In 2013 I produced the book Firm Commitment: Why the Corporation Is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust in It. That book identified a problem with the corporation and a need to identify ways of reforming it. This book attempts to provide solutions to the questions posed by Firm Commitment.
In so doing, it draws on the considerable number of research programmes in which I have been engaged with several people since 2013. I would like to thank Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub of Mars Catalyst, Mars Incorporated’s think tank, with whom I have been involved over the past four years in a voyage of discovery about the mutuality of Mars’ business, and all the many people in Oxford and Mars Catalyst with whom I have worked on the project, in particular Kate Roll, Alastair Colin-Jones, Richard Barker, Marc Thompson, Marc Ventresca, and Ruth Yeoman.
I have been fortunate to direct a programme of research on European corporate financing entitled ‘Restarting European Long-Term Investment Finance’1 for the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Thanks to the support of Stefano Micossi, the programme was associated with Assonime and funded by Emittenti Titoli. I would in particular like to thank the steering group for the project, namely Brunella Bruno, Alexandra D’Onofrio, Immacolata Marino, Marco Onado, Marco Pagano, and Andrea Polo.
I have been a member of the Steering Group of the Big Innovation Centre project on the Purposeful Company. This has produced an interim report surveying the relevant literature and a policy report of recommendations for reform in the UK.2 I have benefited immensely from working with other members of the Steering Group—Clare Chapman, Will Hutton, Birgitte Andersen, Alex Edmans, Tom Gosling, Andy Haldane, and Philippe Schneider.
I participated in the writing of a text on the Principles of Financial Regulation3 based on a course of the same title on the Masters in Law and Finance at the University of Oxford with five members of the Law Faculty at Oxford and one at Columbia Law School. I am very grateful to my co-authors—John Armour, Dan Awrey, Paul Davies, Luca Enriques, Jeffrey Gordon, and Jennifer Payne—for stimulating discussions about financial regulation.
I have been involved in a programme of research at the Balliol Interdisciplinary Institute at Balliol College in Oxford on The Evolution of Business Ecosystems. This programme is examining the interface between biology, economics, and management studies and I am grateful to Yunhee Lee, Denis Noble, and David Vines for providing fundamental insights into the relevance of biology and the Korean economy to theories of business.
I have undertaken research with Paul Collier on infrastructure investment in developing countries and with Dieter Helm on infrastructure in developed countries. I have continued a programme of research on the evolution of ownership and control of corporations around the world with Julian Franks at the London Business School and Hideaki Miyajima at Waseda University in Japan. The programme has focused in particular on recent developments in corporate finance and ownership in Japan.
Over the past year, I have been the academic lead of the British Academy programme on the Future of the Corporation. This is a major cross-disciplinary programme of research into how the corporation will need to adapt over the coming decades to address the economic, political, social, and technological challenges and opportunities it confronts. I would like to thank the members of the Steering Group with whom I have been working, Mohamed Amersi, Marco Becht, Bill Blair, Victor Blank, Alun Evans, Luke Fletcher, Onora O’Neill, Lucy Parker, Paula Woodman, and Mike Wright, the members of the Corporate Advisory Group, and the staff of the British Academy, in particular Jo Hopkins, Jennifer Hawton, Henry Richards, Kate Rosser Frost, and Michelle Waterman.
I am engaged in a Ford Foundation programme of research on Purposeful Ownership at the Said Business School in Oxford University examining the role of families and institutional investors in promoting purposeful ownership. A previous study assessed how more than forty non-governmental organizations are seeking to promote inclusive business and economies.4 I would like to thank the co-director of the programme Peter Tufano, the Dean of the Said Business School, and the researchers Clarissa Hauptmann, Mary Johnstone-Louis, and Bridget Kustin.
I have also continued to work with many of the people and organizations that I acknowledged in Firm Commitment, so I will not repeat them here. I will, though, add that I have been involved in several activities since then on which I have drawn in writing this book, in particular in conducting board reviews of major listed UK corporations, being a member of the UK Natural Capital Committee, being part of the International Advisory Board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, helping to establish Aurora Energy Research, being a Trustee of the Oxford Playhouse, and sitting on competition and regulatory hearings at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. I appreciate the support that I have received from the many people with whom I have worked in these organizations.
I have had immensely helpful discussions and received comments on the book from numerous people. In particular, I am very grateful to Anat Admati, Nathalie Baudry D’Asson, Mohsin Alam Bhat, Amar Bhide, Peter Block, Clare Chapman, Paul Collier, Bob Eccles, Julian Franks, Gay Haskins, Thomas Hellmann, John Hicklin, Will Hutton, Marty Lipton, Annette Mayer, Hannah Mayer, Ruth Mayer, Stephanie Mooij, Denis Noble, Avner Offer, Gita Piramal, Andrea Polo, Bruno Roche, Ira Unell, David Vines, and Yishay Yafeh for very helpful suggestions.
I would like to thank Adam Swallow and Phil Henderson, who, as in the case of Firm Commitment, have been wonderful editors at Oxford University Press with whom to work on this book, and Katie Bishop and Kate Farquhar-Thomson, who have been immensely helpful in the preparation and promotion of the book.
Of course, the greatest burden of writing a book is borne by one’s family and I would like to thank Annette for the love, support, and consideration she has shown during its production. As Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have claimed, ‘early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’, but it comes at a cost.
Colin Mayer
1 January 2018