Completing Capitalism: Heal Business to Heal the World

by Bruno Roche, Jay Jakub, Martin Radvan (Foreword)

Two leading economists present a new model for sustainable capitalism based on the economics of mutuality.For decades, leaders in the business world have believed that their sole responsibility is to maximize profit for shareholders. But this obsessive focus was a major cause of the abuses that nearly sunk the global economy in 2008. While books like Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century have exposed the shortcomings of financial capitalism, Completing Capitalism goes further by describing a well-developed, field-tested alternative.In this analytically rigorous and eminently practical book, Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub offer a more complete form of capitalism, one that delivers superior financial performance precisely because it mobilizes and generates human, social, and natural capital along with financial capital. Offering practical, real-world illustrations, Roche and Jakub describe how their model has been implemented in live business pilots in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.

Genres: Business, Economics, Nonfiction

270 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2017

Reviews

[Andy Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard about this book on the Theology of Business podcast, which peaked my interest in the topic of trying to measure other forms of capital. The premise of the book is that businesses usually focus merely on financial capital, where there is a need to measure and manage other types of capital that affect businesses, such as human capital (individual's skills and ability to work productively), social capital (a group's or community's ability to work together, largely based on trust), and natural capital (natural resources that the company uses from the earth). The authors also take some principles from the year of jubilee as described in the Bible, but in the end it seemed pretty limited and not terribly clear.

Overall, I found the premise interesting, but the delivery of the content was a little bit of a slog. I appreciated the explanations of how they actually measure these different forms of capital, but I found myself just trying to get through by about half way through. I also wished there was better explanation on how the year of jubilee informed their approach to business. So it was an interesting idea, and I was glad to get more detail about their methodology than I did from the podcast, but not overly compelling as a whole.

[Harmen Sas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had the privilege of having heard both authors introducing these concepts at the first two European Economic Summits in Amsterdam a few years back. Since then I have awaited this book.
The enthusiasm and drive of both authors and ‘evangelists’ of this good news breathes through the book. It provides the first building blocks and introduction into the concept of Economics of Mutuality, and causes for further exploration. Linking concepts from Prahalad’s The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (another must-read) with inclusive value chain principles of recognizing, utilizing and rewarding various forms of capital call for discussions and more business cases.
The danger with bringing something new with much enthusiasm, is that it could cast a wrong type of shadow on other concepts.
In this case CSR and Charity are somewhat presented as ‘inferior’ in terms of reach, where they might just be other ‘still imperfect’ but very much needed means to do good and which have their place as they will be able to realize and support things that business/capitalism is not able to or possibly not even supposed to be doing.
But all in all a much recommended read!

[Fisher_FA · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is overly generic and reads like a vision statement coupled with a summarized research paper. While perhaps beyond the scope of the book, the authors do not examine some common issues that negatively impact the free market such as bad governance, corporate greed, and education.

The high point of the book is a description about how modest investments in the economies of impoverished developing-world countries can have an outsized effect on the lives of many people. While I applaud the effort, this is not a model that can heal and or complete capitalism in the developed world.

[Geraldine]

Having met one of the authors, I felt obliged to read the book, and I'm glad I did. They introduce the concept "economics of mutuality" which, by their various field experiments, seem to have practical applications. Only if businesses can step up to truly change the current model of capitalism, which means they'd impact the world in so many ways.

[Rick Killian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completing Capitalism is a book everyone who cares about creating value and doing good should read. It’s metrics for better ways to measure business and profit will have profound impact on well being when implemented. It is written a little too academically, but it’s worth reading and rereading to get its points. Its tenets hold great promise for bringing prosperity and freedom around the world.

[RuthAnn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Put a big old asterisk next to the "read" column for me, because I did a very light skim of this book for my work book club. I think this is a book that I would rather read an article about than actually read. The concepts are interesting, but the tone seemed super dry to me.

[Kevin Pike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one started off strong. Then lapsed into too much pie-in-the-sky for me. Some worthwhile nuggets though.

[Gabriel Odhiambo Achayo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

Wonderful for a mindset change on why business and how to do a win-win business.

Thank you very much for this