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Transworld has acquired Rebuild: How to do Business Better by retail guru Mary Portas, a "visionary toolkit for how to weather the post-pandemic storm in business".
The publisher acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Amanda Harris, director of publishing at YMU. Publication is slated for 1st July 2021.
In Rebuild, Portas will argue that over the past 30 years the business of what we buy has been dominated by the biggest, fastest and cheapest and that those values don’t resonate with consumers any more. According to Portas, good business is now about putting people and the planet before profit, a new way of measuring success, which the author has coined "The Kindness Economy" and launched an accompanying podcast last month.
The publisher explains: "The post-pandemic era is all about care, respect and understanding the implications of what we’re doing. This emerging value system means that in order to thrive, businesses need to understand the fundamental role they can play in the fabric of our lives by balancing commerce with social progress. We’re no longer simply buying, we’re buying into something. Whether physical or digital, the most important space that any business can now occupy will be the space in people’s hearts."
Andrea Henry, editorial director at Transworld, said: "How businesses have performed during the pandemic has depended not simply on delivering value but having values. It turns out we care not only about our planet, but about each other too – more than ever. This is a fantastic handbook about how to rebuild and reset your business so that you’re giving people what they actually want. And what they want is to be part of something. Mary’s perfectly placed to offer facts, stats and analysis but also a huge amount of really useful advice that comes from the heart and is delivered with her trademark good humour. It’s great to be working again with Mary and the team at Portas."
Portas commented: "A seismic and fundamental change is coming in the way that we do business, a change that is going to benefit all of us. This is 'The Kindness Economy', a new way of building brands and companies that put business health above business growth, that prioritise social progress as well as the bottom line, that attract conscious buyers rather than passive consumers, that seek out ways to put something back in. We’re thinking about people, planet and profit. We’ll be part of a whole, new, better, way of doing business. And I couldn’t be happier to be charting this new course with the Transworld team – let’s rebuild."
Portas has previously published Work Like a Woman (Bantam, 2018), Shop Girl: A Memoir (Doubleday, 2015) and Windows: The Art of Retail Display (Thames & Hudson, 1999).