Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

In short, Erik was able to translate his vision for improving the sustainability of the waste business into a new, highly disruptive—and highly profitable—business. The conversation around reimagining capitalism is sometimes framed in terms of a tension between profits and purpose. NG’s case illustrates why this conversation is missing the point.

find the entrepreneurs, who want to take the next step with us? We’re trying to initiate a virtuous circle, where the loans we make act as demonstration projects and there are spillover effects—so other people come into the space. We’re looking for trust—so we try not

That’s a very important notion and if you do that you need to think about big trends in society. Where are we going? Where is mankind going? What is essential for people? Then you want to be able to look back after ten to fifty years and see what has worked out. That’s the sort of approach where you learn from the future, going back to where we are

When investors insist on steadily increasing quarterly earnings and don’t understand or cannot measure the value of purpose, it can be very hard to make the long-term investments required to become a purpose-driven firm. That’s why the third step toward reimagining capitalism is rewiring the capital markets. 53

participants were interested in a system of spiritual philosophy developed by the philosopher-scientist Rudolf Steiner, who conceived of society as comprising three realms: economic, rights (including politics and law), and cultural-spiritual. He believed that a healthy society depended on a balance among the three domains.

The world’s two biggest traders in agricultural commodities, for example, have more revenue between them than all four thousand agricultural cooperatives.62 The two largest American banks have more revenue between them than all fifty thousand financial cooperatives.63 But their existence suggests that customer ownership might be a crucial piece of

Everyone must breathe to live, but the purpose of living is not breathing.2 In today’s world, reimagining capitalism requires embracing the idea that while firms must be profitable if they are to thrive, their purpose must be not only to make money but also to build prosperity and freedom in the context of a livable planet and a healthy society.

More broadly, the right kind of ESG metrics could provide a richer language for talking about how doing the right thing can generate financial returns. They might lengthen time horizons and help both managers and investors unpack the dynamics of the relationship between doing good and doing well. When does it make sense to invest in human capital?

The brothers treated their employees as family and were famous for their reluctance to stand on ceremony and their willingness to get their hands dirty. From the beginning they invested heavily in education. All employees were required to take an introductory academic course and could then choose commercial or technical training if they wished. The