Engaging in progressive entrepreneurship

Shareholder value maximization and competitiveness are at the core of today’s business and economic policy. Companies seek to improve their productivity and try to gain competitive advantage. But these efforts often produce negative effects on various stakeholders at home and abroad. Competitiveness in most cases produces monetary results for the shareholders at the expense of other stakeholders. Based on the arguments developed by the the Group of Lisbon, the late Sumantra Ghoshal of London Business School, and Canadian management guru Henry Mintzberg, we criticize the one-dimensional pursuit of profit and the competitiveness of contemporary business. We contend that the exclusive focus on monetary results (especially short-term shareholder value) could produce negative results for nature, society, and future generations, and finally be self-defeating for business itself. We argue for a collaborative approach, one which goes beyond the current constraints of the business-as-usual perspective and provides a more reliable framework for broad values-creation processes.