Grow the Pie

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School and a leading authority on reforming business to serve the common good – but using solutions based on rigorous evidence and recognising the importance of both investors and stakeholders. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk 'What to Trust in a Post-Truth World' and the TEDx talk 'The Social Responsibility of Business'. He also serves as Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, London, where he gave a public lecture series on 'How Business Can Better Serve Society'. He has published in all the leading academic finance journals, written for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, and appeared live on Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ITV, and Sky News.

• Introduction; How to read this book; Part I. Why grow the pie? Introducing the idea: 1. The pie-growing mentality: a new approach to business that works for both investors and society; 2. Growing the pie doesn't aim to maximise profits – but often does: freeing a company to take more investments, ultimately driving its success: 3. Growing the pie doesn't mean growing the enterprise: three principles to guide trade-offs and which projects to turn down; 4. Does pieconomics work?: data – not wishful thinking – shows that companies can both do good and do well; Part II. What grows the pie? Exploring the evidence: 5. Incentives: rewarding long-term value creation while deterring short-term gaming; 6. Stewardship: the value of engaged investors that both support and challenge management; 7. Repurchases: investing with restraint, releasing resources to create value elsewhere in society; Part III. How to grow the pie? Putting it into practice: 8. Enterprises: the power of purpose and how to make it real; 9. Investors: turning stewardship from a policy into a practice; 10. Citizens: how individuals can act and shape business, rather than be acted upon; Part IV. The bigger picture: 11. Growing the pie more widely: win-win thinking at the national and personal levels; Conclusion; Action items; Appendix; Acknowledgements; Endnotes; Index.

'I do not know whether capitalism is in crisis. But I do know Alex Edmans' superb book makes the case, compellingly and comprehensively, for a radical rethink of how companies operate and indeed why they exist. It is the definitive account of the analytical case for responsible business, but is at the same time practical and grounded in real business experience. It is a tour de force.' Andy Haldane, Chief Economist, Bank of England