Shared value

How to reinvent capitalism—and unleash a wave of innovation and growth.

Most of these programs aren’t strategic—and that’s OK.

The monsters, they say, come out at night. And right now, we’re in a long, dark night of the economy. So to a stage crammed with the now familiar-pantheon of modern-day monsters — the clueless chairmain of the board, the narcissistic chief executive, the proudly sociopathic investor, the servile, principle-less politician — let me introduce […]

It’s time to move on from the Industrial Revolution.

When Kraft took over Cadbury in January, the deal was viewed as a victory of shareholder capitalism. The acquired company’s deeply English roots were no match for the wealth shareholders could gain by selling out to what one Cadbury family member called “a company that makes cheese to go on hamburgers.” Cadbury chairman Roger Carr […]

While the global financial meltdown and its aftershocks have unleashed a flood of indignation, condemnation, and protest upon Wall Street, the crisis has exposed a deeper distrust and implacable resentment of capitalism itself. Capitalism might be the greatest engine of prosperity and progress ever devised, but in recent years, individuals and communities have grown increasingly […]

The fine line between using the bully pulpit and becoming a bully.

Stakeholder capitalism–a market system in which companies treat the interests of all major stakeholders roughly equally, rather than explicitly favoring investors–is attracting growing interest in these recessionary times.  After all, most investors risk far less than what workers risk when the latter accept a job, so why should investors get the lion’s share of the reward? […]

Companies that deliver both social benefit and business value rely on five mutually reinforcing elements.

Business leaders face a choice: They can reform the system, or watch as the government exerts control. A call to action from McKinsey & Company’s global managing director

A road map for creating shared value

New technologies are making it easier.

For Save the Children chair and former Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, a recent article resonates.

Why should that be a surprise?

It’s the burning question many of you have been hurling at me recently: “So instead of idly waiting around for the so-called mysteriously reluctant non-recovering recovery, what should we do to survive this never-ending raging crisis?” Here’s a tiny suggestion. The “best” investment you can make isn’t gold. It’s the people you love, the dreams […]

How would you define a good life? It’s a bafflingly tough question. An even tougher one: does the economy we have today value such a life? Does it help us create one? Here’s what I see when I look not just at the surface, but deep inside the heart of the economy today: Instead of […]

Rethinking the way prices are set can expand the pie for everyone.

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, writing in HBR (December, 2006 and January-February, 2011), advance the idea of creating shared value by developing strategies and policies that enhance the competitiveness of the company while advancing social and economic conditions of the community. An alternative that has similar objectives but may be easier to implement and justify […]

We’re delighted to announce the winners of the Long-Term Capitalism Challenge, the third leg of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. Reimagining capitalism for a new age and a new set of challenges is a sweeping undertaking. So it’s not surprising that we received a striking diversity of entries from every kind of organization and […]

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer’s article in January’s HBR tries to advance our world’s shared values by arguing that doing right is the best long-term business strategy. But their argument is weakened by the very optimism that also gives it its appeal. If our interest is in building a better world, then “Don’t be evil” […]