Politics of Fortune : A New Agenda for Business Leaders

In "The Politics of Fortune", Jeffrey E Garten poses two questions: What is the emerging shape of the world in the wake of both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the corporate scandals that began with Enron?

What role should business leaders play in this new era?

In this controversial book, Garten recommends a bold but feasible new agenda for CEOs - one that will not only require them to rebuild their tarnished reputations, but to partner with government in charting a new course that differs radically from what we've known in the 1980s and 1990s.

Garten calls for business leaders to engage in constructive public initiatives to an extent that we've not seen since the immediate aftermath of World War II.

He shows how CEOs must change not just their corporate and public strategies but their way of thinking about their responsibilities - not only to their shareholders but to a broader society.He describes the challenges that they must confront and the concrete steps that they must take in a number of areas: protecting homeland security; rebuilding trust in markets and corporate America; establishing a stronger foundation for free trade; devising better ways to reduce global poverty; expanding corporate citizenship abroad; charting a more effective foreign policy; and reorienting business education for the new era. "The Politics of Fortune" contains critical insights for anyone who wants to understand better the context for the enormous changes sweeping over our country and our world, and the role that private enterprise must play in building a more secure and more prosperous future.

Jeffrey E Garten is Dean of the Yale School of Management.

Formerly a Managing Director for Lehman Brothers, Inc. and The Blackstone Group on Wall Street, he also held senior economic and foreign policy positions in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton administrations.

Now a columnist for "Business Week", his articles have also appeared in the "New York Times", the "Wall Street Journal", "Foreign Affairs", and the "Harvard Business Review".

He lives with his wife, Ina, in Connecticut and New York.