How Do We Move Past a Winner-Take-All Approach to Business?

In the recent frenzy over “woke” corporations, some argue businesses should stop looking after the wellbeing of “stakeholders” – i.e. communities, customers, and even workers – and get back to making money for shareholders. But lost in this uproar is a delicious irony: Companies that prioritize long-term investments in the public good produce higher returns over time than companies that focus only on boosting profits for the next quarter or two. In this mini-episode, Adam and Maude unpack the centuries-old debate over the purpose of a corporation, explore the financial upside of investing in broad prosperity, and discuss efforts  to shift conventional corporate thinking from a winner-take-all mentality…to a humanized approach with just as many winners, but far fewer losers.