"More than ever before, this is the book our economy needs."
- Dr. Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation
"Unwilling to settle for easy answers or superficial changes,
O'Leary and Valdmanis push us all to ask more of our economic
system." - Senator Michael F. Bennet
This provocative book takes us inside the fight to save
capitalism from itself.
Corporations are broken, reflecting no purpose deeper than profit. But
the tools we are relying on to fix them--corporate social
responsibility, divestment, impact investing, and government
control--risk making our problems worse.
With lively storytelling and careful analysis, O'Leary and Valdmanis cut
through the tired dogma of current economic thinking to reveal a hopeful
truth: If we can make our corporations accountable to a deeper purpose,
we can make capitalism both prosperous and good.
What happens when the sustainability-driven CEO of Unilever takes on the
efficiency-obsessed Warren Buffett? Does Kellogg's--a company founded to
serve a healthy breakfast--have a sacred duty to sell sugary cereal if
that's what maximizes profit? For decades, government has tried to curb
CEO pay but failed. Why? Can Harvard students force the university to
divest from oil and gas? Does it even matter if they do?
O'Leary and Valdmanis, two iconoclastic investors, take us on a
fast-paced insider's journey that will change the way we look at
corporations. Likely to spark controversy among cynics and dreamers
alike, this book is essential reading for anyone with a stake in
reforming capitalism--which means all of us.
