In one way or the other, we are all convinced that the objective of every business – meaning companies and corporations – is to achieve prosperity and well-being. The real question we should be asking ourselves, however, is: who really benefits from the system we have built? In the majority of cases, it is only a small group of people, who get richer and enjoy a position of privilege, while the majority of people never see any benefits whatsoever and are often even exploited. Furthermore, many companies have a negative impact on environmental conditions, as they are not concerned with environmental issues. It is therefore clear that the 21st century requires a new business model, and that business in general needs to be reformed and renewed from the ground up, with input from all areas of society. The Friedman Doctrine, which has been the mainstay for managers and economists for half a century, is no longer relevant, and is actually goes so far as to threaten our existence: we can no longer view businesses as being free of any responsibility, with the sole purpose of ensuring their shareholders accrue as much profit as possible. This system, which has always constituted the ideological basis of business, generates as much inequality within countries and communities as it does work and wealth. Not only that, but it also devastates the environments we live in, stripping them of their natural resources.
It was not just the 2008 financial crisis, which saw banks and financial institutions collapse, that brought this issue to the surface. In fact, it is not only the financial sector that is vulnerable, and this is clearly demonstrated by the fact that, in recent years, trust in the business world has been progressively declining. With corporations spreading beyond national borders and crossing continents, and technology continually offering new solutions to improve our lives, we must acknowledge the need for a new paradigm. We must build an alternative model that will stand the test of time, whereby businesses would generate positive impacts that could be both joint and far-reaching, thereby reducing, or even entirely avoiding, any negative consequences.
