In one survey nearly 80 percent of chief financial officers said they would decrease spending on research and development to meet earnings targets, and just over 55 percent said they would delay a new project to meet earnings targets even if it meant a (small) sacrifice in value. In another, 59 percent of executives would delay a high net present v

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?

I’d require every publicly traded firm to change its governance structures such that it is no longer under constant threat of having to sell the firm for the highest possible figure—but that simply changing the rules is not an automatic or a costless solution to the problem of short-termism.

But Paul stuck to his guns, later joking that he took the plunge because “they couldn’t fire me on my first day.” When Neath raised the question of sustainable palm oil with him, his immediate response was “We have to do it and we can’t do it alone: let’s socialize the problem.”

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

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.

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

A second option is to rely on impact investors—or on one’s employees or customers—for funding. This is a solution with many strengths, but it may be challenging to take it to scale. The third is to change the rules that govern corporations to shelter managers from investor pressure.

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