Are B Corps the Future of Business OR Just Another “Elite Charade for Changing the World”?
What’s the best way to solve our biggest problems? Government regulation or via market solutions?
Having just read the book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by former New York Times columnist, Anand Giridharadas, and mostly agreeing with it, I thought that it would be interesting to read a critique by Jay Coen Gilbert, the co founder of the movement for Certified B Corporations, which happened to fall into the crosshairs of Giridharadas’ criticism.
For those who haven’t read the book, here’s a simple synopsis: Giridharadas provides a well written and detailed explanation of how the idea of “changing the world”, has been hijacked by billionaires and elites whose efforts at doing good are second only to their desire to uphold the inequality expanding, environmental degrading and socially exploitive status quo.
To bring everyone up to speed, this discussion started as a conversation in front of a few hundred people in Philadelphia at an event organized by The Citizen. As Gilbert states, “I thought it would be fun to continue the conversation here and engage a wider audience with this important debate.”