In the podcast Dr. Piasecki and Chester Bateman discuss the eight years of learning and experience behind Piasecki's new book, World Inc.

Bruce Piasecki is an intrepid forecaster, and the climate of global business is ever changing. The author of five seminal books on business strategy, valuation, and corporate change, including the Nature Society's book of the year, In Search of Environmental Excellence: Moving Beyond Blame, Piasecki speaks with gravity and informed optimism about corporations needing to respond to their social obligations. His message is that multinationals can approach social challenges, in conjunction with government, so that both the business and society can benefit.

A map of the business world. With his latest book, World Inc., Dr. Bruce Piasecki examines a striking new phenomenon in socially responsible capitalism. As power moves increasingly into the hands of business, the world is looking to corporations instead of governments to solve its problems. World Inc. discovers the ways in which those corporations that can best address social issues (by creating superior products) will thrive and profit in this new world. Piasecki discusses the necessary shift toward social response capitalism for organizations brought about through leadership and innovation; gone are the days of focusing solely on technical quality and price.

Dr. Bruce Piasecki is the president and founder of The AHC Group, Inc., a top energy and environmental consultant to companies such as Toyota, BP, Chevron, DuPont, and Dow Chemical. The firm has specialized in energy, materials, and environmental corporate matters since 1981. Since 1990, Piasecki and his staff have run hundreds of benchmarking workshops for numerous multinational Corporate Affiliates, involving key executives in site remediation, power markets, emerging issues, and governance concerns since Enron.

• Of the world's 100 largest economies, 51 are corporations, not nations
• The top 300 multinationals own 25 percent of the world's total assets
• More than 40 percent of all world trade takes place among multinational corporations

"In the growing, global business, there are new grounds for hope in this century."