Additional resources

In his essay, The concept of the corporation John Kay argues that corporations are social organisations: their competitive advantage is based on distinctive capabilities which are the product of their history, their internal architecture and organisational design, and the relationships with employers, customers, suppliers and commentators at large which arise from them.

In his book Prosperity, Professor Colin Mayer, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, challenges the fundamentals of business thinking, setting out a comprehensive new agenda for establishing the corporation as a unique and powerful force for promoting economic and social wellbeing in its fullest sense – for customers and communities, today and in the future.

In his book Grow the Pie, London Business School’s Professor Alex Edmans shows that companies can create both profit and social value. The most successful companies don’t target profit directly but are driven by purpose – the desire to serve a societal need and contribute to human betterment and discusses the critical role of collaboration with a company’s investors, employees, and customers.

In her book Reimagining Capitalism, Harvard Professor Rebecca Henderson debunks the worldview that the only purpose of business is to make money and maximize shareholder value. She shows that we have failed to reimagine capitalism so that it is not only an engine of prosperity but also a system that is in harmony with environmental realities, striving for social justice, and the demands of truly democratic institutions.

In her book The Shareholder Value Myth – The Key Point, Lynn Stout debunks the myth that corporate law mandates shareholder primacy.

Mark Carney’s Reith Lectures 2020 chart how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies. He argues that this has contributed to a trio of crises: credit, Covid and climate. And the former Bank of England Governor will outline how we can turn this around.