Book by Lynda Gratton, Published by McGraw Hill, £22.99/£11.17 e-book
Behind the story
You don’t have to be glued to FT email updates to know this is a bad time for business: beset by cynics and anarchists, dogged by pay scandals and overtaken by automation and uncertainty, if corporations were standing for election in 2015 they’d be lucky to keep their deposit. Yet capitalism is here to stay, and as key actors in our inter-connected world, our biggest businesses may be the best answer we’ve got. Gratton, one of Britain’s most respected business thinkers, has produced an unashamed “love letter” to business in The Key, but her admiration for the boardroom is tempered by her hard-won experience and her ability to separate, as politicians would have it, the “producers” from the “predators”.
The big idea
Corporations can change the world, says Gratton, and it’s a win-win situation if they do, since the firms who do good also tend to turn the biggest profit. But it’s people who are the figurative key. Over the course of 200-odd pages, she gallops through the full gamut of human capital: the intellectual, emotional and social assets inherent in corporations but frequently underused. People, says Gratton, are too often under threat: “Work is becoming more fragmented and ever more virtual, working relationships are becoming disconnected and the accelerating pace of work is putting extreme strain on well-being.”
The businesses who get it right have thought deeply about the changes being wrought and unleashed their people to fight back: witness Infosys harnessing the innovation of its youngest employees through an innovative virtual platform, an LG executive taking a year off to tour opera houses and returning full of fresh ideas, the intuitive approach to mentoring at Standard Chartered or the way Unilever rethought processes to become genuinely sustainable.
Most are determined to reach out to the wider world too, creating genuine alliances with the right NGOs, understanding that pure focus on profit isn’t enough any more. And they are led by executives who understand their own omnipotence is an illusion: they are only as good as the people they surround themselves with.
Does it work?
While Gratton’s adoration of business can’t be begrudged, and she acknowledges corporations don’t have a monopoly on wisdom, it seems odd to overlook the damage capitalism has done as well as the clean-up job it is belatedly undertaking. But that’s a mild complaint: The Key is erudite and considered from start to finish. Gratton is free of ego, letting her studies take centre stage. She, and anyone who cares about the bigger picture, must hope The Key is picked up beyond the already converted – it deserves to land on CEOs’ desks with a thump.