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THE current global financial crisis and the Great Recession 2008-09 has exposed many critical “flaws of capitalism” and led many eminent economists to conclude that capitalism will have to adapt to new realities in order to survive and prosper.
No doubt, during the course of its organic development over centuries, it has assumed many forms and in recent decades it has been differently defined as industrial, managerial, financial and entrepreneurial capitalism. But the current multiple crises have perhaps provoked scholar Umair Haque to observe that capitalism has not essentially changed in a radically changing world.
Observing with a discerning, eye, he sees “a lasting, historic shift” that is “ more than a crisis, correction or crash.” It is about transformation. And to bring about a qualitative change in capitalism so that it embarks on a virtuous reshaping of the business world, he has written a ‘handbook’ titled ‘The New Capitalist Manifesto.’ The book has been published by Harvard Business Review Press.
Umair Haque is currently director of Havas Media Lab, a global research institute based in London, New York and Barcelona. He is the son of Dr Nadeemul Haq, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of Pakistan and the moving spirit behind the PC document “Pakistan: Framework for Economic Growth May 2011.”
The author pinpoints flaws of ‘industrial capitalism’ and sees them as an outcome of “an aging paradigm that has hit the point of maturity.” In his journey through the corporate world he discovers new ideas ( or cornerstones) that now operate on the periphery but with a real potential to move to the centre stage and shape new business trends in the future. It is a walk along the path of ‘what capitalism is and what it can and should be.’
Companies need to compete to bring an end to “global poor subsiding the rich” and its executives need to learn not only “ doing things right but to doing right things” as Michael Hammer has said. They must give up their ‘hunters’ approach, because the value they create is “artificial” and at the expense of the people, community and society.
The author may be right that the ideas inherited from what he calls the ‘industrial age’ no longer work for business, people, society or the future. But if one looks at the vast majority of countries, outside the US and ‘old’ Europe that have fatal attraction for the failed Anglo-Saxon financial model, one may discover they are far from being fully industrialised.
The IT has yet to make an all pervasive impact on most of the national economies to destroy old industrial structures. And the ‘post-industrial’ concept has led to pre-capitalist mercantilism. It is forgotten that much of China’s rapid economic growth has come from its transformation into a world factory.
The industrial era is not over but it needs to be organised in a manner where humans are in the driving seat instead of physical capital calling the shots. It is human skills, innovation and creativity that is required to build a new virtuous world. In the forward to the book, Gary Hamel observes: ‘Make no mistake:Capitalism has no challengers. Like democracy, it is the worst sort of system except for all the others—that is exactly why we all have a stake in making it better.’ One may add to what he says: organic growth of both capitalism and democracy, their transformation into something of much greater social value and utility, have all suffered at the hands of the forces of status quo with a narrow vision.
The author rightly recommends his book to those, who are dissatisfied with the status quo and have begun to see a gap between what capitalism has been — and what it can and should be, not just to read but to use.
