Authors On the Road, Changing the World

Here at 8cr, we are so fortunate to work, and form long-lasting relationships with, really great authors who are sharing important ideas with people around the world. We see them out on the road speaking to hundreds of groups a year, trying to make the world of business a better place. Spending time away from their friends and families, they work hard to make sure that the ideas that they’ve captured on paper are helping people become better leaders, communicators, listeners. They encourage people to be creators, mentors, and entrepreneurs. We feel honored that we're able to play even a small part in that process by getting their books there ahead of them. While it may seem to some that we only provide solutions to very "first world problems," the lessons they teach are, obviously, applicable everywhere. And what people don’t always see are the really special extra efforts these authors, as individuals, use their platforms for: to help people that aren’t fortunate enough to have access to the basic necessities of clean water and sustainable food, or the opportunity of a formal education, let alone the resources to bring in an authority or expert like them. At 8cr, because we are in constant contact with authors as they make their way around the world, we do see the important work that they do. In particular, I've received two dispatches from the road in the past few months, one from Harry Kraemer Jr. and one from Adam Braun. We are fortunate to know these two amazing men, and we’d like for you to know them, as well. Harry Kraemer, Jr. is professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches in the MBA and the Executive MBA programs. Additionally, he is an executive partner with Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), one of the largest private equity firms in the United States where he consults with CEOs and other senior executives of companies in MDP’s extensive portfolio. Harry is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a multi-billion-dollar global healthcare company. He was voted by the students at Kellogg as the Professor of the Year in 2008 and was a finalist for the award in 2014. In 2011, Harry wrote a great book (which has been our bestseller for the last two years) From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership. What you may not know is Harry donates all the proceeds from the book to the One Acre Fund, and when he isn't teaching, or in a board meeting, Harry gives a talk once a month and all the proceeds from those talks also go towards the One Acre Fund. On Monday, he sent me the following pictures via email, writing "Just a few that we took visiting the One Acre Fund today in the town of Bungoma."

Adam Braun is the New York Times bestselling author of The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change) and the Founder of Pencils of Promise, an award-winning organization that has broken ground on more than 200 schools around the world. In recent years, he has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, Wired Magazine’s “50 People Who Are Changing the World,” and was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s first ten Global Shapers. He has also been a featured speaker at The White House, the United Nations, and the Clinton Global Initiative.

Photo by Nick Onken This is just the tip of the iceberg, and the head of the spear, in terms of the good work the folks we're working with everyday are doing (we've written about Seth Godin's ongoing efforts with Acumen in the past). Changing the world is a big theme in the business book culture of today, and there are a lot of authors backing up that talk with a globe-trotting walk. I'll be making an ongoing effort to highlight those efforts here on an ongoing basis.