For Immediate Release

3000 Years of Business Leadership...
New title suggests revisiting the fundamentals in times of crisis

New York, NY -- SelectBooks, Inc., announces the release of a unique new book for leaders and thinkers of all backgrounds and disciplines that applies the foundational ethics and philosophies of the Western world to the modern workplace and modern life.

Swiss Consulting Group CEO and leadership professor Thomas Zweifel, already the author of three titles for SelectBooks, has joined with Rabbi Aaron Raskin, author and emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hassidic Judaism, to create The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders.

Far from being just another book on Jewish philosophy and practice solely for Jewish readers, The Rabbi and the CEO (SelectBooks, $16.95), in the words of the book's foreword, "produces an amalgam that never existed before and offers leaders a kind of power all too often missing in boardrooms. Standing in the rich, over three-thousand-year-old tradition of Jewish thought, this book makes the timeless wisdom of the ages, and sages, directly relevant to today’s… leaders."

The text draws on the lessons of Judaism in part because of the Old Testament’s seemingly endless source for illustrations of leaders and the moral dilemmas they face. But The Rabbi and the CEO marries the timelessness of Jewish knowledge to conventional leadership models and offers up powerful insights on challenges that would have vexed statesmen like Churchill and Kennedy: How to solve an ethical dilemma and keep your moral compass steady. How to maintain sight of the big picture in the clutter of the day-to-day. How to keep your eye not merely on what’s urgent, but on what’s important. And the skill that distinguishes leaders from non-leaders: how to turn any breakdown into a breakthrough.

It was under such trying circumstances that the two first met. On the day immediately following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Dr. Zweifel and Rabbi Raskin met at an informal public memorial on the Brooklyn Promenade. Though both men came to mourn and to connect with their fellow New Yorkers, the two forged an especially close bond thanks to Zweifel’s decades of cross-cultural and communications experience and Raskin’s dynamic representation of Chabad’s renowned Jewish outreach program. They soon found themselves collaborating with and coaching each other: the Rabbi helping the CEO step back to maintain focus, the CEO helping the Rabbi with strategic direction and leadership challenges. Their decision to apply their knowledge to the unique leadership challenges of a post-9/11 century seemed a natural next step.

And today, in a time of massive meltdown of financial institutions and widespread economic uncertainty, it must seem to many as if we have veered from the path. Today people are looking for something that will offer reliability and sense of stability in their lives. As Dr. Zweifel puts it, "Leaders of all types need a lighthouse to guide them now more than ever; The Rabbi and the CEO is that lighthouse."

The Rabbi and the CEO offers the tools necessary to be an effective leader, tools that have stood the test of time and are built to last for managers of all stripes. History has shown that when leaders veer from these teachings they are bound to fail, while great leaders—from Moses to Mandela—reach beyond their own interests and embrace the greater good. With its core message that any decision has the potential to change the world for the better, SelectBooks looks forward to bring you The Rabbi and The CEO this autumn.

###