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Chapter from: "Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take"
Published by: Harvard Business Publishing
Originally published in: 2021
Version: 5 October 2021

Abstract

Runaway climate change and rampant inequality are ravaging the world and costing a fortune. Who will help lead us to a better future? Business. In this book, Paul Polman and Andrew Winston argue that to thrive today and tomorrow, companies must become 'net positive' - giving more to the world than they take. The introduction starts with the failed hostile takeover of Unilever, a company focused on creating stakeholder value in service of a better world, highlighting shareholder primacy in action. The introduction lays out what a 'net positive' business is (improving well-being of everyone it impacts), describes the existential challenges facing humanity (the biggest being climate change and inequality), and the significant tailwinds making a deep transition possible and profitable. Chapter 10 explores what is coming at business in the near future and making the net positive agenda bigger, tougher, and more rewarding. Companies will need to help rethink capitalism, economic metrics like GDP, the nature of well-being, the purpose of a consumption-based economy, and the role of business in defending pillars of society like democracy and freedom. This is a call to action to join all of those who want to build a thriving world together. This chapter is excerpted from 'Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take'.

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Abstract

Runaway climate change and rampant inequality are ravaging the world and costing a fortune. Who will help lead us to a better future? Business. In this book, Paul Polman and Andrew Winston argue that to thrive today and tomorrow, companies must become 'net positive' - giving more to the world than they take. The introduction starts with the failed hostile takeover of Unilever, a company focused on creating stakeholder value in service of a better world, highlighting shareholder primacy in action. The introduction lays out what a 'net positive' business is (improving well-being of everyone it impacts), describes the existential challenges facing humanity (the biggest being climate change and inequality), and the significant tailwinds making a deep transition possible and profitable. Chapter 10 explores what is coming at business in the near future and making the net positive agenda bigger, tougher, and more rewarding. Companies will need to help rethink capitalism, economic metrics like GDP, the nature of well-being, the purpose of a consumption-based economy, and the role of business in defending pillars of society like democracy and freedom. This is a call to action to join all of those who want to build a thriving world together. This chapter is excerpted from 'Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take'.

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