"Intention not Reinvention" is something I've been saying for a few years now. It's taken me a while to get around to writing about it. Here are my rough thoughts. I'd love to hear your comments or questions. There's plenty more to come.
Most companies think doing good means reinventing everything. It doesn't. We already know how to build great businesses. The only thing wrong with most of them is their intention.
The Shells, Apples, Googles, Metas and Nestlés of this world are proof we know how to build great companies. We call them evil, but the problem isn't the model. It's the intention behind it.
Although Smith and Keynes played their parts, hyper-capitalism only traces back to Milton Friedman in the 1960-70s. Before that, businesses just did good sensible business and reinvested in their communities. Nobody called it purpose. It was just how you did things.
If their intention had been to build just as big a company, but not-profits-at-all-costs, and not funnel everything to shareholders, they would have achieved exactly the same thing. Same skills. Same scale. Different intention.
Corporates are legally locked in. Their shareholders voted for returns. The board can't change that without shareholder approval. Nobody votes yes to earning less. So don't waste energy trying to change them. Build a better alternative.
The SME world is different. If your shareholders can sit around one table, or are family, this better alternative can be built, and protected both legally and as a mindset. Both need to happen. But you have to want it first.
The knowledge to change this isn't really out there as some radical new model. Nobody is campaigning for it. There is no book on how to do it. Because it's not new. It's just going back to what business was before we forgot.
You don't need to reinvent how to hire. You don't need to reinvent how to build a product. You don't need to reinvent purchasing. You don't need to reinvent what makes a company run. All you have to do is decide not to do shitty things.
You should also protect your company against shitty things happening to it.
More on that later.
Note: This post started as a Twitter/X Thread and is also available on LinkedIn
Most companies think doing good means reinventing everything. It doesn't. We already know how to build great businesses. The only thing wrong with most of them is their intention.
The Shells, Apples, Googles, Metas and Nestlés of this world are proof we know how to build great companies. We call them evil, but the problem isn't the model. It's the intention behind it.
Although Smith and Keynes played their parts, hyper-capitalism only traces back to Milton Friedman in the 1960-70s. Before that, businesses just did good sensible business and reinvested in their communities. Nobody called it purpose. It was just how you did things.
If their intention had been to build just as big a company, but not-profits-at-all-costs, and not funnel everything to shareholders, they would have achieved exactly the same thing. Same skills. Same scale. Different intention.
Corporates are legally locked in. Their shareholders voted for returns. The board can't change that without shareholder approval. Nobody votes yes to earning less. So don't waste energy trying to change them. Build a better alternative.
The SME world is different. If your shareholders can sit around one table, or are family, this better alternative can be built, and protected both legally and as a mindset. Both need to happen. But you have to want it first.
The knowledge to change this isn't really out there as some radical new model. Nobody is campaigning for it. There is no book on how to do it. Because it's not new. It's just going back to what business was before we forgot.
You don't need to reinvent how to hire. You don't need to reinvent how to build a product. You don't need to reinvent purchasing. You don't need to reinvent what makes a company run. All you have to do is decide not to do shitty things.
You should also protect your company against shitty things happening to it.
More on that later.
Note: This post started as a Twitter/X Thread and is also available on LinkedIn