Right Way to Win - by Robert Zafft (Paperback)

About the Book

In this pragmatic and accessible business ethics guide, students, entrepreneurs, and professionals learn that business ethics is about so much more than right and wrong. Harvard-educated and McKinsey & Co.-trained business leader Robert Zafft shows that being ethical is not an...

Book Synopsis

The Right Way to Win shows you how to do well while doing good. It gives readers the tools and techniques for fixing and enforcing ethical behavior. These same methods drive long-term business success.

Short, practical, and fun-to-read, the bookshows readers how to:
Make defensible ethical decisions, build consensus, and counter adversaries;Implement and sustain ethical decisions by driving individual accountability; andNavigate crises and cutting-edge issues where reputational risk soars.
The Right Way to Win appeals to general readers, business and professional-school students, employees and executives, and managers overseeing leadership development and corporate training.

This title is also available as a digital curriculum. Click here to learn more!

Review Quotes

"Zafft writes with a sense of humor, though his mission is serious: showing readers how to run businesses better and more ethically. This book is a fun-to-read, practical guide for making business ethics work in the real world." --Bill Canfield, serial entrepreneur and former Chairman and CEO of TALX Corporation

"This book delivers great substance that's user friendly. Fresh, practical insights into business ethics come with a writing style that is clear, sharp, and lively. Online training/certification tools make it ideal for companies of all sizes." --Melissa Di Donato, CEO, SUSE

"The Right Way to Win colorfully illustrates how ethics live at the center of market-leading businesses. Zafft brings fresh perspectives to timeless issues and also offers online materials that help translate principles into practice." --John Schilling, MD, Partner, TPG Capital, Head of Operations, North America and EU, Co-Head, Global Healthcare Team

"The Right Way to Win provides what might be the first managerial guidebook for making ethical business decisions. Particularly laudable is Zafft's combination of analytical depth and breadth, addressing not only key philosophical differences in defining ethical behavior, but also the relevance of these differences for managers responsible for making organizational decisions and building an ethical organization. He avoids platitudes while providing clear and actionable suggestions." --Edward J. Zajac, James F. Beré Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management

"This book is a must read for any executive or professional focusing on making business ethics work in the real world and driving and sustaining ethical decisions throughout an organization. The book focuses extensively on practical managerial techniques and individual accountability, showing the reader how to do well by doing good." --Mark Arian, CEO, Advisory at Korn Ferry

"Helping students bridge the gap between academia and practice is one of the most formidable challenges facing professors in professional schools--this book with its mix of theory and on-the-ground suggestions will make that task easier." --Lisa B. Bernstein, Wilson-Dickinson Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

"In marketing, nothing beats a great reputation. Zafft persuasively links how a business behaves with how it performs. His real-world perspective and light, conversational style produce an insightful and entertaining read." --John M. Howell, Vice President, CX & Marketing at Centene Corporation

"Ethics and integrity have become increasingly important in the modern business world and more difficult to navigate. With his book, The Right Way to Win, Zafft helps light the path. And he does so both with wit and humor." --Marcus A. McDaniel, VP & Deputy General Counsel, The ServiceMaster Company

"Of the many books I have read about business and ethics, this is by far the best. Clear. Direct. Actionable. Zafft's insights into reputational risk and crisis management are particularly dead on." --Amos Gelb, Executive Director, Washington Media Institute and former Senior Producer, CNN Investigative

"Ensuring that our global enterprise operates ethically--from top to bottom--is of utmost importance. Zafft hits the nail on the head: it's easy to identify the ethical standards under which to operate; the hard part lies in implementing strict adherence through a culture of accountability. Zafft's practical recommendations provide business leaders the necessary tools to succeed in building, and sustaining, an ethical business in the real world." --Mark A. Menghini, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Aegion Corporation

"Mixing case studies with background theory and pragmatic advice, this book offers a thoughtful and engaging framework for business leaders to develop and maintain a culture that values ethics and reputation in the increasingly challenging environment of 21st-century business." --Mark Enyedy, CEO, ImmunoGen, Inc.

"Trust is the currency of business, and ethics the backbone of trust. Zafft not only dissects the how-to of doing the right thing but also the why. He nimbly takes us from theory to vision to an actionable review of real-life failures of integrity, their consequences, and how to avoid repeating previously unfathomable business disasters. Spoiler alert: Doing the right thing always wins." --Ernest Greer, co-President, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

"Informed by Zafft's years as an attorney and management consultant in the no-holds-barred, business climate of the former Soviet Union, this book is well-researched, soundly argued and always entertaining. The Right Way to Win: Making Business Ethics Work in the Real World ranks up there with the best of Dale Carnegie as an indispensable management tool for the modern business executive." --Steven Hellman, CEO (former), Credit Suisse Russia/CIS

"The world is full of Machiavellis and, thank goodness, they generally lose in the end. Robert Zafft's book offers nuts and bolts techniques for becoming an ethical business warrior who wins in the both the short term and the long. May he and his readers be strengthened!" --Salvador Litvak, Executive Director, AccidentalTalmudist.org

"Who says ethics is boring? This book grabs you from the start, reads like a novel, and is totally real. I highly recommend it to those responsible for governing and managing organizations; professionals in legal, ethics and compliance; business school programs from undergraduate to executive levels; and anyone who is interested in doing the right thing and leading the right way." --Yuen Teen MAK, Associate Professor at National University of Singapore

"Zafft's straightforward style and conversational tone, plus real, easily understandable anecdotes, make business ethics accessible, interesting, and mainstream. A must-read book for those working in Asia, where the book's lessons learned definitely apply!" --Mark Militello, Head of Markets and Clearance & Collateral Management, Asia Pacific, BNY Mellon

"Zafft deals with how real people behave in the real world, offering tools and techniques for running an ethical organization. His book correctly argues that leaders should build firm cultures that align employee self-esteem with their organization's end goals." --Dariusz Oleszczuk, former CEO, Dentons Europe

"Ethical choices are often obvious in hindsight, this book provides a prospective roadmap for winning in the long term." --Mark Sherman, Managing Director, Telstra Ventures

"Ethics lie at the core of business decisions and leadership. Modern business leaders seek to balance the interests of stakeholders and apply values as well as analyze data in their leadership. Robert Zafft's book, building on the author's decades of leadership experience and advising, as well as his extensive business school teaching experience, is a tour de force in modern business ethics. A must-read for aspiring and actual business executives." --Mark P. Taylor, Dean and Donald Danforth, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Finance, John M. Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis

About the Author

Robert Zafft's introduction to business ethics came during Russia's wild 1990s, when bankers were getting blown up on Main Street at rush hour. A Harvard Law graduate, Zafft has worked as a McKinsey & Company consultant, global-law-firm partner, private-equity Principal, and public-policy expert. He has advised governments, international organizations, and Fortune Global 500 companies across North America, Europe, and Asia.He teaches business ethics at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.