Forget Maximizing Shareholder Value - How About Maximizing Society's Potential?

Bad ideas don't die just because they are bad. They hang around until a consensus forms around another idea that is better. This is what's happening now with a stupid idea that has dominated American business for the last four decades: that the purpose of a firm is to maximize shareholder value. The massive problems that this notion has caused for business and society have been documented. Even Jack Welch has called it "the dumbest idea in the world." Yet it remains the conventional wisdom throughout much of big business.  What's different now is that a consensus is forming around a better idea.

The end-user comes first.  Everything must be designed towards that end.  Which, naturally, means you need to understand your end-user and their needs.  

Not tell them.  Not message them.  Not pander to them.  Understand, engage, co-design and deliver.

Conscious capitalism; there's a lesson in there for politics, too.