"In The New Capitalist Manifesto, Haque advocates a new set of ideals: (1)Renewal: Use resources sustainably to maximize efficiencies, (2) Democracy: Allocate resources democratically to foster organizational agility, (3) Peace: Practice economic non-violence in business, (4) Equity: Create industries that make the least well off better off, and (5) Meaning: Generate payoffs that tangibly improve quality of life. Yes, adopting these ideals requires bold and sustained changes. But some companies-Google, Walmart, Nike-are rising to the challenge. In this bold manifesto, Haque makes an irresistible business case for following their lead."
I just thought that Haque was taking some key Marxian concepts and asking to what extent Marx was correct in his use of these concept to characerize capitalism. It was an interesting enough article.
Cheers, ken
________________________________ From: Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Thursday, September 8, 2011 7:57 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] A capitalist blogs on "Was Marx right?"
On 2011-09-08, at 7:24 AM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
> isn't this kind of typical of HBR, though? at least the articles I've seen circulate in academic circles...that's the kind of stuff HBR has been noted for, where you take some radical fringe idea and figure out a way to profit from it (which requires that not everybody does it; once everybody does it, game's over.)
>
> At 09:49 PM 9/7/2011, Sandy Harris wrote:
>> In the Harvard Business Review blog pages:
>> http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/09/was_marx_right.html
Don't know about HBR in particular, but in periods of economic crisis there are inevitably those within the intelligentsia and the economic and political establishment who genuinely admire Marx for his insights and, more pointedly, use his spectre to browbeat their conservative colleagues into acquiescence of more aggressive state intervention to "rescue the capitalist economy".
Haque's article is, IMO, a rather lighthearted and lightweight example of the genre:
"In case you've been on Mars (or even just on vacation), here's a surprising idea that's been making the rounds lately: there might have been something to Marx's critiques of capitalism after all.
"Now, before you leap into the intertubes, seize me by the arm, perform a citizens' arrest, and frog-march me into the nearest FBI office, exclaiming 'See this suspicious looking brown guy? He's a card-carrying communist!!' please note: I'm, well, not. I'm a staunch believer in capitalism (hence, the title of my book.)"
The title of his book is "The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business", also published by Harvard, whose blurb reads in part as follows:
Magnus, Roubini, Soros, and a host of other academics, bankers, and financial writers have all notoriously invoked Marx, but at a higher level of sophistication than is on display here. ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk