Jon Alexander is the author Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. Alexander is the co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, a strategy and innovation consultancy.
Jon Alexander began his career with success in advertising, winning the prestigious Big Creative Idea of the Year before making a dramatic change. Driven by a deep need to understand the impact on society of 3,000 commercial messages a day, he gathered three Masters degrees, exploring consumerism and its alternatives from every angle.
In 2014, he co-founded the New Citizenship Project to bring the resulting ideas into contact with reality. In Citizens, he is ready to share them with the world. Since then, NCP have partnered with organisations and institutions including the Co-op, The Body Shop, National Trust, BBC, European Central Bank and many more.
Then in 2020, with Britain in lockdown, he saw the ideas they were working on come alive in front of their eyes. As Citizens, we were getting involved, helping one another through unprecedented challenges. A whole new society became possible in that time. But he could see that our leaders were not awake to the change, because they were blinded by the Consumer Story.
That's why he wrote CITIZENS: so that we can see what is possible.
For the book he’s drawn on all his experience with NCP, and studied the best of what's going on all over the world. He truly believes that we humans are collaborative, creative, caring Citizens by nature - and if we give ourselves and each other the chance, we can fix this.
Brian Eno wrote the forward to CITIZENS and here is a selection of testimonials:
European Leadership Network, Ian Kearns, Founder and Trustee
“Jon is working with a set of ideas and tools that have the potential to change politics forever. In fact, they could change everything forever.”
Snowball Investment Management, James Perry, Board Member, B Lab Global, and Founding Partner
“There is such a thing as an idea whose time has come. This is that idea.”
Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and former Member of the European Parliament, Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director
“Citizens is a breath of fresh air amidst deep concern about the future of democracy. It empowers and calls us all to action to be the democratic change we want to see in our communities, and in doing so offers a powerful vision for the transformation of our institutions.”
London Business School, Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance
“Jon Alexander's work has had a significant influence on my understanding of the role employees, investors, and customers could play in shaping the role of business in society. To harness this potential, leaders must first see people as the creative, empathic, collaborative members of communities that they truly are: as Citizens. In this engaging book, Jon lays out his full vision for how this mindset shift can transform not just business, but NGOs and governments too.”