Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
For the past fifty years, the business world has been dominated by the Milton Friedman financial capitalism economic model, which preaches that it is the sole social responsibility of business to maximize profit for distribution to shareholders. This one-dimensional focus represents a grossly incomplete view of reality businesses need to pay attention to many other factors if they are to thrive and endure and has resulted in increasing global economic dysfunction, widening inequality, and environmental destruction.
In this new book, Roche and Jakub offer a new model that is built around detailed metrics to measure and track performance in all forms of capital, including social, human, and natural, as well as financial.And this is not simply theory: the model has been extensively field-tested in live business pilots in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.It is delivering superior measurable performance across the different forms of capital, including generating more profit than a profit maximization approach. Recent high-profile books like Capital in the Twenty-First Century have exposed the shortcomings of today's financial capitalism model, but this book goes far beyond by describing a well-developed, proven alternative.
"
Synopsis
Completing Capitalism
Heal Business to Heal the World
For the past fifty years, the business world has been dominated by Milton Friedman's "financial capitalism" model, which preaches that the sole social responsibility of business is to maximize profit for distribution to shareholders. But an obsessive focus on maximizing shareholder value was a major cause of the abuses that nearly sunk the global economy in 2008. In this analytically rigorous and eminently practical book, Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub offer a vision of capitalism that focuses on measuring and managing multiple forms of capital, not just money. It's a book for businesses that want to thrive over the long term, not just into the next quarter.
There are, Roche and Jakub say, three essential elements for economic growth: the planet that provides resources, people who transform resources and add value, and profit generated by the sale of transformed resources to provide liquidity in the system. To be sustainably successful, a business needs to pay attention to all three. What Roche and Jakub advocate is far more than mitigating the negative effects of capitalism via CSR-style practices or philanthropic initiatives. They propose a more complete model of capitalism that delivers superior financial performance precisely because it mobilizes and generates human, social, and natural capital along with financial capital.
Because what gets measured gets managed, a huge part of Roche and Jakub's pioneering project is providing innovative metrics for evaluating businesses' human, social, and natural capital. And this is not just theory: they describe how the model has already delivered superior results in live business pilots in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Recent high-profile books like Capital in the Twenty-First Century have exposed shortcomings in today's financial capitalism model, but this book goes far beyond by describing a well-developed, field-tested alternative. This pioneering initiative is also part of a larger movement involving the Said Business school at the University of Oxford and a growing number of firms and foundations eager to reform capitalism.
Synopsis
Proven, Profitable, and Sustainable
For the past fifty years, leaders in the business world have believed that their sole responsibility is to maximize profit for shareholders. But this obsessive focus was a major cause of the abuses that nearly sunk the global economy in 2008. In this analytically rigorous and eminently practical book, Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub offer a more complete form of capitalism, one that delivers superior financial performance precisely because it mobilizes and generates human, social, and natural capital along with financial capital. They describe how the model has been implemented in live business pilots in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Recent high-profile books like Capital in the Twenty-First Century have exposed financial capitalism's shortcomings, but this book goes far beyond by describing a well-developed, field-tested alternative.