For generations, we have defined a corporation as a business that uses its accumulated wealth to own the means of production and exercise economic power. That is no longer the reality. Corporations no longer control their own industries, and our most desired goods and services aren’t stacked in container ships: they appear on your screen, fit in your pocket or occupy your head. But even as we consume more than ever before, big business faces a crisis of legitimacy. The pharmaceutical industry creates life-saving vaccines but has lost the trust of the public. The widening pay gap between executives and employees is destabilising our societies. Facebook and Google have more customers than any companies in history but are widely reviled. In incisive, provocative prose, economist John Kay describes how the pursuit of shareholder value has destroyed mammoth companies, redefines successful commercial activity, and looks to the future of what the corporation might be.
