Turnaround Challenge

Business is in an era of crises. Climate change, demographic change, emerging economies, and new ways to organize and govern society are combining to make today's global business environment different to anything in the past. Pessimists say business is making the crises worse, or that the crises are a threat to private enterprise. Optimists say business has nothing to worry about, and that we should carry on with business as usual.

As reluctant optimists, the authors argue that business has to succeed, but to do so in an unfamiliar new world will require major changes to what is meant by capitalism. The good news is that capitalism has been through these transformations previously, making business and society more prosperous than before. The worrying news is that what should be a period of transition marked by technological and financial innovation has become a dystopia in which outdated, ill-suited, and implausible ideas turn crises from turning points into disasters.

This imaginative and lively book explains how business now finds itself in an environment that is 'incongruent' with its own success and society's prosperity. Drawing equally on theory and real world examples, it explores what 'congruent' capitalism would look like, and how it would address crises more effectively. It highlights cases from around the world that give cause for optimism that productive and progressive companies have more to offer. What emerges is a picture--incomplete but enticing--of how a new form of industrial economy can be brought into being, and the implications this has for enterprise, established firms, government, consumers, the public, and finance. It is a picture that is very different from the one we see today, but it is a vision that is possible, and, given the current state of play, one that offers a ray of optimism for the success of both business and wider society.