Former CFO Publishes Novels to Tell the Story of Responsible Business Leadership
The Great Toys “Saga” series uses a novel format to bring to life the leadership issues related to employee engagement and culture.
Nick Shepherd, an Ontario, Can.--based former CFO, spent almost his entire career in finance before publishing the books Understanding and Reporting Human Capital and the Cost of Poor Culture, among others. He has now published two novels that tell through a fictionalized story of how “CEOs can reposition their organizations in a holistic way to revitalize the behaviors needed for creativity and innovation – the very drivers of strategic success. CEO’s, board members and leaders concerned about calls for renewed capitalism, responsible business, and other changes to the way we do business will benefit from following Steve’s own personal journey of trials, tribulations, successes and learning events as he repositions his business for success.”
Explains the author, the two books, No Fun at Great Toys, and Fun Returns to Great Toys tell the story of Steve who is appointed CEO of their family business, after his brother dies unexpectedly. Steve finds a demotivated and demoralized organization that has been depleted of its innovation and creativity through several years of cost-cutting. The stories tell of Steve’s efforts to understand the problems and rebuild the business into a successful, vibrant, enthusiastic, and responsible business, that returns to growth and profitability.
Shepherd says he wrote the books because “Business has access to literally millions of how to books written by experts in every subject imaginable. There are also legions of management consultants available who will offer solutions to any type of business problem. The challenge is that for many issues there is no silver bullet, no turnkey, broad-base fits-all approach. Educational programs such as MBAs have realized this for many years and used case studies as a holistic approach of putting business problems into a context that reflects reality.”
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- Founded in 2008, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance provides outreach, learning and certification in Enterprise Engagement, an implementation process for the “S” or Social of Stakeholder Capitalism and Human Capital Management and measurement of engagement across the organization.
- The Enterprise Engagement Alliance provides a training and certification program for business leaders, practitioners, and solution providers, as well as executive briefings and human capital gap analyses for senior leaders.
- The EEA produces an education program for CFOs for the CFO.University training program on Human Capital Management.
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- Enterprise Engagement for CEOs: The Little Blue Book for People-Centric Capitalists. A quick guide for CEOs.
- Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap 5th Edition implementation guide. A comprehensive textbook for practitioners, academics, and students.
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