“An engaging, optimistic plan for addressing nihilistic corporate greed.”
Kirkus Reviews
Have you ever wondered if business needs to be so…unbalanced?
Is putting shareholders above everyone else the only way for private enterprise to be successful? Is that “just the way it is?”
The short answer is “no.”
Before “shareholder primacy” took hold in the 1970s, investors weren’t more important than other stakeholders. Companies balanced the interests of all the legs of the corporate stool – customers, employees, communities, and shareholders – and everyone’s life got better.
So, what happened? How did we get to today, where “maximizing shareholder value” is seen as the panacea for all the world’s ills? And, more importantly, what’s the path forward that allows business to profit by applying its significant resources to solving society’s problems, rather than making them worse?
We all rely on the stool of business to elevate our lives. Let’s fix it before it collapses.
In A One-Legged Stool, Ed Chambliss questions the commonly accepted belief that putting shareholders first is the best way to run a business. Through an entertaining and educational narrative, he shows that just the opposite is true: that “shareholder primacy” silently creates an undercurrent that constantly pulls business toward inequality and environmental disaster, damaging those it is supposed to serve. It’s a force so strong, we’ll never overcome the significant challenges we all face until we change this fundamental belief. Fortunately, he also shares specifics on how each of us can start making this change.
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©2022 Ed Chambliss. All Rights Reserved.
A One-Legged Stool 