The survival of our economic model - Are we finally reaching a tipping point?

Just a year after Seth Godin challenged the new generations to reivent themselves in his manifesto Brainwashed, Harvard Business Revue offers two articles which question how capitalism has evolved, and call for transformation.

The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value

The following is an abstract of the introduction of Michael Porter's last article The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value in Harvard Business Revue Magazine Jannuary/February 2011.

"The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business increasingly has been viewed as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of the broader community...

...A big part of the problem lies with companies themselves, which remain trapped in an outdated approach to value creation that has emerged over the past few decades...

...Companies must take the lead in bringing business and society back together. The recognition is there among sophisticated business and thought leaders, and promising elements of a new model are emerging...

...The solution lies in the principle of shared value, which involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress."

Capitalism at a Crossroads

Simultaneously, Umair Haque, the Director of the Havas Media Lab announces his new book The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business.

In his HBR Blog article Capitalism at a Crossroads he draws the list of what industrial-age capitalism hasn't been able to achieve in America during the last decade. He calls for a transformed capitalism to "create authentic, meaningful, lasting value for people, communities, society, nature, and the future... to fulfill its promise of being transformative, to continue to help humanity scale greater heights of achievement, discover deeper wellsprings of potential, and safeguard the hard-won spark of an enduring, authentic prosperity, it's time to take a quantum leap beyond yesterday's capitalism..."

He concludes: "The future belongs to those who create it. So what are you waiting for?" For action, please take a look at my previous post...