Prosperity
Colin Mayer, a professor at Oxford's Said Business School, challenges the idea that a company's only job is to make money for shareholders. He traces how the modern corporation lost its sense of purpose and argues that businesses should exist to solve real problems for people and society, with profit as the result rather than the goal. Drawing on history, law, and economics, he proposes ways to redesign ownership, governance, and regulation so companies serve a broader set of interests. Satya Nadella discussed it during his stage appearance at Davos as part of his thinking on the role of business.
What you might want to know about Prosperity
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An Oxford business professor argues that companies should be built around a purpose beyond profit, and that doing so is the path to lasting prosperity.
It argues that companies should exist to serve a purpose beyond shareholder profit, solving real problems for people and society, and proposes changes to ownership and governance to make that happen.
Prosperity was written by Colin Mayer, published in 2018 by Oxford University Press.
Prosperity is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Prosperity takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Prosperity is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.