Sander Tideman - Business as an Instrument for Societal Change: In Conversation with the Dalai Lama

All business leaders should read this book. Wisdom is the most important leadership quality but it has been, for most of us, a serious missing link in our development. This book is not only a great gift but also highlights our great responsibility becauseas it clearly demonstrateschange is possible.
Tex Gunning, CEO, TNT Express

Sander Tideman and the Dalai Lama give clear and useful insights into triple value creation in business. They powerfully remind us that leading a business is about creating social, economical, and ecological value for every individual, every organization, and for our society. Their insights combined with Sanders personal journey will stimulate your intrinsic human motivation to implement these valuable and practical insights immediately.
Lorike Hagdorn, Professor in Business Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Sander has captured the deeply human approach of the Dalai Lama in relation to business and its role in society. Through wonderful dialogues and inspiring visions, the book generates a spirit of hope by providing tangible, practical insights. And it is not just for Buddhiststhis is a book for everyone who cares for people and the planet!
Peter Blom, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board, Triodos Bank Group

I rejoice that Sander Tideman has been able to capture our dialogues with the Dalai Lama in this book. This will greatly help us to understand that, in order for us to develop humanity in the secular world, we need to integrate compassion into our economy and business.
Ruud Lubbers, Former Prime Minister, the Netherlands

Sander Tidemans book is a soaring testimony from a lifelong seeker, wisdom teacher, and business leader. He provides insight across a breathtaking range, from the underpinnings of Adam Smiths invisible hand to the redemptive power of the human heart. Sander draws us a map for the positive future of business at a time when we desperately need inspiration and guidance on where to go next. I recommend this brilliant work to anyone who takes their role seriously, be it in business, in society, oras Sander so passionately teaches usat the inescapable nexus of them both.
Erica Ariel Fox, author of New York Times bestseller, Winning From Within: A Breakthrough Method for Leading, Living, and Lasting Change

Sander Tidemans lifelong commitment to building a more compassionate and socially responsible values-based business world shines through in this compendium of dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This book is a must-read for those who possess a humanistic world vision, strong societal empathy, and for those who seek to make the 21st century one that has social responsibility at the center of the global business ecosystem.
Peter Miscovich, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle, New York

This book is a testimony to Sanders many gifts. He has managed to weave his diverse and broad insights into a powerful intellectual framework and practical guide for making shared purpose the new modus operandi of business. This is, I believe, the path for both personal and business success. I recommend this book to anyone who is seeking to understand how business can help create real solutions to address the enormous global challenges and opportunities we face.
Anders Ferguson, Founding Principal, Veris Wealth Partners (from the foreword)

Finallya deep, thoughtful, and constructive book that connects our characters, values, and intentions with our leadership and entrepreneurship practices. Too often we fool ourselves into believing that we can achieve a just, inclusive, and sustainable economy without first practicing justice, inclusion, and respect towards all living things. Sander Tidemans lifelong search, which he generously shares in these pages, is uniquely positioned to be an invaluable guide for all those serious in this quest.
Marcello Palazzi, Founder, Progressio Foundation and B Lab Europe

As someone who has spent more than a decade and a half watching the work of Sander Tideman and his colleagues unfold, I am thrilled with this inspiring, original, and far-sighted business book. The major achievement of this work, in my view, is that it is the best business explanation of the connection between inner and outer transformation Ive ever seen.
David L. Cooperrider, PhD, University Distinguished Professor, Case Western Reserve University (from the afterword)

This impressive book reminds us of the essentials of life and business. Without purpose there is no clear identification for leaders, employees, and customers to be successful. Sander Tidemans own journey, full depth, and richness of experience and content, illustrate very well how we are all challenged every day. The book gives a lot of inspiration of how we all can find a more purposeful journey.
Thomas Burbl, CEO and Chairman, AXA Group

Business as an Instrument for
Societal Change: In Conversation
with the Dalai Lama

2016 Sander Tideman and the Flow Impact Fund

Published by Greenleaf Publishing Limited

Salts Mill, Victoria Road, Saltaire, BD18 3LA, UK

www.greenleaf-publishing.com

Cover photo: Dalai Lama by Christopher Michel

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

The right of Sander G. Tideman to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78353-450-0 [hardback]

ISBN-13: 978-1-78353-452-4 [paperback]

ISBN-13: 978-1-78353-451-7 [PDF ebook]

ISBN-13: 978-1-78353-517-0 [ePub ebook]

Dedicated to my grandfather Sander van Deinse,
who taught me an apprecation for business,
and my father Paul Tideman, for inspiring
me with an interest in serving society

Contents

Part 1:
Compassion or competition

Part 2:
Designing an economy that works for everyone

Part 3:
Leadership for a sustainable world

Part 4:
Education of the heart

Positive capitalism and the opportunity of mirror flourishing: the grammar of interconnection is the business discipline of our age
Afterword by David Cooperrider

Figures and tables

Figures

The trust game

Shift in economic paradigm

Stages in business sustainability

Triple value creation measurement framework

Shared purpose

Stages of leadership development

Societal leadership for triple value creation

Shared purpose model

Toward shared purpose, triple value, and business societal leadership for good

Tables

The 6C mind-sets

Foreword

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

Many people tell me that the world is facing a moral crisis. Standards of living have improved greatly over the last hundred years. However, global economic development has also led to a widening of the gap between rich and poor and contributed to climate change. This, in turn, is leading to widespread damage to the natural environment, threats to food security, and increasing scarcity of potable water; problems that will affect us all. Unattended, these difficulties will continue to worsen, but we cannot leave it to governments and politicians to find solutions. Business leaders have a special responsibility because they have knowledge and resources to address these issues.