Book excerpt: What happens when businesses and their customers don't share the same values? Or, for that matter, when employees of a company don't share the same values as their executives? Welcome to the world of Brand Activism. Companies no longer have a choice. Brand Activism consists of business efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to promote or impede improvements in society. It is driven by a fundamental concern for the biggest and most urgent problems facing society. Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action is about how progressive businesses are taking stands to create a better world.