The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World

by Judy Samuelson

The rules of business are changing dramatically. The Aspen Institute's Judy Samuelson describes the profound shifts in attitudes and mindsets that are redefining our notions of what constitutes business success.

Dynamic forces are conspiring to clarify the new rules of real value creation--and to put the old rules to rest. Internet-powered transparency, more powerful worker voice, the decline in importance of capital, and the complexity of global supply chains in the face of planetary limits all define the new landscape. As executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, Judy Samuelson has a unique vantage point from which to engage business decision makers and identify the forces that are moving the needle in both boardrooms and business classrooms.

Samuelson lays out how hard-to-measure intangibles like reputation, trust, and loyalty are imposing new ways to assess risk and opportunity in investment and asset management. She argues that maximizing shareholder value has never been the sole objective of effective businesses while observing that shareholder theory and the practices that keep it in place continue to lose power in both business and the public square. In our globalized era, she demonstrates how expectations of corporations are set far beyond the company gates--and why employees are both the best allies of the business and the new accountability mechanism, more so than consumers or investors.

Samuelson's new rules offer a powerful guide to how businesses are changing today--and what is needed to succeed in tomorrow's economic and social landscape.

Genres: Business

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 12, 2021

About the author

Judy Samuelson is founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and a vice president at the Aspen Institute. Judy led a ten-year campaign to disrupt Milton Friedman's narrative about profit-maximization to successfully challenge conventional thinking in board rooms and classrooms about the Purpose of the corporation; she produced the Aspen Principles of Long-Term Value Creation to challenge short-termism in business and capital markets; and is promoting a set of Principles designed to disrupt the status quo in boardrooms about the design of CEO pay. Judy's career spans working in the California State Legislature, banking in New York's garment center and directing the Ford Foundation's exploration of impact investing - the Office of Program-Related Investments. Samuelson writes regularly for Quartz at Work. She is a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow and a director of the Financial Health Network.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judy Samuelson writes: "Tell me which of the pressing issues of our time keep you awake at night, and I will tell you how the old rules of profit maximization and short-term thinking contribute to those problems." Samuelson argues that the old rules -- chiefly that shareholder profit is the sole objective of effective businesses--is giving way to new rules that value employees, benefit society and protect the environment. She gives examples of how recent scandals in several industries have illustrated that the old rules no longer work or even result in profitability. The book is an argument against Milton Friedman's proclamation that profit seeking and returns to shareholders are the organizing principle of the corporation. However, as she points out, "Friedman has a long shadow."
Samuelson came to our F & I group to discuss her book and acknowledged that there is no certainty about whether her new rules will take hold--but she does a great job of arguing that they should.

[Burt Schoeppe · Rating 1 out of 5]

The attitude of authority and self-righteous belief in niche values that flows through this book was resoundingly rejected in the 2024 presidential election.

The celebration of Greta Thundberg's "How dare you?" looks all the much worse given Thunberg's turn to anti-semitic heel.

Shelved in the fantasy shelf as that represents the only world in which a majority of people align with the ludicrous prescriptions for the responsibility of company management.

[Mark Simmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though there we important points made that intersected with other books like the B Corp, Dare to Lead, etc., the "six" new rules seems too forced. I did not find there was as good a thesis with each like with "Good to Great" or "The Lean Startup".

[Thomas Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally, I found this book a little bit simplistic and naive in dealing with an issue - corporate social responsibility - which is complex and often ambiguous for business leaders.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be assigned to all business and law school students on how the game has changed and will be played during their generation. Samuelson's six new rules are not emerging; they are now the mainstream. Just take a look at what the largest asset managers and trade groups are saying. Executives focused purely on traditional GAAP financial metrics will be left behind, whether they like it or not.

[Lindsey Garnick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated the optimism in the book, but overall the ideas were too vague. May be better if I had more of a business background, but I read it hoping to learn more about ESG and corporate sustainability.

I can’t really pinpoint any take aways I had from reading this book, which is rare after reading a nonfiction. Writing felt disjointed at times, with example after example but no through line connecting it all. Lots of name dropping of CEOs and thought leaders I wasn’t familiar with.