10 Things You Should Know about Stakeholder Capitalism

In 2019, the Business Roundtable announced that the purpose of business was no longer to maximize profits for shareholders. The new purpose of business would be to maximize value for stakeholders. While the announcement was applauded by many, charges of hypocrisy quickly followed as the practices of many Business Roundtable member companies suddenly seemed to contradict the new more egalitarian purpose they had proclaimed. A year later, if anything is becoming clear, it is that what the world is coming to know as “stakeholder capitalism”, lacks a clear definition against which to assess the performance of a firm, or even an economy. This lack of definition is not the result of a lack of attempts. For years a wide variety of thought leaders and pioneering practitioners have been refining models and frameworks to define a new paradigm for business. But none has broken into the mainstream. In response to this situation, a team comprised of members from a variety of organizations working within the “business as a force for good” movement attempted to create a common definition of the end-state they were all working to achieve. Their work resulted in a brand-agnostic framework, endorsed by all, that identified six essential competencies of a business in the new paradigm. In 10 binge-able episodes, this podcast will introduce, illustrate and popularize an ambitious and actionable definition for stakeholder capitalism. Producers/Hosts Amanda Kathryn Roman is a life-long convener and builder of infrastructure to scale a wide variety of movements you’ve heard of, and some you have not. Most recently she was the Chief Innovation Office for Conscious Capitalism where she joined the frenzy of activity happening all around the world to catalyze an expanded paradigm of capitalism. In 2018, she and Nathan Havey co-founded the year-long, comprehensive certification program for consultants of Conscious Capitalism Nathan Havey has been a leader of, participant-in content provider for, and strategic consultant to many of the major entities in the “business as a force for good movement”. A host and storyteller by training and passion, he has produced powerful live storytelling experiences in more than a dozen US cities and he wrote and directed the upcoming feature documentary Beyond Zero, and has been learning and refining a library. Nathan and Amanda believe that each of the stories in this mini-series should be legend in business circles, and yet they are continually shocked to meet people, including some of the celebrity-status thought leaders and pioneering practitioners in their circles are unaware that these stories exist. That must change.