TOMORROW'S CAPITALIST

Business journalist Murray examines the growing idea of the socially conscious company.

When Bill Gates, “capitalism’s greatest victor,” argues that corporations should help improve the lives of people less fortunate than he, then you know that the worm has definitely turned. For generations, thanks to the hold that the economic ideas of Milton Friedman once exerted on business thinking, it was a tenet of market fundamentalism that the sole duty of a corporation was to maximize profits for its shareholders. But not long ago, as Murray meaningfully puts it, “capitalism got a second look.” One manifestation was a joint statement announced by the attendees at a 2016 conference, among them representatives of Ford, IBM, Siemens, and Dow Chemical, that capitalism needed “to do a better job demonstrating its value to society.” The Covid-19 pandemic has only sharpened that need, as workers leave unsatisfying jobs and as decision-making becomes increasingly decentralized such that managers are needed mostly to articulate corporate values and set goals. The flavors of this reenvisioned capitalism are many, Murray writes, including Whole Foods founder John Mackey’s “conscious capitalism,” Chase leader Jamie Dimon’s insistence on looking at big-picture issues such as diversity and inequality, and GM head Mary Barra’s climate change–oriented pledge to “eliminate all tailpipe emissions from new GM cars by 2035.” Murray isn’t exactly a cheerleader, but he offers positive news for those seeking to take part in this evolving market. As he writes, 75 million jobs will be eliminated by new technologies worldwide in 2022, but 133 million will be created—good reason, he adds, to insist that socially responsible companies help “reskill” their workers to meet changing times. He hammers on a few themes, such as the decline of shareholder supremacy, a time or two too often, but business readers will find plenty to ponder.

A wide-ranging reconsideration of long-held ideas about doing business.