The Future Of The Corporation

Papers from a conference sponsored by PLM in Malmo, Sweden, June 1970. Includes bibliographical references.

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.

Reviewing the long history of the corporation in the West and in the United States, this work looks at the central role of business and economic growth in the strengthening of civil society and democracy.

“I’ve set up my corporation. Now what do I do?” All too often business owners and real estate investors are asking this question. They have formed their protective entity – be it a corporation, LLC or LP – and don’t know what to do next. “Run Your Own Corporation” provides the solution to this very common dilemma. Breaking down the requirements chronologically (ie the first day, first quarter, first year) the book sets forth all the tax and corporate and legal matters new business owners must comply with. Written by Rich Dad’s Advisor Garrett Sutton, Esq., who also authored the companion edition “Start Your Own Corporation”, the book clearly identifies what must be done to properly maintain and operate your corporation entity. From the first day, when employer identification numbers must be obtained in order to open up a bank account, to the fifth year when trademark renewals must be filed, and all the requirements in between, “Run Your Own Corporation” is a unique resource that all business owners and investors must have. Rich Dad/Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki states, “Run Your Own Corporation is the missing link for most entrepreneurs. They’ve set up their entity, but don’t know the next steps. Garrett Sutton’s book provides valuable information needed at the crucial start up phase of operations. It is highly recommended reading.” When “Start Your Own Corporation” is combined with “Run Your Own Corporation” readers have a two book set that offers the complete corporate picture.

The Corporation engages with current issues of the corporation as an institutionalized organizational form, approaching the concept from the backgrounds of organization theory, law, and economics, combining different theoretical views and empirical approaches.

This book addresses the rising productivity gap between the global frontier and other firms, and identifies a number of structural impediments constraining business start-ups, knowledge diffusion and resource allocation (such as barriers to up-scaling and relatively high rates of skill mismatch).

This book critically examines shareholder primacy and develops a new theory of shared corporate governance that includes employees.