Why almost everything we are told about business is wrong with Sir John Kay

In our May xChange Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, interviewed Sir John Kay, CBE, to explore why almost everything we have been told about business is wrong and how we can rewrite the story of enterprise.

We discussed the ideas in his latest book, The Corporation in the 21st Century, while also touching on topics from a few of his previous works including Obliquity, Radical Uncertainty and Greed is Dead.

Paul asked why, with reason and evidence on your side, the ideas in John’s book are not yet mainstream?

John argued that the culture shift away from the social movements of the 60s was so strong that it is still holding sway today, even though evidence shows us that shareholder value maximisation is not the best way to grow business value. In the discussion he cited Halifax, ICI and GEC as examples of businesses whose shifts from a stakeholder approach to shareholder maximisation led to their downfalls.

John talked about the need to revisit the original purpose of the corporation as a legal vehicle for collective enterprise with sustainable success coming from creating value for customers, employees, and society (not merely extracting it for financiers).

John said we need to bring back the sense of responsibility in business and that although we should not be bogged down by excessive legislation, bad managers should go to jail (like they used to).

We discussed the changes in capital, dematerialisation, business ethics vs CSR, economic rent, the weight of GDP, the role of social media, AI and how to restore the legitimacy of business.

John argued that the 21st-century corporation must be reinvented as a social institution, not a financial asset.

Look out for John's revised version of Obliquity, which will be coming soon to address obliquity in an age of AI.

And you can learn more about John’s work here.

Listen to the full replay on our podcast here or watch the replay below.