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PART II

Runaways and Renaissance

The medieval model of the solar system put Earth in the center and then found the data didn't agree with its predictions. To accommodate, astronomers made the model more and more complex, until Copernicus saw that moving the sun to the center created a model that was both simpler and more accurately predictive.

Capitalism has similarly put some things at its center, the relentless pursuit of which has led it off course. Part II identifies two ways in which this model misses the mark and explains why aiming more squarely at the proper goals is more possible now.

First, in chapter 3, we look at the possibility of bringing the same discipline and accountability to the pursuit of nonfinancial value that already characterizes the pursuit of shareholder value. Chapter 4 exposes the danger of instead focusing narrowly on profit maximization: the imposition of externalities on society. We conclude that with greater measurement of an organization's impact on its environs, the proper internalization of such costs will naturally occur.

Next, we look at the runaway obsession with competition, thought by some to be the one aspect of capitalism that defines it most. In chapter 5 we expose the dangers of mistaking competition for the central concern. The thing to be encouraged and protected, instead, is innovation. It's not a 180-degree difference, but it's a substantial enough change in perspective that suddenly it becomes clear how new forms of collaboration—the subject of chapter 6—can be just as important to the system.

We conclude this part with a reconciliation. Both runaways are checked when we rethink the bright-line separation that U.S.-style capitalism draws between the major sectors of the economy. Chapter 7 shows how limiting it is to believe that the private sector, the public sector, and the NGO sector must each stick to its respective knitting and describes how the new pursuit by businesses of value defined broadly makes it inevitable that they will weave together.