The New Capitalist Manifesto – A book review

I just finished reading “The New Capitalist Manifesto” by Umair Haque and was totally blown away and inspired by the ideas the author addresses.  I guess like a number of people caught on up in the maelstrom of the noughties, you had to wonder if this circus ride would ever end. It just didn’t seem possible that companies could drive what was first year-over-year improvements that then warped and became quarter-over-quarter profits. The whole situation seemed crazy with a race to the bottom when it came to the cost of production, which ultimately influenced what we were producing.

This book articulates a number of ideas, one of which I had been thinking and ranting to my husband about for some time which is ‘we don’t really pay the value of what we purchase’. Umair describes it simply by using the cost of producing – the ‘authentic economic cost’ a burger versus what we pay for that burger.  This imbalance is creating a deep dept to our environment, our communities and to our health.  We aren’t actually paying the actual costs of our flat screen TVs, or SUVs because we are cost-shifting and benefit borrowing against future resources, generations and/or exploiting communities. We’re doing all this to produce what is essentially worthless crap (my words, not the authors)

But the book is not a downer by any means. I love the ideas he explores to promote change of our industrial era capitalism to a 21st centuryversion, where our businesses are  “striving to make a difference instead of seeking differentiation….that focus more on outcomes and less on outputs”.

Tomorrow’s economy is an economy where “participation drives production”, where the health of the community and environment cannot be ignored or outsourced.  Umair explores how social media technology and platforms are changing the relationship between consumers and companies. These capabilities are giving voice and influence to consumers, who can begin to demand greater durability, transparency and depth from the companies from whom they purchase.

He wrote a number of very interesting facts, one of which has stayed with me:

growth in developed countries reached an inflection point decades ago and had been steadily slowing for the last half century Hello! (for me, this explains the wild race to the bottom to limit all costs and pass on any rising costs in resources or offset community or environmental damage to the consumer)

The author talks about the difference between thick and thin value, defines dumb growth, value cycles – think cradle to cradle,  and my favorite the steps to create authentic value!

I need to figure out if I am able to share a book I downloaded to Kindle because I would love to share the ideas expressed in this book.