Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet

by Klaus Schwab, Peter Vanham (Primary Contributor)

Think of the global economy as a jigsaw puzzle.

At the heart of solving the puzzle -- and address global disturbance and uncertainty--lies three identifiable issues that need need to fit: First, income and other inequality within societies has been on the rise, while productivity and wage growth slowed, and countries are burdened by debt. Second, the market power of the world's largest companies reached unprecedented levels, raising questions on the spread of innovation and productivity gains. And third, the exploitation of natural resources is leading to a deteriorating environment, affecting the lives of many for the worse.

The debate over what caused this situation is still open: whether laissez-faire governments, a poorly managed globalization, or the rise of technology that favours the few, the possible culprits are legion. In any case, Schwab argues our current system has failed to properly register and address many of the issues we are now faced with.

What are the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and what are false positives? Do solutions lie in small adjustments to our current system, or a complete overhaul of it? And what best practices exist around the world, including Asia, that would allow for better outcomes?

There are no easy answers, and no single stakeholder can provide them. But it is certain that individual actors do have agency, and that policies matter, when it comes to dealing with external forces. Moreover, as success stories from the Switzerland to Singapore, and from Costa Rica to China show it is only when government, businesses and individuals all play their respective roles, and agree on a social contract with shared responsibility that societal outcomes will be optimal.

The Jigsaw Economy addresss these problems, ad provides achievable answers to solve them. Piece by piece, this new book by Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum, shares answers for all stakholderes in the global economy, rich and poor, vested and disenfranchised, engaged or searching. optimistic. The goall: to address problems and provide solutions, piece by piece, stakeholder by stakeholdere, country by coutrny, world citizen by world citizen.

Genres: Economics, Business, Politics, Finance, Nonfiction, Sustainability, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2021

About the author

Klaus Martin Schwab is a German engineer and economist best known as the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Reviews

[Otto Lehto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stakeholder Capitalism argues that the only way to solve society's most burning questions, such as climate change, inequality, and political polarization, is to move away from Milton Friedman's model of narrowly profit-maximizing corporate ethics towards a model of socially and economically conscious welfare-maximizing corporate ethics. Although I think that Friedman's model can be taken too far, I vehemently disagree with the author's conclusion that the model should be abandoned for multiple reasons. I think that the best way to tackle such problems that arise from capitalism is to combine profit-maximizing business practices with effective government regulation and redistribution that minimizes the destructive externalities of unhampered competition. What is wrong with stakeholder capitalism, then? For one, I would not trust the Davos elite to act as a group of superheroes to save the world. Power corrupts and Davos power corrupts absolutely. I would prefer them to focus on more narrowly defined, but also more honest and straightforward tasks, including proft-maximization (within the enforcement of clear regulatory standards) and the advancement of concrete social and environmental aims through the political process, rather than trying to turn their businesses into deliberative vehicles for social and environmental activism. After all, either the embrace of corporate social responsibility of companies stems from a real desire to change to world or else it stems from a desire to put up a lucrative act that increases their brand value. In the first case, their well-meaning energy would be better served in the pursuit of more concrete political and social remedies, and in the latter case, it amounts to nothing but hypocrisy. Nonetheless, I found the book insightful. It is full of interesting (although rarely novel) data points that reflect Schwab's unprecedented access to the academic, political, and business worlds. But who, exactly, is this Mr. Schwab, to have such elite access?

Klaus Schwab was a rather unknown figure until recently. He has acquired infamy ever since right wing conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and James A. Lindsay have joined the chorus of left-wing critics of globalization like Naomi Klein and Rutger Bregman to condemn Davos, although for widely different reasons, as a corrupt seat of unearned power and privilege. But the real secret behind the World Economic Forum is NOT that it is engaged in an elitist ploy to control the world or that it already secretly controls it. (It does not.) The real secret is that WEF is a lucrative business model for Klaus Schwab an innovative political entrepreneur. I think it is pretty impressive how Schwab has turned Davos into a global hub of elite networking, brainstorming, and visionary conversations. Schwab is no dunce. In fact, he is a serious scholar with some undeniable skills as a facilitator of interdisciplinary meetings where people can discuss various "weak signals" (emerging policy topics) that most ordinary people know little about but will come to know in due time.

I do not recount all this background to cast aspersions on Mr. Schwab, nor to deflect from the book's interesting contents, but to argue that the book contains many clues that it must be understood in the context of its author as the father of the Davos meetings: 1) World leaders are treated with sometimes embarrassing reverence and political correctness; which is explained by the fact that Mr. Schwab clearly wants to remain on good speaking terms - and indeed on good business terms - with all the world leaders in the global West, East, North, and South. For example, Chinese totalitarianism is downplayed while its economic successes are extolled. Likewise, there is little effort to highlight the importance of individual freedom in the Western sense. Indeed, the central message is tailored to appeal to broad constituencies and various ideologies. The reason is that the Davos elite does not want to hear that it should not be in charge of changing the world for the better. Indeed, it wants to hear that it is virtuous if it further tightens its grip on power. 2) As a result, the action agenda of the book is rather schizophrenic, because although it pays lip service to widespread citizen participation, including by environmental groups led by people like Greta Thunberg, most of the examples of meaningful social change towards stakeholder capitalism are taken from among the business elite and the political elite: we hear from the bold actions and visionary leadership taken by CEOs of big companies like Siemens, Google, and Maersk, as well as by the prime ministers and presidents of various countries around the world. Indeed, Schwab's vision of stakeholder capitalism borrows the language of the bottom-up vision of grassroots deliberative democracy (the left-wing definition of the term) in the service of a top-down vision of compassionate business ethics or "capitalism with a human face" which emphasizes, above all else, increased "corporate social responsibility" (the business school definition of the term).

The book, in its essential, is an insightful and often nuanced but ultimately self-serving and politically dangerous call for the business and political elite to showcase leadership not just in business and politics but also in ethics and progressive social change. It reflects an impressive confluence of real academic and economic insights about coming disruptive social changes, including those caused by The Fourth Industrial Revolution (which is the title of one of his previous books), with more pragmatic interests of the business and political classes. Ideologically, it leans more on the centre-left agenda of morally guided capitalism, but even more than that, it caters to the pecuniary interests of the business world and the power interests of the political world, by selling them a vision where virtuous Davos billionaires save the world. The problem is not that it tries to make billionaires to do better; the problem is that it sells them a misguided vision that almost completely ignores the problems with central planning (as pointed out by people like F.A. Hayek and James Buchanan). It fails to understand that shareholder capitalism, whatever its flaws (and they are many!), has not proven so successful "despite" its narrow profit-seeking motive but precisely BECAUSE of it. The ability of capitalism to harness the unintended consequences of self-motivated actions is its greatest gift that is easy to misunderstand. And Schwab unfortunately contributes to this misunderstanding. Lastly, the book also fails to understand that problems like climate change, inequality, and political polarization are better tackled through effective government regulation and redistribution combined with civil society efforts. Stakeholder thinking may be occasionally useful but it often causes gridlocks that are avoided if local actors are granted autonomy to engage in free actions. So, I cannot recommend the book for its conclusions, but the historical analysis and future prognosis that it uses to reach its conclusions is sufficiently interesting, polymathic, idiosyncratic, and concurrent to be worth recommending for anybody who wants to understand what challenges lie ahead.

[MoUz6 · Rating 1 out of 5]

a) the false belief that capitalism is the currently dominant economic order; de facto it is corporationism
b) the author's attempt to reconstruct basic concepts
c) one of the main causes of most of the economic suffering in the history of the World is the centralisation of power and wealth, which this book again urges

[Szatmári Tamás · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book so badly. But I expected something else. The history of our current neoliberal economic model is comprehensive and also easy to read with full of stories. I lack a more thorough comparison of the shareholder and the state capitalism. I fully lack the practical advices that a simple business can follow. This book is more for policy makers and economic enthusiast. I admire the initiatives of World Economic Forum, but for practical thoughts one should read Frederic Laloux or Jurgen Apello.

[Seba · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book doesn't really say anything wrong. At the same time, this book doesn't say anything new. It feels like the writers tried their best to reach a target number of pages to earn their "badge of seriousness," but other than that it is really a fairly generalistic, basic, and overall non-essential read. The whole book could have fit in a tweet.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two-thirds of this book felt like filler: superficial overviews of very important topics (income inequality, climate change, and the limitations of shareholder capitalism) that I have seen much better explained in other books. Schwab finally hits his stride in the last third of the book, where he focuses on companies and countries that are managing -- or at least attempting -- new models of holistic business and policy approaches that might, if we all somehow pull together (and that's a big IF), keep us from plunging over the economic/environmental cliff.

[Janis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hanlon's razor can only shave off so much ignorance before it becomes dull, and it lost its edge quickly with this book. At some point, one must conclude that willful blindness and ulterior motives are at play. Like with earlier attempts at large-scale economic intervention, I suspect visions of grandiosity and mind-boggling levels of hubris to be the culprits.

The author astutely observes that happiness and meaning are not provided to people by the government, the economy, or work in general. However, this is not a new revelation of the last century; rather, what has changed is our expectation that they should.

Schwab asserts that governments and corporations should serve social goals and influence the economy charitably. This perspective overlooks the fact that a profit-driven free-market economy has been the most impactful charitable invention humankind has developed. No other system has lifted so many people out of poverty or improved living conditions, especially for the bottom half of the population, in such a short timespan.
How self-righteous, how arrogant, how foolish to think you can do better!

The number of fallacies in this book surpasses the scope of this review, but here are some noteworthy examples:

- The author incorrectly infers a relationship between low socioeconomic mobility and high income/wealth inequality. These are distinct concepts that are not necessarily mutually dependent. It seems to be assumed that the dreaded "1%" remain a static group, which is not accurate. It could even be argued that high socioeconomic mobility might lead to increased inequality up to a certain point, resulting in a Pareto-like distribution based on prerequisites for success such as competence, ingenuity, or even pure chance.

- The book portrays the declining economic growth in the West as an inherent consequence of the shareholder capitalism practiced. However, this decline is more closely related to over-regulation and high taxation in the face of fierce global competition. Ironically, the author's proposed remedies include more of these economic drains. It is no wonder that Schwab himself does not anticipate continued economic growth.

- The pursuit of profit is unfairly associated with greed without considering its merits. Profit should be understood as a tax for efficiency. It has been consistently demonstrated that the "loss" of profit more than compensates for itself when compared to non-profit public endeavors that achieve similar outcomes at significantly higher costs.

- The assertion that Angela Merkel's management of the beginning of the pandemic was well-received, or that there was a political shift to the right of the CDU party, is not a widespread opinion held in Germany.

- While the need to reduce carbon emissions, especially in the energy sector, is stated, there is a glaring omission: the absence of any mention of nuclear power. This serves as probably the best litmus test to evaluate whether someone informed cares about the climate or has alternative motivations.

- The practice of large corporations externalizing non-ESG sectors, such as oil drilling, to improve stock ratings is portrayed as a commendable commitment, as seen in the case of Maersk.

Much of this book, when not outright erroneous, felt like filler material, particularly the sections about the four industrial revolutions. Can I skip "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" by Klaus Schwab now?

[Andy Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

We as a human society have gone down the wrong path for the past half century, adopting neoliberal ideals that have increased inequality and destroyed the natural world. We can address these issues by adopting stakeholder capitalism, a system where:

"the interests of all stakeholders in the economy and society are taken into account, with companies optimizing for more than just short-term profits, and governments are guardians of equality of opportunity, a level playing field in competition, and a fair contribution of and distribution to all stakeholders with regards to sustainability and inclusiveness of the system"

Along with more equitable outcomes and less destruction of the environment, stakeholder capitalism results in higher engagement and connection between all stakeholders; companies, employees, and governments become more flexible with the changing times; and consumers will benefit from increased competition and innovation.

There is hope, and the author makes it clear in his writing.

[Lori Mancell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as good as I'd hoped. The book spent far too long covering history that is already well known, and when the book finally got to the key point, it seemed to be largely definitional fluff. I can summarise the book by saying: its core point is that the world would be better if all business leaders had an ethical, long term view and generous mindset.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another entry in the genre of "here's my personal solution to all the problems in the world, which will save us all if everyone agrees with me and works towards my program". Yes, maybe. But we can't even get people to agree on basic facts, much less what a working solution is and how we should work towards it. But it's a little nice to hear someone sounding hopeful for the future sometimes. He didn't need to include essentially a whole history of the world before he gets to the particular axe he wants to grind.

[David Nygaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stakeholder Capitalism was an engaging and inspiring read. The first two-thirds can be a bit discouraging, as they outline the history and gravity of the economic, societal and environmental challenges that we face, but the last third is concrete, hopeful and constructive.

Klaus Schwab, with the help of Peter Vanham, lays out an economic history of the past century, describing how “neither the neoliberal ideology nor the socialist one works well in our current era and that “protectionism and autarky” are not sustainable principles.

My favourite parts of the book were in the latter half, where the authors provide examples of how the principles of stakeholder capitalism have been and can be successfully deployed to link innovation in both the digital and physical world. One of the best examples was that of the Danish shipping company Maersk. To quote Maersk CEO Jim Snabe: “If you add the latest technologies [of the Fourth Industrial Revolution] to . . . [companies operating in the physical world] . . . they can have a big impact, because without the physical world, we are nothing.” Maersk has linked its performance to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and in so doing, has breathed new life into the company’s purpose, and that of its employees. This made me think of Canada’s traditional strengths in its resource sectors, and the potential to bring “equitable prosperity” to all, another key concept in the book.

The aim of governments, according to the authors, should be to “enable any individual actor to maximize his or her prosperity but do so in a way that is equitable for both its people and the planet.” They argue that over the past 50 years a narrow focus on GDP has led to declining growth, rising debt and growing inequality. They argue instead for a “a broader dashboard of metrics” which are already being adopted by the OECD and others. As examples they provide Singapore and New Zealand, the latter of which prioritizes intergenerational well-being in its world-leading Living Standards Framework (LSF). This provides the “clear compass”.

What’s the impact? Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics developed by the leading global accountancy and consulting firms in conjunction with the World Economic Forum will be added to companies’ annual reporting in the next two to three years.

My only major complaint would be that the authors tend to gloss over issues of freedom and human rights, especially when discussing China. The book would have been stronger had it made a more compelling defence of democracy, which is just as necessary for human progress as stakeholder capitalism.

The book ends on a hopeful note, namely that “The state of the world isn’t a given but that we can improve it if we are all committed to a better world.” Agreed. Five stars.

[Horng Jiunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schwab argued convincingly, mapping his prolific journey with chronological challenges and megatrends, from post-war affairs into present landscape amidst the pandemic, and he also conversed about his preferred system going forth.

I am intrigued with his ideas for a better global system, on policies framework and advance collaboration to help deal with the amplification of new technologies, and how to equitably share its values for a broader objective than profits, into the health and wealth of societies overall, as well as that of the planet and future generations.

Being part of the tech branch from the container port industry in Singapore, his study into Maersk and Salesforce transformation by redefining their culture and core principles, carries a deep sense of purpose and is alarming inspiring to me.

[Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst most of the stuff in here is on the right path, Schwab spends a lot of time pushing fluff around solid economic arguments with little ability to criticise the role of Davos in acknowledging that the meeting of those in control to solve problems that they create is a little ironic.

There’s better books on fairer economic outcomes for all but it’s not like this isn’t worth the read, especially for those who are looking to get a basic understanding of the rise of inequality.

[Sunny Flynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have two opinions about this book:
1. The title of this book is slightly misleading. Despite the title being 100% about “Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and the Planet”, the actual writing about Stakeholder Capitalism didn’t begin until 2/3rds of the way through (approx 169 pages in). I understand how Prof Schwab wanted to give a history lesson as a preface to the concept, but it shouldn’t have taken up the majority of the book.

2. Once we started reading about Stakeholder Capitalism, it was actually really interesting! I’d give this section a rounded up 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I am excited to hold onto these grounded values as I pursue my “career” but also as a citizen of the world.

[Ipshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful into to stakeholder capitalism with a few large corporation and govt case studies. Not super insightful and missing roles for broader private sector (incl. startups) and citizen leadership

[Daniel Noventa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing take on capitalism that works for people.

[Simon Parent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written and easy to understand.
But.
It's pure bullshit.
At the end of the day, it's "what if Capitalism but less bad?"
It's metrics other than GDP.
Commitments from industries who opt in to be good we swear pinkie promise.
He wink and nod to Andrew Yang's right to own our data, to unions, UBI, and other good-ish things while dismissing and misrepresenting socialist goals and the underpinning mechanism behind the problems.
Klaus displayed either a terrible understanding of Marx, or a deliberate misrepresentation.

At the end of the day, I'd be for Stakeholder Capitalism if it was implemented now.
More worker representation and protection, more environmental protections, UBI, better taxation of companies and CEOs, sure, sign me up.
But it lacks teeth. It's voluntary. And if there was a government entity that enforced it, would we not want it to be ran by the workers, not terms set up by the companies? Yes, ok. That's socialism. That's what I want. But Klaus insist on profits, on a mix of shareholders and stakeholders, on having businesses voluntarily be part of it. Lol, he even advocates for monopolies at some point, if I understood correctly, because smaller businesses had no choice but to focus on profits to survive, while monopolies could afford to have breadcrumbs allocated for social projects.
The Pandora papers leaked a few days ago. Klaus was advocating for global tax enforcement. And sure, let's do it. But to me that showed how the power is incredibly lopsided toward the ultra rich, and how no measures short of direct worker control of means of production, in a direct democracy, can be successful to curb this kind of gross greed.

[Alexander Michalowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book portrays examples of capitalism from a positive and negative outcome. The author also presents cases where there is natural progression by a country in capitalism. It is a read that has many outside view with deep dive into a situation.

[Andrew Canfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People, and Planet provides a reimagining of how globalism can be made to work more effectively for more people.

The book was written by World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, who grew up in Ravensburg, Germany in the years immediately following the end of World War Two. He wrote Stakeholder Capitalism out of concern over what he was seeing in the late 2010s and early 2020s. These concerns included a rising antipathy toward immigrants and open society across many Western countries, growing income inequality in the developed world, a growing skepticism of the global economy that went along with these two former issues, and the failure to make meaningful progress on the greenhouse gas emissions destabilizing the climate.

Schwab is critical of both the command economy modeled by China and Russia (state capitalism) as well as the hyper capitalist state pushed in places like the United States and United Kingdom. While the former can cause disruptions and hurt dynamism, the latter-especially since the 1980s-have created a growing level of income and especially wealth inequality that is destabilizing democratic governments across the West.

He naturally-being from the West-focuses more on how the rough edges of hyper capitalism can be smoothed to create a better counterargument to state socialist capitalism.

The postwar years in the West, and particularly in the U.S., were analyzed early on. With strong unions and a willingness to ensure the wealthy paid their fair share for an equitable society, there was more of an understanding of what it took to create a stable, middle class capitalist society. With the onset of the 1980s, however, tax policies began to favor the wealthy, unions were broken up, and the level of wealth inequality naturally skyrocketed. Many negative societal factors, from obesity to deaths of despair, crept up in the decades since.

As the title indicates, the book instead promotes stakeholder capitalism as a way to rebalance this.

Stakeholder capitalism would involve ensuring more equitable housing and health care policies. It also would mean ensuring corporations have more of an incentive to look beyond the current quarter and instead adopt outlooks that benefit both their bottom line and society at large.

The Milton Friedman outlook on corporations-that they exist only to ensure profit for their shareholders-is rightly viewed by Schwab as anachronistic in the present day and age. The negatives of only looking at profit and loss, while taking nothing broader into account, are held up as incredibly short term thinking.

Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff is referenced in the book as a forward-looking business leader who has tried to put forward ways to make sure twenty-first century corporations are better public stewards going forward.

The increasingly poor health outcomes in the U.S., where many millions remain uninsured, compares poorly to the other countries (every developed nation besides the U.S.) which ensure access to health care. Schwab notes how fixing this by looking at models that work would both lower health care costs (when public and private spending are included) and result in better health outcomes across the population.

Even within the U.S. itself, the disparities between places where public health is made a priority and places where it is viewed as a privilege are apparent in the metrics.

This book can be viewed as an effort to cut off the growing Western populist movement at its knees. Some of Schwab's propositions might be too rose-colored, but his efforts to constructively address the growing destabilization in many modern economies are admirable.

It addresses the need for corporations to take the environment seriously when they assess their core businesses. The urgent need to combine economic growth with reductions in carbon emissions makes this a necessity, and Schwab spends ample time explaining ways this can be accomplished going forward.

By ensuring the wealthy in many Western countries once again ensure other classes have a stake in society, Schwab feels the Western middle class could reorient away from the extremes-or despair-they are fragmenting into. In this sense, Scandinavian countries could go a long way to showing a better way forward than state capitalism or hyper capitalism.

A more inclusive capitalism is the goal of this book.

While some readers will chaff at this work as just the sort of thing globalism populist movements like AfD in Germany and MAGA in the U.S. have sprung up to oppose, it is thoughtfully written and worth taking the time to check out.

Readers looking for some new ideas for a more conscious form of capitalism are likely to enjoy it.

-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado

[Andre Mouton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klaus Schwab is in fine form and goes into not only providing detail but brings it all together in a logical way that explores the global economy, climate change and stakeholder capitalism. This book incorporates a deeper understanding of why and how we are overly reliant on GDP as a measure of economic success. A balanced view of international organisations... understanding trends is often late or lacking.

Many chapters contain up to 50 references. Klaus Schwab impressed me with the ease of covering all four industrial revolutions, from steam engines, electricity, the internet and AI such as GPT (General Purpose Technology).

Not only does this book cover historical economic scholars such as Milton Friedman but provides a framework for understanding how these theories shaped our current global climate. From the 'an invisible hand' maximising utility for society. During this second industrial revolution businesses engaged in activities for profit, ‘horses were replaced by cars, and ships by planes’. The second revolution was the combustion engine and electricity.

The third revolution is illustrated brilliantly using Microsoft, Apple, the Internet, and instant communication. 1980's China, Indonesia and Mexico integrated into globalisation - helping millions of people into the middle class. Wealth was accumulated at the top and the third emerging markets got a fairer share. Middle classes enabled massive growth in China such as the Shenzhen factories.

I also loved the chapter on upskilling a workforce - The contrast between Denmark and the United States is an excellent example of how companies can impact education to embrace new technology.
Singapore’s GDP per Capita growth from 1965 to 2019 is a great example of implementing economic policies instead of ideologically driven policies. Again this resonates with referring to how Singapore’s success is rooted in education. Found myself fascinated by the history of the largest companies and monopolies.

This book spans all four industrial revolutions and provides outstanding insight into the impacts and effects of rapid change in economic policies, technology and education.
On a side note, the Lakner and Milanovic - World Inequality Report (2018) adds tremendous value as data is used at relevant placements throughout. I would like to explore the ‘network effect’ from the third industrial revolution more, for additional information on locking users into networks.

Greta Thunberg, ‘act as though your house is on fire… because… it is’. From Davos, the IPCC and the UN a very concise summary of why this message is so important hits home. Klaus Schwab not only provides an accurate account but also provides insight into his reasoning for inviting Greta to Davos. Great way to highlight the impact Thunberg had with her school strikes and social media followers.

This book is filled with interesting facts such as 50 years of economic progress made at the expense of our planet. ‘200 years of CO2 omissions for short-term profits.
It surprised me to reflect that it was in 1988 that the idea came out in the New York Times that climate change is man-made.
Another interesting fact provided by Klaus Schwab in referring to Bitcoin’s annual carbon omissions of ‘22 megatons of CO2’

I highly recommend this book. Not only to business students but to anyone and everyone as it lays out the foundations for sustainable progress.

The objective to eliminate reliance on coal and fossil fuels connects with the data provided by Bill Gates in his book ‘How to avoid a climate disaster.' Big thanks to Klaus Schwab for putting in what must have been a tremendous effort.

[William Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Schwab makes the point that Shareholder Capitalism has failed. The form of capitalism which has been practiced throughout the Western World for the past fifty years is no longer fit for purpose. By focusing all the benefits of business on the owners of the business (the share holders), great injustices have been done to employees, the community, the general public, government and the planet.

In the first part of the book, he describes in some detail evidence against Shareholder Capitalism. The focus on giving shareholders nearly all the benefits has resulted in a shift in power away from labour unions and into the hands of management. Employee pay has stagnated, while executive pay has dramatically increased over the last half century. Communities have been devastated by the closure of local businesses and the relocation of the business overseas in order to improve profits for the shareholders. The general public has been injured by unregulated risk taking and non-competitive behaviour of businesses. Government has been unable to collect the taxes to which it would be entitled by tax avoidance schemes which benefit only shareholders. And insufficient attention has been paid to pollution as a cost saving which benefits only the shareholder.

Schwab argues that it is time to change our form of capitalism to one where the benefits are more fairly distributed, where employees have more of a say in their work and receive fairer compensation, where the needs of the community which houses the business are considered, where the government has a stronger regulatory role, and the life of the planet is given full attention.

This change, Schwab argues, can be brought about by repurposing companies so that they benefit their customers, their employees, society at large and their shareholders. He says, “in September 2020, the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum – comprising 140 of the largest global companies -presented the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics. They are a core set of metrics and disclosures on the non-financial aspects of business performance, including variables such as greenhouse gas emissions, diversity, employee health and wellbeing.”

The book is well written and certainly persuasive. It is also timely. Although it is early days, I think that more attention should have been given to implementation of Stakeholder Capitalism. More examples of companies which have actually done it, and more about the actual metrics.

Left unsaid – likely for political reasons – is the application of stakeholder capitalism to the Chinese version of capitalism, where the main beneficiary is the Chinese Communist Party and its ideals.

The world would be a very different place if stakeholder capitalism were to be universally adopted.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stakeholder capitalism sounds like the right idea. The Milton Friedman/Reaganomics world of shareholder capitalism where we live now has led to a fragile financialized economy where the rich get richer and ordinary people struggle, where workers are exploited worse than any time since the beginnings of the industrial revolution, and where shocks to the system like the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID pandemic deliver body blows to most people while enabling the rich to get richer still. And then there is the damage to the planet - climate change, pollution, destruction of the wilderness, mass extinctions and unsustainable overuse of resources. We need something different. Wouldn't it be better if companies and governments could just find ways to allow all people affected by what they do to participate in their decisions and for companies and governments to make decisions based on the broader interests of all of these stakeholders? Of course it would be, so a stakeholder concept is a clear improvement over what we have now.

But I see two big problems:

1. It's nearly impossible to transform the stakeholder idea from being an empty shibboleth into a working philosophy. Mr. Schwab acknowledges that he has been pushing the idea for fifty years and despite what he claims in this book, it hasn't gotten a lot of traction. Superrich bigwigs fly into Davos to play at Mr. Schwab's World Economic Forum, but they are mostly there to rub shoulders with each other and to do deals that only benefit each other. They pay lip service to the idea of stakeholder capitalism but do little in practice to actually implement it. The hypocrisy is staggering. I don't see this changing. On the other hand, I do think that it's better to talk about moving in the direction of the stakeholder concept, and it's better to live in a world where the concept is honored as a goal than in one where it is dismissed as naive or wrong.

2. What we really need to do is to reform how we think about private property. We need real safety nets for everyone, universal basic income and assurance of food, housing, education and medical care. Equality of opportunity should be real. On the other end of the scale, we need wealth caps and real limits on generational transfers of wealth. The idea of perpetual private ownership of anything that you don't personally use is wrong. We don't need it as an incentive or a reward. There are plenty of other ways to incentivize and reward people. Property as we conceive it today is theft, and for most of my lifetime we have been busily creating more kinds of property to enable more theft. It really needs to be rethought from the ground up, and Mr. Schwab is only suggesting a way of putting a tiny band-aid on a gaping wound.

[Razi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an interesting read. Davos crowd ditches Milton Friedman just in time to jump on to the next business bandwagon. It will be green and they promise us it wouldn't be mean. 4 stars for honestly admitting that neoliberalism has met its future and another world is possible. Honest admission that trade unions are a force for good and their destruction under Regan/ Thatcher neoliberalism was a mistake with bad consequences for all "stakeholders".
The tide has already turned. They had no choice but to change and concern for planet is the can of Pepsi in Kendall Jenner's hand this time. The anger has to be chanelled somewhere as Mark Blyth said “the Hamptons is not a defensible position. Eventually, they will come for you.”
I don't know why I gave it 4 stars but the Right Wing rhetoric is coming so thick and fast from all sides that even a changed neoliberal is a welcome sight.
The tone is still technocratic (you can't change everything, can you?) and he talks down at his readers from a position of expert authority on things which have not come to pass yet (I "read" the audiobook version of books as I have a very busy life and very bad eyesight). So the audiobook sounds like bullet points. You can't take PowerPoint out of a technocrat even if you take the technocrat out of Davos.

[Brian Blomgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an important book to read and understand the global forces behind many of the government policies and corporate initiatives that are changing society. Although several good merits are included in the book, there is a great danger to individual liberty and freedom in how the ideas are implemented. The premise is that shareholder capitalism is outdated and stakeholder capitalism that concerns itself with broader issues is better than only a profit motive. However, the broader issues that WEF cares about is not reflective of the issues many stakeholders, and in particular 1B Christians, care about. Also, as a US citizen, our constitutional republic is based on representative government and not on unelected corporate titans, academics, and bureaucrats. The sharing of ideas is great but the implementation of them through goals and scorecards for governmental leaders will have unintended consequences adversely affecting society. WEF breaks its own rules of stakeholder capitalism when stakeholders are not even considered when choosing a SDG for their locality.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The message is clear - we have to stop the emissions of greenhouse gasses. We keep hearing the same message over and over, so what does this book actually tell you?

Stakeholder Capitalism takes quite a while to get going, as the majority of the book is spent talking about the history of our current economic model. Going through the historical challenges in a chronological order, Schwab discusses how country leaders have governed up until the present time COVID-19 pandemic.

It's only until close to the end of the book that we finally get to the core. Schwab gives the reader a lesson on how danish shipping company Maersk, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and other large companies are attempting to be innovative and implement new business models and policies. These models and policies are far more modern, ethical and sustainable when compared to the traditional economic model of shareholder capitalism that is dominant in the developed countries.

[Mike Guzowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about B2S (Business to Society).

It awares that through activities of the enterprise, it contributes to the welfare of the entire society; supports the community in which it operates (ensures safe electrical and efficient use of data; plays the role of the manager of the environment and the material world for the benefit of future generations; Consciously cares for our biosphere and advocates a circular economy based on resource sharing and regeneration). It constantly pushes the boundaries of knowledge, innovation and technology to enhance people's well-being |

An enterprise is more than just an economic unit that produces wealth. It fulfills the aspirations of man and society within a wider social system. Its activity should be assessed not only in terms of financial results and profits for shareholders, but also how it achieves its environmental, social and management goals. Management payment should reflect the level of responsibility towards all stakeholders

[Luke Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey communist! Wanna see some capitalist apologetic try to polish a broken turd? Hey libertarians! Wanna see some big gov fan try to corrupt your mind with socialism? Hey everyone else! Do you want to take an honest look at what capitalism has done for us, good and bad, and try to learn some lessons on creating a more inclusive, resilient economy and world? Yeah me neither, don't read this book, broadening perspectives is lame.

[Apisilp Trunganont · Rating 5 out of 5]

หนังสือแนะนำแนวคิดทุนนิยมแบบที่คำนึงถึงผู้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียทุกฝ่ายว่าจะช่วยให้โลกเราดีกว่านี้ได้ ถือเป็นแนวคิดที่ดี แต่ก็เกิดคำถามขึ้นว่าแนวคิดนี้จะกลายเป็นกระแสหลักของโลกได้จริงหรือเปล่า เพราะโลกเราถูกขับเคลื่อนด้วยทุนนิยมผู้ถือหุ้นมาเป็นเวลานานแล้ว อะไรจะเป็นแรงจูงใจให้ผู้บริหารธุรกิจอยากทำเพื่อผู้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียมากกว่าแค่เพียงผู้ถือหุ้น และธุรกิจรายย่อยทั่วไปที่แค่เอาตัวเองให้รอดท่ามกลางการแข่งขันที่รุนแรงก็ยังยาก การให้คิดถึงผู้มีส่วนได้ส่วนเสียทั้งหมดด้วยก็ไม่ง่ายเลย

[Simonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ne viskam pritariu ir ne visuomet noriu, kad autorius būtų teisus, tačiau, akivaizdu, jog šitos tezės nupiešia, koks yra visuomenės lūkestis, koks šiuolaikinis (didelis) verslas privalo būti. Apibrėžimas "verslo tikslas - kurti vertę akcininkams" ekonomikos pamokose gali keistis, nes vaidmuo pasidaro gerokai platesnis ir "įtakotojų" dar daugiau.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last time I ever rent a business book from the library. Full book on economics that I was not prepared for. Felt like more of a book on socialist policies and how they can benefit everyone. Really not the type of book I was looking to read given the fact that our prime minister just censored our internet usage.

[Roland M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stakeholder capitalism is a bloated, bureaucratic system that lets large corporations keep expanding their harmful influence instead of being held accountable or dismantled. It piles on excessive regulations that hurt small and medium-sized businesses, making it harder for them to compete and survive.