Why Coming Out is Good Business

The Glass Closet

Within the pages of John Browne’s The Glass Closet you will find the most important lesson for the modern business world – being true to yourself brings success.

Despite much progress in recent years, gay rights issues around the world remain a serious problem. The Glass Closet by John Browne is a brave and fascinating book that shows how businesses can lead the way in promoting gay rights and why being yourself is best for business and for you.

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman Virgin Group

Personal and instructive, The Glass Closet provides a compelling roadmap to what, as a society and as individuals, we can achieve if LGBT men and women are completely free from prejudice and anxiety because of who they are.

Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO Goldman Sachs

Lord Browne has written a book of unfl inching honesty and lasting social value. In it he says, ‘You will do more to better the world when you can be authentic.’ It took much of his remarkable career for him to reach that conclusion; but in doing so, he makes it infi nitely easier for others to follow.

This is a brave book. It takes a subject hardly ever discussed in global business, gay rights, and blows apart misconceptions.

How many of your people are living a double life? How many are wasting energy and emotion keeping their closet closed? Business leaders are used to shaping their worlds, to making a diff erence. This is one place we can, and should.

A courageous and salutary reminder that despite huge progress we still have a long way to go to create the kind of tolerant and inclusive society of which business – as this book powerfully argues – must be a driving force.

This is essential reading for anybody interested in diversity in the workplace

Browne makes a strong case for companies to go on the front foot and promote openness

A leading spokesman for gay rights in the corporate world.

JOHN BROWNE (Lord Browne of Madingley) was CEO of BP from 1995–2007, where he built a reputation as a visionary leader, transforming BP into one of the world‘s largest companies. He was president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is a fellow of the Royal Society, a foreign member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences and chairman of the trustees of the Tate Galleries. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Stanford universities, was knighted in 1998, and made a life peer in 2001. He is now a partner at Riverstone Holdings and the author of the memoir Beyond Business, 
popular science book Seven Elements that Have Changed the World and revealing business polemic, The Glass Closet.

‘I wish I had been brave enough to come out earlier in my tenure as CEO of BP. I regret it to this day. I know that if I had done so I would have made more of an impact for other gay men and women. With The Glass Closet, I hope to give some of them the courage to make an impact of their own.’ 
 
 Whether you’re lesbian, gay, transgender or straight, John Browne’s message is simple and clear, it’s better for you and it’s better for business when you bring your authentic self to work. 
 
 Drawing on his personal experiences and the experience of other gay and lesbian business leaders, and by investigating the research and the social contexts, The Glass Closet strives to give courage and inspire the LGBT community that despite the risks involved, self-disclosure is best for employees and for the businesses that support them. 
 
 Every CEO, every HR Manager, every team leader – anyone who is responsible for the culture and success of their business should read The Glass Closet. And for anyone fearful or lacking the confidence to bring their true self into work every day, this book was written for you.

John Browne

Robin Nuttall

Tommy Stadlen

This bold and timely book helps us redefine the way we think about business and serves as a compelling blueprint for the future.

More than ever before, the world, both developed and developing, is going to need its businesses to survive and prosper. As a start, the 2,000-year-old history of anti-business sentiment needs first to be understood and then acted upon. Gaps need to be closed; gaps not just of perception but of reality. And it will be businesses, not society, who will need to make the bigger moves. This intelligent, practical book suggests what those moves should be.  Of immediate value, I believe that only three years from now it will be seen to have been a trail-blazer.

The mission statements of corporations often include shareholders, customers and employees, but as Browne shows, a commitment to society at-large has been largely absent. Rather than transparency and engagement, businesses have become more closed and isolated. Connect shows why and how business must radically change to thrive in the 21st century.

This book redefines three discredited words: Corporate Social Responsibility. Far too often they exist as a bit of window dressing or conscience-salving. John Browne wants to put them at the centre of businesses – both because it’s right and because success in business is inextricably linked with sustainability. It’s all the more compelling because of Browne’s own years at the top in business.

Connect offers a radical and different way of thinking about business. Typically of John Browne, he has put together an inspiring call-to-arms to create the companies society deserves.

John Browne argues that the relationship between business and the society it seeks to serve is vital, but the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility is dead. His interviews with top business leaders show, however, that a new connected paradigm is possible and it can be highly profitable. This book delivers huge insight into a vital topic that affects everyone.

Browne aims to rehabilitate Corporate Social Responsibility, and move it from the periphery of a Board’s agenda to the centre. Through a mixture of careful analysis and compelling anecdote, he succeeds where others have failed.

Lord Browne delivers a beautifully written tour de force, spanning ancient China to Silicon Valley. Rich with personal examples and extensive global interviews, he makes the powerful and persuasive argument that CEOs must connect with government and society to build sustainable organisations.  A must-read.

Every business leader can learn from Connect. John Browne skillfully draws on deep historical research, clear insight into the future and his unique business experience to provide a path to business success in our turbulent times.

Big business is vilified, lauded and feared in equal measure. This stimulating book shows that this predicament is far from new. John Browne and colleagues analyse the challenges and offer some timely counselling to leaders who seek to establish some bond of trust and authenticity between the Boardroom and the Street.

Connect provides a clear understanding of the value of connected leadership. This is beyond CSR or philanthropy. Companies must play a stronger role as global corporate citizens and do so authentically and with a sense of urgency.

John Browne, in this fast-paced book, lays out the enormous challenges that companies and society face together. For many, business is the antagonist, but Browne shows that corporate enterprise is central to the well-being of society. He demonstrates from his rich experiences how commercial success depends on integrity and building trust.

How companies succeed by engaging radically with society

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. 
 
Drawing on the experience of John Browne, former CEO of BP, and the insight of two McKinsey experts, Connect articulates and explores the recurring rift between big business and society, offering a practical manifesto for reconciliation. This timely and important book features candid interviews with global leaders at the heart of this debate, from Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein to Tony Blair and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. 
 
Connect shows how companies and executives can enhance their performance by engaging radically with the world around them.

John Browne

Praise for Connect

This bold and timely book helps us redefine the way we think about business and serves as a compelling blueprint for the future.

More than ever before, the world, both developed and developing, is going to need its businesses to survive and prosper. As a start, the 2,000-year-old history of anti-business sentiment needs first to be understood ...

The mission statements of corporations often include shareholders, customers and employees, but as Browne shows, a commitment to society at-large has been largely absent. Rather than transparency and engagement, bus ...

This bold and timely book helps us redefine the way we think about business and serves as a compelling blueprint for the future.

More than ever before, the world, both developed and developing, is going to need its businesses to survive and prosper. As a start, the 2,000-year-old history of anti-business sentiment needs first to be understood ...

The mission statements of corporations often include shareholders, customers and employees, but as Browne shows, a commitment to society at-large has been largely absent. Rather than transparency and engagement, bus ...

This bold and timely book helps us redefine the way we think about business and serves as a compelling blueprint for the future.

More than ever before, the world, both developed and developing, is going to need its businesses to survive and prosper. As a start, the 2,000-year-old history of anti-business sentiment needs first to be understood ...

The mission statements of corporations often include shareholders, customers and employees, but as Browne shows, a commitment to society at-large has been largely absent. Rather than transparency and engagement, bus ...

Books by John Browne

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