Sublime

capacity to solicit the participation of publics,

People, communities, society, governments, investors, and employees alike are all starting to say: “I’m not interested in your business. Business is obsolete. The real question is: can your company do anything more than just ‘business’? What can you do to inspire, amaze, delight, surprise, elevate, enlighten, and better me, and the community around

By 1956, the sociologist William H. Whyte saw a “decline of the Protestant ethic” and the rise of “the organization man,” for whom conformity was prized over initiative.

Brookings Institute

emblems of a culture saturated with personal branding

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.

Be loyal to people, not companies. Organizations are transitory arrangements with no moral compass or memory, and they will not be loyal to you.

Porter spoke of how companies over the last generation had pursued a vision of globalization in which they owed nothing to any community.