The Rebellious CEO by Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader’s advocacy for safer cars, safer workplaces and healthier environments challenged corporations to be better citizens. Many of the CEOs he encountered were narrow, pigheaded men with eyes on the bottom line, mouthing rhetoric about their responsibility to shareholders. Surprisingly, Nader sometimes met CEOs that he liked, even admired.
Twelve of them are featured in Nader’s new book, The Rebellious CEO. One of the most remarkable, Sol Price, founded the Price Club, which later merged with Costco. He was the un-Sam Walton, buying union grapes even if their price was a bit higher. “I’m not pro union,” he once said. “I’m pro balance.” Yvon and Malinda Chousinard’s interest in wilderness and adventure inspired Patagonia, a “responsible company” that “will always be an imperfect but daring process of becoming.”
Nader’s exemplary figures are bright lights in a dimming climate. “Enthusiastic forecasts of a growing trend of corporate consciousness,” he writes, “did not materialize as hoped.”
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