Book Review : The Business of Changing the World

I haven't written a book review on "The Business of Changing the World" by Marc Benioff and neither do I plan to. Let's just say that I'm doing a review of a book review. Look, the review inspired me to make a decision to donate a part of my profits to charity. The fact that I don't make a profit made the decision easier, of course...


Quote from this book review by Tom Taulli on The Motley Fool says

"Throughout much of the book, Benioff has focused mostly on big companies. But he makes it clear that all companies should be involved in philanthropy.

That's what he did when he started Salesforce.com (out of his apartment). He innovated something called the 1-1-1 model, in which his company would donate 1% of profits, stock, and employee time to community efforts. According to Benioff: "People are here to do more than just make money -- they want to help make the world a better place during their time here." Interestingly enough, Benioff was also able to get Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to adopt the 1-1-1 model."

Ok. So let's start the review of the review. What do I like about it? The subject matter. Great choice of book for a review. Secondly, the minute I bumped into the title, three things came to mind:
1. Bill Gates and his foundation.
2. Google and charity.
3. Bill Clinton and aids.
The book reviewer scored two out of three. And Clinton ain't strictly speaking a business, so let's give the book reviewer a pass on that one.

The book gives the reviewer a chance to focus on the personal history of the author, his involvement with big corporates and personalities and getting them involved in charity. Unquestionable hit. Big corporates and personalities involved in charity is a big draw, as we saw in the kerfuffle over Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's retirement plans ( Is there a book out on that yet? No? Why on earth not? ). And the reviewer can end off with a request for charity for his own company's philanthropic efforts. Unquestionable hit with his own editor.

Freelance jobs coming up in a few hours.