The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World

by Judy Samuelson

Overview

The rules of business are changing dramatically. The Aspen Institute's Judy Samuelson describes the profound shifts in attitudes and mindsets that are redefining our notions of what constitutes business success.

Dynamic forces are conspiring to clarify the new rules of real value creation—and to put the old rules to rest. Internet-powered transparency, more powerful worker voice, the decline in importance of capital, and the complexity of global supply chains in the face of planetary limits all define the new landscape. As executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, Judy Samuelson has a unique vantage point from which to engage business decision makers and identify the forces that are moving the needle in both boardrooms and business classrooms.

Samuelson lays out how hard-to-measure intangibles like reputation, trust, and loyalty are imposing new ways to assess risk and opportunity in investment and asset management. She argues that "maximizing shareholder value" has never been the sole objective of effective businesses while observing that shareholder theory and the practices that keep it in place continue to lose power in both business and the public square. In our globalized era, she demonstrates how expectations of corporations are set far beyond the company gates—and why employees are both the best allies of the business and the new accountability mechanism, more so than consumers or investors.

Samuelson's new rules offer a powerful guide to how businesses are changing today—and what is needed to succeed in tomorrow's economic and social landscape.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523089963
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,151,684
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Judy Samuelson is vice president at the Aspen Institute and founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program. She previously worked in legislative affairs in California and banking in New York's garment center and ran the Ford Foundation's office of program-related investments. Samuelson blogs for Quartz at Work and is director of the Financial Health Network.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction The Cost of Ignoring the New Rules of Real Value Creation 1

Chapter 1 Rethinking Risk 19

Rule #1 Reputation, Trust, and Other Intangibles Drive Business Value

Chapter 2 The Question of Business Purpose 45

Rule #2 Businesses Serve Many Objectives beyond Shareholder Value

Chapter 3 Responsibility Redefined 71

Rule #3 Corporate Responsibility Is Defined Far outside the Business Gates

Chapter 4 The Voice of the Employee 87

Rule #4 Employees Give Voice to Risk and Competitive Advantage

Chapter 5 When Capital Is No Longer Scarce 103

Rule #5 Culture Is King and Talent Rules

Chapter 6 When the System Is at Risk 123

Rule #6 Co-create to Win

Chapter 7 The Road Ahead: The Design of Incentives to Unlock Real Value 147

Chapter 8 Ideas Worth Teaching 169

Notes 181

Acknowledgments 185

Index 189

About the Author 201

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

If businesses want to thrive, they need to “value the real contributors—including workers and nature,” according to this earnest guide. Samuelson, founder of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, argues that the business world is changing at a “dizzying” pace, and aims, with her six rules for ethical business, to point organizations toward “a sustainable future.” Each rule gets its own chapter and is presented alongside the outdated thinking it’s designed to replace. For instance, the first rule, “Reputation, trust, and other intangibles drive business value,” supplants the belief that “hard assets determine firm value,” while another rule, “employees give voice to risk and competitive advantage,” takes over for the outdated idea that “labor is a cost to be minimized.” Samuelson’s appeals for corporate responsibility (global business “is the most influential institution of our age, akin to the Church in the Middle Ages”) are backed by examples of companies that have heeded the call for social and ecological responsibility and either thrived (Southwest Airlines) or floundered (Boeing). Though Samuelson’s call to action feels familiar, her voice is encouraging and optimistic. Business leaders struggling to keep up would do well to give this a look. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

The timing of this book is prescient given the challenges of the past year, and it is a concise and interesting read.” 
—The Financial Times

“… encouraging and optimistic… Samuelson’s appeals for corporate responsibility ...are backed by examples of companies that have heeded the call for social and ecological responsibility and either thrived (Southwest Airlines) or floundered (Boeing). Business leaders struggling to keep up would do well to give this a look.”
—Publishers Weekly

“... a timely new book.” —New York Times DealBook

“While you can’t put a price tag on Samuelson’s intertwined Six New Rules, adopting them provides a path to developing a broadly inclusive approach to value creation.”
—Jim Pawlak, Hartford Business Journal

“In the two centuries since Adam Smith, businesses have become the most powerful institutions on earth. Samuelson crystallizes what we need to know and how business must move in the 21st century to avoid sowing the seeds of our own destruction. This book shows us a path forward.”
—Sally Blount, former Dean, Kellogg School of Management, and CEO, Catholic Charities of Chicago
 
“Samuelson’s call for new rules will be embraced by the best and smartest leaders, those who see the potential of business to be a profound force for good in the world.”
—Dan Heath, coauthor of Upstream, Switch, and Made to Stick
 
“Judy Samuelson is asking the right questions and giving the right advice at the perfect time. As more business leaders realize that the old rules of operating solely for the bottom line are woefully insufficient for this moment, Judy’s ‘New Rules’ offer an urgent and actionable call for redefining what it means to create value across our communities.”
—Chip Bergh, CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
 
“Six New Rules of Business upends our assumptions about value creation—and through vibrant case studies offers both inspiration for change and practical guidance for leaders building businesses for our collective future.”
—Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation

“Finding a new balance between positive total societal impact and shareholder value is one of the defining challenges for business in the decades ahead. Judy Samuelson highlights how evolved business models can be built to place equal importance on employees, communities, and nature. Through examples, anecdotes, and a call to action, she provides a strong framework for business leaders.”
—Rich Lesser, CEO, Boston Consulting Group
 
“Only with an appreciation for why business works the way it does can we begin to dismantle the systemic forces that business leaders face when trying to build a competitive organization and serve society. Transformation is never easy, and as Samuelson’s narrative reveals, the leaders who have made a difference have done so because of their moral imagination and courage.”
—Professor Linda A. Hill, Faculty Chair, Leadership Initiative, Harvard Business School, and coauthor of Collective Genius
 
“This short, engaging book translates the discussion of corporate purpose into actionable principles for corporate executives.”
—John Kay, economist, coauthor of Radical Uncertainty, and founding Dean, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

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