A cogent, grounded examination of business practices.
A veteran consultant assesses his career after a cancer diagnosis.
In this debut business book, Hilditch looks back on 40 years as an environmental consultant—with a perspective shaped by a recent diagnosis of brain cancer. Hilditch worked for large firms and also founded his own business. Here, he analyzes consulting companies—how consultants interact with clients, what it means to be a good employer or colleague, and how ethical consultants can make a positive difference in the world. Topics include practical matters, like business development, contracts, and billing, along with more abstract considerations, including the role ego plays in the workplace, something Hilditch has studied in depth. The author covers favorite projects, like the restoration of an endangered warbler’s habitat, alongside tips on using LinkedIn to build connections throughout the consulting world. The idiosyncratic blend of personal passions and traditional workplace advice makes this an engaging read, and Hilditch imbues his work with a retrospective self-assessment (“I acknowledge that I have spent the last few decades working intensely as a human ‘doing’ not as a human ‘being’ ”). The text returns frequently to the topic of the ego, and Hilditch does not hesitate to point out when his got in his way before he learned how to check it. Although he primarily addresses his fellow environmental consultants, both the topics and the advice are broadly applicable across the business world. It’s concisely and coherently written, with bulleted summaries at the end of each chapter. While the idea of bringing humility into the work environment is not a new one, Hilditch is a qualified and convincing advocate for the concept, and he makes it clear that being authentic on the job doesn’t conflict with delivering solid financial results.
A cogent, grounded examination of business practices.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-9626-1
Page Count: 182
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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