that is needed, but was perhaps thinner on the examples and worked through details to illustrate what good could be look like. We would definitely agree that it is time for change, we just found ourselves yearning for more details on who is doing this well. Maybe in time we will have better examples, and this could perhaps be included in a second edition of the book?

Synopsis:

In 2020 the world changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone. The anxiety, worry and unpredictability caused by the pandemic are like nothing the majority of people have experienced in living memory. For business owners and leaders, it created a lonely and dark place due to high levels of uncertainty. Many viable and long-standing businesses have failed due to the pandemic, and those businesses that have successfully navigated it will be well-positioned to consider a change in how they operate.

Culture Redefined conveys the author’s experience of starting a business, growing, leading and transitioning to an employee-owned operating model where the pandemic served to be catalyst for change.

Culture Redefined explores social and environmental inequalities, and how they have manifested and now exploded to become what will possibly be the prime mover of global change. The author identifies how the pandemic has exposed underlying weaknesses throughout the world. These inequalities are what tomorrow’s leaders will inherit. Alternatives to the given will attract many intelligent, driven young people who will come across ideas like employee ownership and see the attraction.

Culture Redefined is written in twelve chapters that represent hourly goals that move towards twelve o’clock. Each hourly chapter focuses on a specific theme, from establishing a business concept through to delivering sustainable, ethical and repeatable success. As Culture Redefined progresses, the author introduces how stakeholder capitalism could successfully work in synergy with traditional capitalism in this time of change.

The author explains how employee-owned business models can increase resilience and employee-engagement to drive fair equitable growth and success. Employee-ownership is closely linked to the progressive ideals and growth of the stakeholder capitalist movement. This combination is the leadership strategy proposed by the author in Culture Redefined.

Culture Redefined conveys that practical leadership experience and academic theory are interconnected dependents. A common misconception and paradigm are that a practising manager or leader will not have, nor require, an academic background, but in the opinion of the author, this is fundamentally incorrect. Each hourly chapter explores management theory based on the authors practical experiences. The following well-known and lesser-known management theories are introduced and applied by the author:

• Schein’s Three Layers of Culture
• Michael Porter’s Five Forces
• Lewin’s Three Broad Styles of Leadership; contrasted with Blake & Moulton’ Leadership Grid
• Kotter and Schlesinger Six Change Approaches to Resistance
• Handy’s Four Types of Culture
• McClelland’s Theory on Motivation
• The STEEPLE Framework
• Deming’s Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) Cycle
• Moorhead and Griffin’s Change Agent Model
• Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief
• The McKinsey 7S Framework
• Action Learning
• Communities of Practice
• Johnson & Scholes Cultural Web

The author’s academic background has provided him with a ‘toolbox of solutions’ that he relies on in equal measure alongside his practical experience. Both have been instrumental in achieving success in the world of small business, where a key achievement has been his company ranking #1 of all small Investors in People© accredited businesses, who operate in and around the UK construction sector.

About the author:

James Bailey is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institute of Refrigeration, a business management master’s degree graduate, and in 2015 he set up his first company, WAVE Refrigeration. He has led WAVE in winning numerous local and national awards, and under his leadership gained accreditation as Investors in People where the company ranked #1 of all small, accredited businesses that operate in and around the UK’s construction sector.

James could be considered a stereotypical entrepreneur and an advertisement for capitalism. He is neither. He was brought up in a northern working-class environment, where hard work, perseverance and determination were essential. Of all James’ leadership traits, good, bad or indifferent, his biggest strengths are understanding people, listening and taking decisive action. These traits have been instrumental in establishing, growing and leading WAVE Refrigeration, which culminated in the business becoming an employee-owned company through setting up an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in 2020.

The catalyst of setting up an EOT was the COVID-19 pandemic as James wanted to reward his employees and play his part in improving society and the environment. He is a strong advocator of stakeholder capitalism and believes that the best facets of socialism; fairness and equality blended with traditional capitalism can promote growth and prosperity for everyone. His ideals and story are shared in his first book: Culture Redefined – A Leadership Strategy Towards Stakeholder Capitalism: A Time for Change.

Independently published, Culture Redefined: A Leadership Strategy Towards Business Capitalism:  A Time for Change is available to purchase in paperback (£9.99) and Kindle format (£3.99) on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3BbFBOW and https://amzn.to/2ZY66K3  respectively

See more reviews here.