Ask HN: Should all corporations be public benefit corporations?
2 comments
Jerry Kaplan says something similar in his book "Humans Need Not Apply: Wealth and Work in the Age of AI".
Michael Porter from Harvard Business School has this point that competition to be the best is usually a mistake, it's about competition to be unique.
So all companies don't have to be like this, but if 5% or 10% were, they would reap a lot of benefits by being unique. They would also, much like Tesla did in aerospace, force the other "normal" companies to change.
Long story short, everyone in business has been so focused on making money, they've forgotten you can do so many other things (like benefit the public) with business. And, this is my prediction, it is these companies that will make a tremendous amount of money in the future. Like a lot of things in life, a good example being relationships, the more you focus on it explicitly, the worse you do. Perhaps business and money plays by similar rules.
Michael Porter from Harvard Business School has this point that competition to be the best is usually a mistake, it's about competition to be unique.
So all companies don't have to be like this, but if 5% or 10% were, they would reap a lot of benefits by being unique. They would also, much like Tesla did in aerospace, force the other "normal" companies to change.
Long story short, everyone in business has been so focused on making money, they've forgotten you can do so many other things (like benefit the public) with business. And, this is my prediction, it is these companies that will make a tremendous amount of money in the future. Like a lot of things in life, a good example being relationships, the more you focus on it explicitly, the worse you do. Perhaps business and money plays by similar rules.
In Long Ago Days, didn't governments hand out benefits that resembled corporations but that were IN EXCHANGE FOR required civic duties? Is there a Historian in the house?
The General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) was recently amended by Senate Bill No. 47, effective August 1, 2013, adding a new subchapter XV, which authorizes the creation of Public Benefits Corporations. As defined in the GCL, a PBC is a for-profit corporation intended to produce a public benefit and operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. The PBC is to be managed in a manner that balances stockholders' pecuniary interests, the best interests of those materially affected by the corporation's conduct and the public benefit for which the PBC is formed.
Personally, I believe the world would be a better place if corporate citizens tried to be _good_ citizens. I would almost go as far to say that the default corporation should be a PBC-like entity and you should have to file extra paperwork to ignore your civic duty and only be beholden to the traditional corporate goal of maximizing profit for shareholders.
Thoughts? I'm looking for thoughts from both a moral and economic perspective, though I am less sure what those would look like.