‘Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World’ by Anand Giridharadas

Anand Giridharadas, an insider, punches holes through what he calls ‘MarketWorld’, the system of events, firms, thought leaders, philanthropists and policy makers who see market-based solutions as the only key to solving the world’s great problems. Anand argues that this narrative is as much about managing the brand of a business that profits from some of these problems (or at least ignores them) as it is about problem solving.

This is something that I have felt keenly during the last three years. It’s the mismatch between the success of globalization and the stories from fearful workers. It’s the ‘casing’ technique taught to management consultants that emphasizes that all problems are naturally in want of solving and that a business analysis approach is the go to approach. Its the circuit of empty talk about change in high end conference halls across global cities.

I have gone on my own journey (see image) and I did believe, for a time, that market-based solutions were the solution. That was, in part my reason for doing my MBA and joining Cornerstone Capital.

However, growing understanding ss that society’s great problems are the result of decades/centuries of accumulated action (or inaction) from a range of stakeholders. They are unlikely to be Gordian knots sliced with a savvy business model. It is almost never that the market-based solution is the only solution but, if a market-based solution is the solution, it is a set of processes, supported by a democratically elected government, that enables a form of entrepreneurship with benefits that serves society’s needs while minimizing negative externalities.

Amazon