Broke: What Every American Business Must Do to Restore Our Financial Stability and Protect Our Future - Hardcover

by John Mumford (Author)

What principled business leaders can do to solve America's current financial crisis

Broke is a startling wake-up call for America and an honest accounting of what our future holds if we don't take charge and change our country for the better. If the business of America is business, then it's up to our business leaders to solve the mess we're in. Broke offers practical, nonpolitical, and nonpartisan solutions that every business leader can implement today for a better tomorrow.

Whether you operate a giant corporation or a local small business, you'll find practical steps to limit future risks, strengthen every business, stabilize the current economy, and help turn the country around. Author John Mumford has spent decades helping business leaders turn around failing companies. Now, he helps them to turn around a failing country.

• Presents bold initiatives and concrete steps every business leader can use to create a better future-for their businesses and for the country
• Includes practical, actionable steps for every business leader who wants to build for the future, while preserving the best of his or her existing enterprise.
• Shows how business leaders can contribute to the solutions for our problems concerning public debt, the environment, and international relations
• Offers a turnaround plan for the country ideal for use by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small business organizations, non-profits and others as the centerpiece of a 2010 campaign for America's turnaround
• Endorsed by current and former CEO's, top business school leaders, former governors and senators, and leading journalists

Desperate times call for creative, effective measures, not desperation. If you're a business leader, here's how you can do your part.

Front Jacket

America is broke, and onlyreal business leadership can fix it

Now is a time of big problems for America. With a mountain of debt and trillions more in unfunded obligations, by most accounting standards we are already insolvent. Alongside potential financial bankruptcy, a bankruptcy of values has left us ethically rudderless, threatening the effectiveness of our response. These are indeed big problems, and it will take big ideas and, most of all, a big dose of leadership to solve them.

Pulling no punches, Broke looks America's toughest issues square in the face and doesn't flinch in singling out who's chiefly responsible: us. Whether or not we wanted them, business leaders now own these problems, argues renowned business turnaround expert and veteran Army officer John Mumford. And only by being truly accountable leaders can we pull both America and our own businesses back from the brink.

A 360-degree vision of a national turnaround, Broke describes America's most daunting challenges in clear, nonpartisan terms, relying on keen, factual analysis and a long view of history. This stirring call to renewal also gives leaders of both large and small enterprises a blueprint with measurable steps to protect and enhance their businesses while helping the country flourish. Learn how your entrepreneurial know-how can help America with powerful guidance on:

• Applying business leadership principles to the political process
• Promoting financial stability by avoiding recent hazards such as liquidity traps, as well as such looming dangers as inflation
• Bringing your business's strengths to bear in unexpected areas such as foreign relations and anti-terror efforts
• Managing vital resources and encouraging sane environmental policies with innovative energy, water, and pollution solutions
• Exemplifying a new ethic of accountable leadership

Filled with practical action steps, goals, takeaway points, and results measures, Broke is a no-nonsense guide for any leader ready to roll up their sleeves and do what it takes for a better business and a better America.

Back Jacket

Praise for Broke

"Business has never had more legitimacy, opportunity, and capability to impact the issues John addresses--and many world-class companies already are. From values-based leadership to education, healthcare, and environmental issues like safe water--business is and will continue to make a positive difference for our children's future."
--Steven S. Reinemund, Dean and Professor of Leadership and Strategy, Babcock Graduate School of Management, and Dean, Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, Wake Forest University; and former CEO of PepsiCo

"John Mumford has written a riveting and very necessary book about the failure of American institutions to cope with a new world, the corruption of values, and the absence of strong visionary leaders. Broke is breathtakingly comprehensive and Mumford does not mince words. Mumford explains how we can achieve an America both great and good, a nation with 'a single value system that matches the vision of the Founding Fathers.' I¿highly recommend this book. It's like nothing you've ever read before."
--Fred Barnes, Fox News commentator

"John Mumford has accepted a significant challenge in assessing the future of our nation's twenty-first century. At this important moment in history, we must carefully examine the signs of future change. Broke is a valuable reference for all Americans. It examines seventeen issues that are important to our future, including the issue of healthcare about which I am very passionate. This work establishes a new leadership model for public servants and sets a high standard for their service. More importantly, it establishes a new forum for public debate on the actions that will set the course of the nation for our children and grandchildren in the coming years. Every American would benefit from reading Broke. It is my hope that we will heed the call to action."
--The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson, former Secretary, United States Department of Health and Human Services

"John Mumford has accomplished a formidable task in writing Broke. No one in our generation has attempted to take a long, hard look at where our policy decisions of the last forty years have taken America and where these decisions will leave our children and grandchildren. I heartily commend this book to the realists among us and to those who aspire to national leadership in the years to come. We have much work to do before our current generation of leaders can be satisfied with their legacy."
--The Honorable Zell Miller, former United States Senator

Author Biography

John B. Mumford is the founder of The Washington Group Consultants, LLC, which works with both Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits on all phases of strategic and operations management. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served two tours of duty in Vietnam as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After his service, he obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School. With nearly four decades' experience in the military, government, and business, he is also a sought-after speaker on leadership, values, and business ethics. Learn more about John at www.WashingtonGroup.com and more about Broke at www.AmericaFutureWatch.org.