The Servicemaster Story: Navigating Tension between People and Profit

The ServiceMaster Story, written by faith and business expert Albert M. Erisman, examines how the first five leaders of ServiceMaster (a cleaning and restoration service company) managed to develop and give deeper purpose to their employees, while also growing into a financially successful organization.

From 1929 to 2001, ServiceMaster grew from a few people making their living in Chicago to a publicly traded company with revenues of $6 billion, in forty countries—with five different leaders...