I’ve been fortunate over the last year to work on a number of Open Book Editions, A Berrett-Koehler / iUniverse partnership. As you can see from the mission statement under the Berrett-Koehler logo, the concept of community is at the core of what they have created over the last twenty years.
Berrett-Koehler is an independent publisher dedicated to an ambitious mission: Creating a World That Works for All.
We believe that to truly create a better world, action is needed at all levels–individual, organizational, and societal. At the individual level, our books help people align their lives with their values and with their aspirations for a better world. At the organizational level, our books promote progressive leadership and management practices, socially responsible approaches to business, and humane and effective organizations. At the societal level, our books advance social and economic justice, shared prosperity, sustainability, and new solutions to national and global issues.
A major theme of our books is “Opening Up New Space.” They challenge conventional thinking, introduce new ideas, and foster positive change. Their common quest is changing the underlying beliefs, mindsets, institutions, and structures that keep generating the same cycles of problems, no matter who our leaders are or what improvement programs we adopt.
We strive to practice what we preach–to operate our publishing company in line with the ideas in our books. At the core of our approach is stewardship, which we define as a deep sense of responsibility to administer the company for the benefit of all of our “stakeholder” groups: authors, customers, employees, investors, service providers, and the communities and environment around us.
B. J. Gallagher, a bestselling Berrett-Koehler author, recently wrote an article in the Huffington Post, Eight Smart Business Lessons From a Savvy Business Publisher. It describes the attributes that makes Berrett-Koehler such a successful publisher:
- Be up to something in the world.
- Love your people.
- Love your stakeholders.
- Learn from your stakeholders.
- Don’t just build a company, build a community.
- Let the inmates run the asylum.
- Share the risk; share the reward.
- Give people lots of creative control.
Don’t just build a company — build a community. BK goes to great lengths to involve stakeholders in all aspects of the company’s operations — soliciting input on book cover designs, book titles and subtitles; inviting subject matter experts to review manuscripts as part of the editing process; asking for feedback on the company’s mission, branding, and other issues. BK is owned by 240 of their community members, including employees, authors, customers, suppliers, service providers, and sales partners. Their annual shareholders meeting is a community gathering. Think about YOUR business: How can you strengthen the bonds with your customers and stakeholders? How can you build a community around your business or organization?
Berrett-Koehler is a publisher that is using a sense of community to be more strongly prepared for the future.