Out of the Box

ZERI Management Stories

The 21 fairy tales in Gunter Pauli’s Out of the Box prepare companies, executives and their teams to be the pioneering agents of transformation, as well as promising to be both fun and profitable. Each concept is clarified with a concrete, brief business case. Some are successes, some failures. Examples are based on first-hand experiences from 20 different companies, some large multinationals, some small niche players, some venture capital-funded innovation companies operating in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. Creativity and innovation are not the exclusive domain of the North and the multinational corporation; it also is happening in the Southern Hemisphere. Those executives who embrace these concepts of creativity, innovation and leadership will bring business to the forefront of society, responding to people’s requirements in co-evolution with nature, strengthening culture and tradition, as well as creating a wonderful platform upon which entrepreneurs will thrive, wherever they are in the world.

About the Author

Gunter Pauli is founder and director of the Geneva-based nonprofit organization *Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI). The ZERI Foundation's goal is the efficient production of all the goods and services society needs without any form of waste—no liquid waste, no gaseous waste, and no solid waste. Pauli has written more than 200 articles and papers on the ZERI concept and is the author of Upsizing: The Road to Zero Emissions, More Jobs, More Income, and No Pollution. He is a visiting professor and lecturer at universities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and adviser to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The Buzz About OUT OF THE BOX

"Today we need the faith, hope, and clarity of seeing again through the eyes of children. The profoundly simple questions and the vision across boundaries that these children's stories convey can empower us to be truly radical in Raymond Williams's sense -- to make hope possible, rather than despair."

—Amory B. Lovins
CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute
Snowmass, Colorado, USA

"Animals and plants have been made to speak in fables for centuries - by Aesop, La Fontaine, Lessing, and by many modern writers and poets - to expose our human weaknesses and teach us basic ethics. Gunter Pauli's charming collection of fairy tales, Out of the Box, follows this venerable tradition, offering an entertaining method to teach the wisdom we so urgently need today."

—Fritjof Capra
author of Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living

"In a world of increasing complexity, disparities, uncertainty, poverty and unemployment, we need an economic and development model that transforms our pre-occupation with the scarcity principle towards cultivating a model underpinned by the abundance principle and value system. This model by Implication builds on what we have as individuals and as nations, ignites our potential and resilience and enables us to add value to everything we do as opposed to simply looking for what the world can do for us. When we are born we bring all the resources we need to realize our magnificence, but we are born into conditions and circumstances that are designed to limit our growth and contribution to the world, which take our power away and destroy our self-esteem.

"I invite you to read Out of the Box, a book that is based on an ancient tradition of story telling, written and conceived by one of the most inspirational and visionary global citizens I know, Gunter Pauli. His wisdom, passion, insight and profound commitment to the sustainable wellbeing and livelihood of the world, particularly the parts of the world that have remained poor and underdeveloped despite their wealth in natural resources and indigenous knowledge are a testament that each person can indeed make a difference by the way they live their lives and contribute to the world.

"The stories in the book demonstrate in a very compelling way that diversity and our connectivity is fundamental for the sustainable progress and triumph of humankind. However we must take responsibility for our lives, develop our courage to be all that we are capable of, learn from circumstances designed to defeat us, look for opportunities to grow, and draw from the resources that we each have to fulfill what the universe intended for us. Every moment is a gift, use it wisely. People in our lives are the bearers of blessings, our experiences are what make us human and powerful.

"Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty."

—Wendy Luhabe
Defining Moments, South Africa