Sublime

We need to move from a world in which environmental and social capital are essentially free—or at least someone else’s business—to a world in which the need to operate within environmental limits within a thriving society is taken for granted.

Successful purpose-driven leaders have to learn to relinquish control—to believe at a deep level that those who work for them have at least as much creativity and drive as they do.

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.

Horizon 1: Current source of growth

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.

By tapping into the inherent, self-organizing, creative energies of your workforce, you will improve margins, cash flow, and earnings.

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.