What is business for? 24 Bold Ideas & Experiments for Reinventing Capitalism
It’s an idea with few enemies—and many authors: how do we renew the soul of capitalism and fundamentally reimagine it for a new age and a new set of challenges? That was the question we put to a global community of hackers and innovators in the Long-Term Capitalism Challenge. Specifically, what real world experiment or bold ideas are you advancing to accelerate the shift toward a more principled, patient, and social accountable capitalism?
In just two-and-a-half months, we received some 148 entries from leaders, thinkers, and innovators of all stripes, from every corner of the planet. The diversity of ideas was as striking as the diversity of the contributors. We learned about initiatives and transformation at the firm level, of the entire ecosystem, from the realms of nonprofits, for-profits, hybrid organizations and coalitions of competitors. We heard about embedding the ethos of community and citizenship in an organization at the deepest level; pushing the boundaries of sustainability, transparency, and inclusion; reinventing metrics and developing new feedback loops; redesigning management education; and fundamentally rethinking what business is for, who it serves, and what it means to create value.
We were looking for depth, originality, clarity, and the ability to inspire and instruct in equal measure. We found those qualities in a remarkable number of the entries—and were hard-pressed to advance just twenty-four finalists to the next round.
Along with our partners at HBR and McKinsey, we’re delighted to announce those finalists today (in alphabetical order):
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Progress out of poverty: Business intelligence for those in the business of helping the poor
Story by Lindsey Alexander and Steve Wright, Grameen Foundation
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Management Innovation According to Nature’s Genius
Hack by Chris Allen, Biomimicry
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The Sustainable Plant—Grainger’s Pilot in Sustainable Innovation on the Factory Floor
Story by John Baldzic, Grainger
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Ashoka’s Hybrid Value Chain: Revving the Engine of Sustained Global Prosperity and Social Value
Hack by Valeria Budinich, Ashoka
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Inside-Out Transformation: A Hybrid Business Model for a Converging World
Story by Gib Bulloch, Accenture Development Partners
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DIRTT: A Story of DIRTTBags revolutionizing the Building Industry
Story by Rosalynn Dodd and Houston Peschl, DIRTT
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Hacking Executive Compensation with Dynamic Incentive Accounts
Hack by Alex Edmans, Wharton
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Relationship Coffee: Creating Shared Value with Transparency and Trust
Story by David Griswold, Sustainable Harvest
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Innovation in Well-Being—the Creation of Sustainable Value at Natura
Story by Luciana Hashiba, Natura Cosmeticos
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Quantifying well-being and impact can drive investors to build a better world
Hack by R. Paul Herman, co-authored by Gayle Keck, Avary Kent, Nicholas Gower, HIP Investor Inc.
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Accelerating Innovation for the City of San Francisco
Story by Christopher Ireland and Jay Nath, City of San Francisco
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Best For the World: Redefining Success in Business
Hack by Andrew Kassoy, B Lab
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Valuing Nature – How Responsible Water Use Sustains Business, Communities and Ecosystems
Story by Greg Koch, Coca-Cola
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How sustainability is becoming a driver of growth for Unilever
Story by Thomas Lingard, Unilever
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It's time for a new metaphor—beyond "Ethics" and "Responsibility"
Hack by Kevin McKouen, New York University
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Bridging the Leadership Gap with Moral Imagination
Hack by Blair Miller, Acumen Fund
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The Mondragon Cooperative Experience: Humanity at Work
Story by José Luis Lafuente and Fred Freundlich, Mondragon
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Develop and Support the DNA of a New Capitalism —the For-Benefit Enterprise
Hack by Heerad Sabeti, Fourth Sector Network
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Fixing Corporate Sustainability Reporting Standards
Hack by Galit A. Sarfaty, Wharton
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DaviPlata: "Self-Service" Financial Inclusion
Story by Juan Carlos Rojas Serrano, DaviPlata
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Panera’s Experiment in Human Nature: Let Customers Decide What to Pay
Story by Ron Shaich, Panera
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How Novo Nordisk's Corporate DNA – "to act responsibly" – Drives Innovation
Story by Susanne Stormer, Novo Nordisk
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Hack by Wayne Visser, CSR International
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Story by Lorrie Vogel and Agata Ramallo Garcia, Nike
Please check out the finalist stories and hacks and add your comments and ratings—they’ll make a difference as finalists update and build on their entries for final judging. We’ll announce the winners of the challenge here the week of June 4th.
You can also meet many of the winners from all three rounds of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation at the MIX Mashup on June 19, 2022 in San Francisco. The event is a day-long gathering of the vanguard of management innovators—pioneering leaders, courageous innovators, and agenda-setting thinkers—designed to unpack the fundamental design principles for 21st century organizations, to learn from the most progressive management experiments and initiatives we've discovered, and to equip everyone with the most powerfully practical approaches to taking on the status quo. We’ll announce the grand prize winners of the M-Prize at the event. You can learn more and apply to attend here.
Interestingly the question reflects how our own paper opened by asking:
"At first glance, it might seem redundant to emphasize people as the central focus of economics. After all, isn't the purpose of economics, as well as business, people? Aren't people automatically the central focus of business and economic activities? Yes and no."
Unaware of this competition until now, I've just posted my hack on deploying capitalism for social benefit.
It's called Every Child Deserves a Loving Family and describes how those in institutions and living on the streets could be confined to history, by deploying profit for purpose.
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