Author Description

In an eye-opening collection of real-life stories, Aiming Higher profiles courageous CEOs, managers, and employees who view social challenges not as burdens but as opportunities - to create new markets, build motivated work forces, and attract loyal customers. They are aiming higher. Who are these business heroes and heroines? Each year, The Business Enterprise Trust - founded by television writer and producer Norman Lear - honors five companies or individuals who have. shown breakthrough leadership in combining sound business management with social conscience. Aiming Higher presents the stories of 25 of these honorees. These inspiring narratives illuminate the complicated, gritty management challenges being met and overcome by public-spirited businesspeople. The stories are about all kinds and sizes of businesses, ranging from Xerox to Vermont National Bank to the White Dog Cafe. These compelling profile include a local school bus. company that has become a powerful engine for personal growth, new jobs, and economic revitalization in a troubled inner-city neighborhood; a small travel agency that has grown to be the third-largest agency in the world by making employee satisfaction a top priority; a stock photography agency that has become a pacesetter by promoting the use of non-stereotyped, "real-life" images of women, minorities, and people with disabilities; and a bank that initiated a lending. program for low-income customers. Thousands of people can now own homes - and the bank has become one of the most profitable savings and loans in the country.