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Monthly Archives: May 2012

The Spirit of Capitalism: the Quakers and the First Industrial Revolution

Posted on May 29, 2012 by David

The ecological model in The New Ecology of Leadership shows enterprises as being conceived in passion and born in communities of trust and practice. My insights into this dynamic were first guided by my discovery of the Society of Friends, … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Adam Smith, Anglican Church, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Barclays Bank, Book of John, Book of Matthew, Catholic Church, charcoal, Christian calling, Coalbrookdale, coke, community, complex systems, engines, English Civil War, English Nonconformists, First Industrial Revolution, George Fox, ideology of markets, iron, Iron Bridge, Lloyds Bank, market price, Max Weber, means and ends, pots, pumps, Quakers, Robert Barclay, Royal Navy, Sermon on the Mount, Shropshire, skillets, Society of Friends, sociology of virtue, spirit of capitalism, The Wealth of Nations, Theory of Moral Sentiments, William Penn | Comments Off

Bain or Bane? Private-Equity and Creative Destruction

Posted on May 22, 2012 by David

With Mitt Romney now the inevitable Republican Presidential candidate, renewed attention is being focused on his incredibly lucrative years running Bain Capital. In that private-equity firm he and his colleagues played key roles, mostly as the turnaround managers of mature … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged American economy, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Bain, complex systems, creative destruction, ecological perspective, forest renewal, incentives, innovation, Mitt Romney, neoclassical economics, Obama, predator, private-equity, scavenger, shareholders, tax policy, The Economist, venture capital | Comments Off

Sustaining Complex Systems: Fairways and Traps

Posted on May 15, 2012 by David

This past Sunday’s New York Times contained another cautionary tale about complex systems and the people who live in them. It is the story of the seaside town of Matunuck on the southern coastline of Rhode Island. The entire region … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged American politics, complex systems, decision-making, expedient, important, quick fix, Senate, sustainability, urgent | Comments Off

The Re-Enchantment of Management and The Renewal of Capitalism

Posted on May 8, 2012 by David

Recently the Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company and the Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) conducted a series of three competitions on “Reinventing Management”. The first was the The Management 2.0 Challenge, which characterized the existing version of management as version … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, disenchantment, ends, financialization, Harvard Business Review, human potential, management academy, McKinsey, means, mission, MIX, nurture, positivism, purpose, re-enchantment, release, renewal | Comments Off

The Poverty of Economics: Capitalism Is Not Just About Competition

Posted on May 1, 2012 by David

Last week David Brooks wrote a column titled “The Creative Monopoly” (New York Times, April 24). In it he told a story about Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur who founded PayPal and the course he is now teaching about entrepreneurial startups … Continue reading →