The Harvard Business Review published a very interesting article recently that analyzed the threats that capitalism faces. The article goes on to recommend that businesses become activists to address these threats.
The Idea in Brief
The past 50 years have seen unprecedented economic growth, attributable largely to the spread of market capitalism across the globe. Business leaders asked to identify the issues of deepest concern to them pointed to forces that could disrupt the global market system in the coming decades: inequality in income within countries and across regions, migration, deterioration in the environment, a fragile financial system, and the inability of local, national, and international institutions to mitigate the problems.
For market capitalism to prosper, business must lead—as an innovator, developing strategies that turn systemic problems into opportunities for sustainable growth, and as an activist, mobilizing coalitions of companies and governments to develop institutions that can support and strengthen the system.