The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century

A radical reappraisal of the nature and activities of business - what it is for and how it works

In the world of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, wealthy capitalists built and controlled mills and factories. That link from personal wealth to tangible capital to hierarchical managerial and political authority continued in the automobile assembly lines and petrochemical plants of the twentieth century. But products and production have dematerialised. The goods and services provided by the leading companies of the twenty-first century appear on your screen, fit in your pocket, or occupy your head. Ownership of the means of production is a redundant concept. Workers are the means of production; increasingly, they take the plant home. Capital is a service bought from a specialist supplier with little influence over customer businesses. The professional managers who run modern corporations do not exert authority because they are wealthy; they are wealthy because they exert authority. John Kay''s incisive overhaul of our ideas about business redefines our understanding of successful commercial activity and the corporation - and describes how we have come to ''love the product'' as we ''hate the producer.'' This is a brilliant and original work from one of the greatest working economists.

Préface
A radical reappraisal of the nature and activities of business organisations

Auteur

John Kay

Texte du rabat

A radical reappraisal of the nature and activities of business - what it is for and how it works

Résumé
LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 "Original and thought-provoking... A brilliantly erudite account of the major waves in the theory and practice of management" - The Financial Times "The doyen of British thinkers on the evolution of business...One of the great attractions of his [work] is that he stands above and apart from conventional political attitudes" - Literary Review For generations, we have defined a corporation as a business run by a capitalist elite, that uses its accumulated wealth to own the means of production and exercise economic power. That is no longer the reality. In the twenty-first century, our most desired goods and services aren't stacked in warehouses or on 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. John Kay, one of the greatest economists of our time, describes how the pursuit of shareholder value has destroyed some of the leading companies of the twentieth century. Incisive and provocative, this book redefines successful commercial activity and leadership, the knowledge economy and what the future of the modern corporation might be.