Steve Piersanti's Page
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
The Book That Started It All: BK and the New Leadership Paradigm
Dear Reader, Few books published in the last 20 years have been more influential than Leadership and the New Science . It has profoundly altered people’s understanding around the world of how organizations and leadership work, including the dynamics of order and change, control and participatio...
June 23, 2017
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Letter from the Publisher: On Berrett-Koehler's 25th Anniversary
Dear Reader, This year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the founding of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. It is only fitting that we are publishing an important and provocative new book by Margaret Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be? Meg’s classic, award-winning book, Leadership and the New ...
June 15, 2017
Steve Piersanti commented on Jeevan Sivasubramaniam's blog post Three Ways to Reframe Your Tension to Something Positive
Super! I play basketball a couple of nights a week with a bunch of guys who are much younger and faster than me. I'm needing to react much faster to the flow of the game than I currently do, but these techniques make me realize that I may have been going about this wrong--trying too hard. Thes... ...Read more
January 20, 2017
Steve Piersanti commented on Roger Peterson's blog post BK is not tied to old NY/Boston ways
Thank you Roger. One of the secrets of BK's success is the wonderful community of manuscript reviewers and editors who work with our authors to make their books better. In a time when many people lament the decline of publishers' editorial enhancement of books, Berrett-Koehler still brings in s... ...Read more
December 23, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Peggy Holman's blog post Living its Values
Thank you, Peggy. You've touched on a lot of the things that matter to BK. We appreciate the many other authors you've referred to BK, and we're glad that they found value in our interactions even if we were not able to publish their books.
December 23, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Stewart Levine's blog post BK Way: Stories / Observations
Thanks, Stewart, for these great observations. You've contributed in countless ways to the BK community and the BK culture, and so you know our company and community exceedingly well. Over time our company culture and practice has evolved to beginning many meetings with a moment of silence, w... ...Read more
December 19, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Peter Neuwirth's blog post The Reason Why BK is Different
Hi Pete, At BK we call this "Eating Our Own Cooking." We have been striving ever since the company was founded in 1992 to learn from the books we publish. And we have incorporated hundreds of concepts in our books into how we do things, beginning in 1992 with incorporating concepts of stewar... ...Read more
December 19, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Marcia Reynolds's blog post My experiences of the BK Way
Hi Marcia, Thanks for sharing this good story. Yes, we do strive to be collaborative in everything we do at BK, but this is often difficult and learning how to do so well is an ongoing process. Your story is a good reminder about how we need to check out assumptions that may be guiding us or a... ...Read more
December 19, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Michael Edesess's blog post BK experience
Many agents tell us that the Berrett-Koehler publication agreement is one of the most author-friendly agreements in the business. There is, however, a downside to agents in BK's agreement: the onerous clauses that are standard fare in book publication agreements and that agents negotiate out hav... ...Read more
December 10, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Jeevan Sivasubramaniam's blog post Five Amazing Facts About the Laws of Nature
Wow! There is a lot to chew on in your post here. Jeevan, you've given us a graduate course in science in two pages. And this new book by Fritjof Capra and Ugo Mattei is one of the most important books on which I've ever worked as editor. The Ecology of Law has huge implications for the chang... ...Read more
November 12, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Charlotte Ashlock's blog post The Hunger for Powerlessness
Hi Charlotte, Yes, these are profound concepts, well expressed. Thank you for articulating them. Steve Piersanti
October 22, 2015
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Berrett-Koehler Pioneers Again to Become Benefit Corporation
Mission-Based Company Is First Book Publisher to Be Both a B Corp and a Benefit Corporation Oakland, CA, October 21, 2015 – Four years ago Berrett-Koehler Publishers was one of the first book publishers in the world to become a Certified B Corporation, joining a movement that has since grown to i...
October 20, 2015
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
In 1989 I got a call from my boss in New York City saying that there was a corporate-wide workforce reduction going on, and that all units within McMillan were required to reduce their head count by 10%. At that point Jossey-Bass had sixty-eight employees, and he told me that we would be required...
September 24, 2015
Steve Piersanti commented on Jeevan Sivasubramaniam's blog post Five People Who Made Drastic Changes In Their Lives to Find Balance
These are amazing accounts! Thanks Jeevan for collecting them and sharing them with us. I'll share these accounts with others. Steve Piersanti
September 18, 2015
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
This is a video of a presentation delivered at the "BK Leadership Exchange," which is a program of the Berrett-Koehler Foundation and was held on January 10, 2015, at the BK office. In the presentation, Berrett-Koehler's founder & CEO shares his personal story of how he came to embrace...
January 29, 2015
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
BK Foundation Passes Major MilestonesThe Berrett-Koehler Foundation recently completed its first year since it was incorporated. And it has already reached several major milestones.First, the Foundation received official IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a public charity. This means that donat...
August 20, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing
Steven Piersanti, President, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Updated September 26, 2016 1. The number of books being published every year has exploded. According to the latest Bowker Report (September 7, 2016), more than 700,000 books were self-published in the U.S. in 2015, which is an incredib...
May 20, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Berrett-Koehler President Asked, "What Good is a Book Publisher?"
Thursday, January 21, 2010 What Good Is a Book Publisher? "In this new marketplace in which all book sales depend on the author’s efforts and general retail book sales are flat, doesn't it just make more sense to self-publish?" Berrett-Koehler President and Publisher Steve Piersanti responds: ...
May 15, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Secrets of Berrett-Koehler’s Success
Opening address at “BK Makes the Future” strategic planning event by Steven Piersanti, June 18, 2013 Many thanks to all of you for taking so much time in your busy lives to participate in this event. We want to recognize all of our participants. To do so, I’m going to ask each of you to st...
March 24, 2014
Steve Piersanti is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Dear BK community member, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., was founded in January 1992. We have had remarkable continuity in the purposes, values, and vision of our publishing company, as is apparent from this letter in our first catalog. But a great deal has also changed and is continuing ...
January 2, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
The Book That Started It All -- And an Invitation to You
Few books published in the last 20 years have been more influential than Leadership and the New Science. It has profoundly altered people’s understanding around the world of how organizations and leadership work, including the dynamics of order and change, control and participation, structure a...
January 2, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Ten Awesome Truths About Berrett-Koehler's Marketing
By Steven Piersanti, President, Berrett-Koehler Publishers October 12, 20111. Multichannel Marketing and Sales. Unlike many publishers that rely on just a few marketing channels, BK markets and sells our publications through dozens of different channels, including distributors around the w...
January 2, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
Six Ways BK Fights Against Shareholder Primacy
One reason that Lynn Stout’s new book, The Shareholder Value Myth, resonates so much with Berrett-Koehler Publishers is that we have always believed that a company needs to be operated in the interests of all of its stakeholders, not just shareholders. We have reaffirmed this stance many times...
January 2, 2014
Steve Piersanti posted a blog post
The Insight at the Heart of Berrett-Koehler
The dominant view in book publishing has long been that when an author signs a publication agreement with a publisher, the publisher now owns the book and the rights pertaining to the book. The publisher “acquires” the book and it belongs to the publisher. In 1991, as I was reflecting on my nea...
January 2, 2014