"Jim O'Toole's The Executive's Compass helped me clarify a number of the value issues involved in managerial decision-making. It makes an impressive case for the democratic process as the best way to deal with competing values and effectively shows that many of today's managerial challenges have deep historical roots in the great books."--Ed Lawler, Director, Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California, writing in Across the Board
"At a time when American society has become increasingly polarized by a 'collision of values,' business leaders often find themselves stymied when trying to formulate corporate policies. O'Toole, executive director of the Leadership Institute and Chair of Management at the University of Southern California's Graduate School of Business, provides business leaders a 'values compass' for navigating these rocky channels. Developed during the author's forty years as moderator of the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar, the book wends its way from Jefferson, Hobbes, and Locke to the philosophies of contemporary environmentalists, corporatists, and communitarians in an effort to understand the ideas of liberty, equality, efficiency, and community. That O'Toole is able to cover such a vast amount of territory in such a slim, enjoyable volume is testament to his considerable talents--and the power of the ideas he clearly cherishes."--
Business Ethics"The 'executive's compass' is a tool O'Toole developed over his years at Aspen to provide a grounding for value-based decision making. Divided into four quadrants (liberty, equality, efficiency, and community), it maps the conflicting pull of values all decision makers must face."-- Booklist
"When I participated in Jim O'Toole's Aspen Institute seminar, I was exceptionally impressed with the seminar's breadth, originality of thought and practicality of application to real-life situations. In fact, I found that the seminar had only one deficiency--that it couldn't be made available to everyone. Now, with this book, it can. As a manager of a corporate culture, I find that I am constantly reconciling directly conflicting (and completely legitimate) points of view. Jim's analysis is both intellectually provocative and pragmatically instructive for a corporate manager."--Michael D. Eisner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company
"One of the stale truths of this complex age is that leaders must 'do the right thing." But doing the 'right thing' involves confusing questions of morality, values, needs of constituencies and a variety of other issues having to do with what a good society is all about. Jim O'Toole's book is the first relevant primer on these issues. It may well be the most useful and important management book of this complex decade."--Warren Bennis, author of
An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change and
Beyond Bureaucracy