The corporation in the twenty-first century

£25.00

The goods and services provided by the leading companies of the 21st century appear on your screen, fit in your pocket, or occupy your head. Ownership of the means of production is a redundant concept. Workers are the means of production; increasingly, they take the plant home. Capital is a service bought from a specialist supplier with little influence over customer businesses. The professional managers who run modern corporations do not exert authority because they are wealthy; they are wealthy because they exert authority. John Kay’s incisive overhaul of our ideas about business redefines our understanding of successful commercial activity and the corporation – and describes how we have come to ‘love the product’ as we ‘hate the producer’.

In stock

Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024’A brilliant analysis of how business really works. Informative, funny, and full of deep insights’Mervyn King’A very entertaining read’Evan DavisFor generations, we have defined a corporation as a business run by a capitalist elite, that uses its accumulated wealth to own the means of production and exercise economic power.That is no longer the reality. In the twenty-first century, our most desired goods and services aren’t stacked in warehouses or on container ships: they appear on your screen, fit in your pocket or occupy your head. But even as we consume more than ever before, big business faces a crisis of legitimacy. The pharmaceutical industry creates life-saving vaccines but has lost the trust of the public. The widening pay gap between executives and employees is destabilising our societies. Facebook and Google have more customers than any companies in history but are widely reviled. John Kay, one of the greatest economists of our time, describes how the pursuit of shareholder value has destroyed some of the leading companies of the twentieth century. Incisive and provocative, this book redefines successful commercial activity and leadership, the knowledge economy and what the future of the modern corporation might be.

Additional information

Weight 680 g
Dimensions 238 × 160 × 40 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

480

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

658.4012 (edition:23)

Readership

College – higher education / Code: F