Overview

What is business for? Day one of a business course will tell you: it is to maximise shareholder profit. This single idea pervades all our thinking and teaching about business around the world but it is fundamentally wrong, Colin Mayer argues. It has had disastrous and damaging consequences for our economies, environment, politics, and societies. In this urgent call for reform, Prosperity challenges the fundamentals of business thinking. It sets out a comprehensive new agenda for establishing the corporation as a unique and powerful force for promoting economic and social wellbeing in its fullest sense - for customers and communities, today and in the future.First Professor and former Dean of the Säid Business School in Oxford, Mayer is a leading figure in the global discussion about the purpose and role of the corporation. In Prosperity, he presents a radical and carefully considered prescription for corporations, their ownership, governance, finance, and regulation. Drawing together insights from business, law, economics, science, philosophy, and history, he shows how the corporation can realize its full potential to contribute to economic and social wellbeing of the many, not just the few.Prosperity tells us not only how to create and run successful businesses but also how policy can get us there and fix our broken system.

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9780198866824

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Reviews

Review from previous edition Mayer of the Said Business School at Oxford is one of the world's foremost critics of the idea that the aim of companies is to maximise shareholder value. This, he argues cogently, represents a betrayal of one of humanity's most extraordinary inventions. * Martin Wolf, Books of the Year 2018, The Financial Times * A powerful reply to the steadily increasing criticism of free market business... So far, the defenders of capitalism have failed to find a convincing voice or to offer any significant ways to improve how business is perceived. Now Colin Mayer provides answers and a coherent manifesto for change. * Peter Chadwick, IEDP Book Reviews * A wonderful manifesto for change and essential reading for any who remain to be convinced that business can - and should - be a force for a societal good. One of the most insightful and comprehensive accounts yet of how - and why - the corporation needs to change if it is to meet the needs and expectations of a new era. Thoughtful and well-argued, Mayer has done the cause of enlightened capitalism great service. * Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever *

Review from previous edition Mayer of the Said Business School at Oxford is one of the world's foremost critics of the idea that the aim of companies is to maximise shareholder value. This, he argues cogently, represents a betrayal of one of humanity's most extraordinary inventions. * Martin Wolf, Books of the Year 2018, The Financial Times * The book is far more than a manifesto for change ... Mayer's book performs a great service. * Richard Bronk, the Society of Professional Economists, Reading Room (open access) * A powerful reply to the steadily increasing criticism of free market business... So far, the defenders of capitalism have failed to find a convincing voice or to offer any significant ways to improve how business is perceived. Now Colin Mayer provides answers and a coherent manifesto for change. * Peter Chadwick, IEDP Book Reviews * A wonderful manifesto for change and essential reading for any who remain to be convinced that business can - and should - be a force for a societal good. One of the most insightful and comprehensive accounts yet of how - and why - the corporation needs to change if it is to meet the needs and expectations of a new era. Thoughtful and well-argued, Mayer has done the cause of enlightened capitalism great service. * Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever *

A wonderful manifesto for change and essential reading for any who remain to be convinced that business can - and should - be a force for a societal good. One of the most insightful and comprehensive accounts yet of how - and why - the corporation needs to change if it is to meet the needs and expectations of a new era. Thoughtful and well-argued, Mayer has done the cause of enlightened capitalism great service. * Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever * A powerful reply to the steadily increasing criticism of free market business... So far, the defenders of capitalism have failed to find a convincing voice or to offer any significant ways to improve how business is perceived. Now Colin Mayer provides answers and a coherent manifesto for change. * Peter Chadwick, IEDP Book Reviews * Review from previous edition Mayer of the Said Business School at Oxford is one of the world's foremost critics of the idea that the aim of companies is to maximise shareholder value. This, he argues cogently, represents a betrayal of one of humanity's most extraordinary inventions. * Martin Wolf, Books of the Year 2018, The Financial Times *

Author Information

Colin Mayer is the Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He is a Professorial Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and St Anne's College, Oxford. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business education and the administration of justice in the economic sphere in the 2017 New Years Honours. Colin Mayer was the first professor at the Saïd Business School, and the first Director of the Oxford Financial Research Centre. He was also previously the Peter Moores Dean of the Business School. He was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University, a Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England, the first Leo Goldschmidt Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance at the Solvay Business School, Université de Bruxelles, and has had visiting positions at Columbia, MIT, and Stanford universities.

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