New Capitalist Manifesto

The Capitalist Manifesto is an inspiring, thought provoking and important book. Forget all about classic CSR – Umair Hague is much more radical in his approach. A must read for everyone interested in making his or her company or organizations ready for the 21st century.


 In The New Capitalist Manifesto, Haque advocates a new set of ideals: (1)Renewal: Use resources sustainably to maximize efficiencies, (2) Democracy: Allocate resources democratically to foster organizational agility, (3) Peace: Practice economic non-violence in business, (4) Equity: Create industries that make the least well off better off, and (5) Meaning: Generate payoffs that tangibly improve quality of life. Yes, adopting these ideals requires bold and sustained changes. But some companies-Google, Walmart, Nike-are rising to the challenge. In this bold manifesto, Haque makes an irresistible business case for following their lead.


Haque contrasts the clumsiness and inefficiency of 20^th Century firmspushing products towards customers, with firms like Lego (toy bricks) and Threadless (T-shirts) that use the power of pull (or spinning), by incorporating the customers into the very process of decision-making as to what will be produced. As a result, the firms make quantum leaps forward in the agility of decision-making; the firms systematically make better decisions sooner.

Haque contrasts competitive advantage (lower costs) of the 20^th Century firm with constructive advantage, i.e. an advantage in both the quantity and quality of profit. Constructive capitalists have an advantage in the kind of value they are able to create, not just its amount. Because higher quality value is "less risky, less costly, more defensible, and more enduring, it is usually worth more to stakeholders of every kind: people communities, society, future generations, employees, regulators and investors alike."

Like Ranjay Gulati (Reorganize for Resilience), Haque envisages a fundamental shift from inside-out and top-downmonologues (“You take what we make”) to outside-in and bottom up conversations (“Let’s discuss how we can understand and solve your problems”). To be real, such conversations need to be participative (a right to take part),deliberative (a right to discuss not just vote), associative(space to conduct the conversation) and consensual (a right to express dissent). 

Yet he also notes the constraints on implementing the vision:

...for most industrial age companies, empowering the community equals disempowering layers of managers. Hence, responsiveness is more easily gained for start-ups, where there aren’t layers of middle managers fighting to retain their empires.

Haque believes in firms that have a philosophy, particularly “a philosophy that emphasizes the first, fundamental principle of value creation, rather than planning planning a strategy focused on value extraction.” There is thus a shift from an overriding preoccupation with financial value and costs to instilling real values that create the basis for generating thick value that makes a difference in people’s lives. He cites Google (GOOG) as an example of a principle-driven business with such a philosophy, with its celebrated commitment to do no evil, its preoccupation with speed (fast is better than slow) and its furious experimentation to enable continuous improvement.

How far has the revolution already happened?

“If you look closely and patiently enough, you might not discern full-blown revolution (as in “the successful overthrow of authority”)–yet. But I wager that you’d at least detect, in vivid detail, its prelude…. Examining it carefully, you might see what I see: the first tiny shoots of what scholar Thomas Kuhn called a paradigm shift—not a small step, but a giant leap from one system of thought to its successor, which recasts an art or science in a radical new light.”