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Unique message, spectacular read! 2010-02-21

Reviewer: Bryan Andrew Farris

In the second edition of "Capitalism at the Crossroads" Stuart Hart makes a very strong case for MNCs to start thinking about the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) and environmentalism as opportunities. The book, which is subtitled "Aligning business, earth and humanity", manages to cover the most significant global issues of our time - global warming, global poverty and terrorism - in a way that is comprehensive and insightful. Hart argues, in a very compelling manner, that to be successful tomorrow, the businesses of today need to embrace green practices and target the world's poor. As if that weren't enough, Hart goes on to provide unique guidelines for how businesses can go about transforming themselves. The title reflects Stuart's argument that businesses have a choice to make; they can invest to become the leaders of tomorrow, or they can continue to operate under the status quo and miss the next big wave of growth.

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Great read 2010-02-09

Reviewer: Elizabeth Chin

This is one of the few books I actually enjoyed reading in college, and I felt it actually taught me something. This is a great read for anyone, and I'd highly recommend it!

Good on Env't, But for BOP / Poverty Alleviation Stick To C.K. Prahalad 2010-01-09

Reviewer: Marco Puccia

Stuart Hart's book, Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth, and Humanity, is a very well written and insightful look at why business should be at the vanguard of social, environmental, and economic development.

Over the course of the last 10-20 years, our generation has born witness to one of the most rapidly changing societies ever in history. Unfettered capitalism and rapid globalization has, over the span of such a short period of time, completely changed the global economic landscape - and the wealth disparity within.

-Multinationals (MNCs) account for more than 25% of world economic output.
--However, they employ less than 1% of the world's labor force.
--1/3 of the world's willing-to-work population is unemployed or underemployed
--And less than 1% of the world's population participates in the financial markets as shareholders.

These numbers alone are self-evident of the growing wealth disparity between the rich and the poor. Among a plethora of other factors, the fact that 1/3 of the world's willing-to-work population is un- or under-employed illustrates the rationale behind growing discontent over globalization.

And today, the world is facing a global recession. Large corporations are collapsing (or are on the brink of collapsing). The world's poor are seeing the greed that is taking place globally and in their own countries, while they live in squalor. This is leading to a rise in political hostility that, in this new world-order we have created, does not remain geographically isolated.

The blame can go around, but the question in looking forward is who is in the best position to effect large-scale change. And the answer lies within the private-sector. During the 1990s, FDI by MNCs overtook official development assistance (ODA); by 2000, it exceeded ODA by more than a factor of 5.

The private-sector has the resources, the breadth, and the long-term incentives to help the world achieve "sustainable development" - defined by the Brundtland Commission as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

We often talk about the triple bottom line in the social entrepreneurial space: profit, planet, and people. Hart drives home the fact that these three values are not at conflict with one another, and when looked at with the right perspective are quite aligned. The first half of the book focuses largely on environmental policy and business strategy, while the latter part of the book focuses on the bottom of the pyramid and poverty alleviation.

Note: Who Should Read This Book

If you've already read C.K. Prahalad's Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, this book will not offer a whole lot more unless your interest is in environmental social innovation. If you're interested in or work with environmental policy and/or environmental business strategy, Hart offers one of the best overviews I've ever read - making this a must-read book.

Business can be an answer, not just a problem. 2009-10-21

Reviewer: Jason Stokes

The author posits that through "conscious capitalism," we not only will be able to avoid the pitfalls of the current path of unsustainable business, some businesses will actually thrive under the new environment. Thoroughly researched, footnoted, and cited, I tend to agree with the argument, and see how, as a younger person, my generation will push companies toward this new paradigm of social responsibility in conjunction with profits. Along with other books like Natural Capitalism, there is a push toward making money while also doing social and environmental good. I highly recommend this book as a template for what capitalism, applied with conscience and morals, can achieve. Business has been able to solve billions of problems, as it uses the ultimate incentive - profit - to push people toward a goal. As we move into the future, I only hope that business will decide that the profits from helping the environment and the global poor will outweigh the profits from harming/ignoring them.

Manifesto for win-win-win (via profit for sustainability and economic development) 2009-08-12

Reviewer: Robert J. Crawford

I have been going through the best books on corporate social responsibility/sustainability/environmentalism. This book, by far the best one that I have found, is a manifesto that argues that finding sustainable ways of doing things that can also enhance profitability. Doing good and doing well, as they say, in order to transform the world.

He starts off by describing an historical hierarchy of activism. First, there was the command and control era, in which government had to set targets for pollution or sanctions for bad employment practices (ending in 1960s). Second, there is the "greening" era, in which corporations began to make incremental changes voluntarily, with certain goals in mind (ending now). It perpetuates existing industries. Third, he argues, we are entering the sustainability era, where changes are revolutionary, changing the game itself rather than making it function better or more fairly. It destroys existing industry in favor of paradigm change, redefining business.

To accomplish this, he believes, we need a wider conception of sustainability (a word he admits is ill-defined). We need to "go native" or "transactive", which translates roughly into thinking like the people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), finding out what they need, what they are doing about it, etc. It is there, amidst the poor in the mega-slums that are growing around the world as people leave farming communities, that business and profit are being re-thought in ways that can show us the future (in which we will have to deal with scarcity, global warming, and yet renew natural resources instead of depleting them).

Hart views BOP as a source of ideas - low-margin in terms of revenues but potentially extremely high volume, i.e. the opposite from what multi-national corporations usually seek - that are potentially revolutionary, i.e. "leapfrog innovation". They can be sustainable and scalable, even importable into the developed world as better solutions to the models that we have now.

The rest of the book is a call for multi-national corporations to play their role as well as suggestions on how they might proceed. They are ideally equipped, he argues, because they have resources, are accustomed to experiment and change, can unite actors, and share knowledge quickly. What they must do is interact with those they have long ignored, thinking of ways to build their wealth while tapping into their ideas in a non-exploitive way.

Now, if you ask me, this is a tall order that is exceedingly idealistic. Just listening to the debate on health care in the US, which is turning into a total freak show, should give one pause to think that business people will be convinced by these appeals, even when profit and future markets are involved.

Nonetheless, Hart makes a very good case for change. And, he has many examples that have whet my appetite for further investigation, which I may do as a reporter. Unilever, for example, has set up a research facility in Hindustan, where it investigates BOP issues and BOP-appropriate products, complete with requirements to live among the locals for all researchers and managers. Now that is interesting!

This book is stimulating and well written, far better than most. While I would prefer to see more acknowledgement of the limitations, difficulties, and tradeoffs that all MNCs must make, this is worth the read.

Recommended with enthusiasm.