January 5, 2010

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Happy New Year, and Happy New Decade! What better way to ring in the new year than with a look back at the important ideas that flowed through my busy Berkeley editorial workshop this last year. I call this letter "The Reading List," because at the end I list the books, articles, and reports I've worked on that might interest others.

The hope is that this list publicizes and cross-pollinates ideas among the highly creative people I know and have been fortunate enough to work with. (And if any of this sparks ideas for ways I might be of assistance to you or others this year, please let me know.)

2009 was jam-packed with business books. Five books I worked on were released in 2009 or are due to be published in the future, including two I collaborated on intensively:

  • For much of 2009, I collaborated on The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work by Cathy Benko and Molly Anderson, due out in 2010 on Harvard Business Press. Cathy Benko is vice chairman and chief talent officer for Deloitte LLP and Molly Anderson is director of talent for Deloitte Services LP. The book presents a breakthrough analysis of the current and future landscape of work.

  • In August, Jossey-Bass published Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World, a book by John Hope Bryant that I ghostwrote. The book has been a long-running top-10 bestseller on the business-book site 800-CEO-READ, and was selected for The Washington Post's Leadership Playlist. It's a mix of memoir and leadership principles from the inspiring leader of Operation HOPE, America's first nonprofit social investment banking organization. Bryant is also the vice chairman of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, and a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum.

I also worked as a developmental editor, helping authors shape and refine their writing and ideas in such books as:

  • The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America by Shirley Sagawa (forthcoming May 2010, Jossey-Bass). Sagawa most recently helped influence the Serve America Act of 2009 and served on President Obama's transition team for the Corporation for National Service, where she was its first managing director and led the development of AmeriCorps. With rich examples, the book makes a convincing case about "how ordinary citizens dedicated to service can change the face of America's most critical issues."

  • A memoir, recently signed to Palgrave Macmillan, from pioneering venture capitalist and social entrepreneur Bill Draper, founder of Draper Richards and the Draper Richards Foundation.

  • The Networked Nonprofit: Using Social Media to Connect with People and Further Your Cause by Allison Fine and Beth Kanter, which explores what effective nonprofits are doing to harness the power of social technologies (forthcoming July 2010, Jossey-Bass). Both authors are influential bloggers in the nonprofit technology space.

In addition, I worked once again with the Bridgespan Group, a leading strategy consulting firm for nonprofits and philanthropy, to write and edit strategic plans and knowledge reports for such education-related clients as the Wallace Foundation, Curriki, ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, and Urban Teacher Residency United. And I edited a white paper about corporate anticorruption work for FSG Social Impact Advisors, the nonprofit consulting firm founded by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer specializing in philanthropy and corporate social responsibility.

Information about all the works mentioned and more is available at the links below or at my Web site, which also features my portfolio (links at left), new client testimonials, and a summary of what I offer clients.

I encourage you to be in touch if there's a way I can help you, or someone you know, with books, articles, case studies, op-eds, reports, and other editorial, online, and business-and-strategic-planning projects (my contact details).

Warm wishes for a peaceful and prosperous new year,

Mickey Butts

The Reading List

Harvard Business Press

The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work by Cathy Benko and Molly Anderson

Jossey-Bass

Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World by John Hope Bryant. Read the first chapter online.

The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers Are Transforming America by Shirley Sagawa

The Networked Nonprofit: Using Social Media to Connect with People and Further Your Cause by Allison Fine and Beth Kanter

Draper Richards and Draper Richards Foundation

Bridgespan

Wallace Foundation

Curriki

Urban Teacher Residency United (UTRU)

ConnectEd

FSG Social Impact Advisors

"Anti-Corruption as Strategic CSR: A Call to Action for Corporations" by Greg Hills, Leigh Fiske, and Adeeb Mahmud