New Book From UVA Darden Professor and Batten Fellow Offers Road Map for Businesses to Navigate Era of Radical Transparency

By Dave Hendrick


With engaged citizens acting as 24/7 auditors of corporate behavior, one formerly trusted company after another has had their business disrupted with astonishing velocity in the wake of what, in the past, might have been written off as a bad media cycle. Control of the corporate narrative has shifted to engaged stakeholders in a new social landscape that has reset expectations for business conduct, impacting not only branding but also the ability to attract and retain the next-generation workforce.

In their new book Reset: Business and Society in the New Social Landscape (January 2018; Columbia Business School Publishing), University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor James Rubin (1951-2016) and Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fellow Barie Carmichael provide a strategic roadmap for businesses to navigate the new era, rebuild trust and find their voice.

The book comes at a particularly relevant moment in corporate history, as scandals and allegations of misdeeds have recently rocked scores of high-profile companies, from technology darlings like Uber to financial stalwarts such as Wells Fargo.

Reset deftly draws a road map that corporate leaders can use to navigate the new landscape of risk and responsibility,” said Jon Iwata, senior vice president and chief brand officer at IBM. “Particularly powerful is Rubin and Carmichael’s wise recommendation to make ‘corporate character’ — the essence of why an organization exists and whether it lives its values — a strategic governance priority for executive management and boards of directors.”

Noting today’s conflicting  global forces of a widespread decline in trust in companies colliding with rising expectations of business, Reset draws on years of research, case studies and in-depth interviews with academics and leaders of top brands.

Arguing that the old rules of corporate brand building have been reset, Rubin and Carmichael further posit that businesses can succeed in the new era of radical transparency by embracing the three-way intersection of customer need, business capability and societal need.

A British literature scholar by training, Rubin joined the Darden faculty in 1991 and helped to revamp and bolster the school’s Management Communication area, which gained prominence in the graduate business school world. An award-winning teacher and sought-after expert in corporate communications, branding and reputation management, Rubin was finalizing the manuscript for Reset at the time of his death.

Carmichael has more than 35 years of experience in corporate communications, where she currently serves as senior counselor with APCO Worldwide. Previously, Carmichael served as vice president and chief communications officer for Dow Corning and has held senior positions at Visa and The Brunswick Group.

Rubin and Carmichael are members of the Arthur W. Page Society, the professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications experts.

Reset will be published 9 January.

About the University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

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