About this episode
Eric Ries discusses the pressures that lead mission-driven companies toward short-termism and how they can protect their integrity.
In Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great , Eric Ries argues that mission-driven companies face an invisible pressure that pushes them toward short-termism and conformity, no matter the intentions of their stakeholders. Ries is the best-selling author of The Lean Startup , founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, and advisor to startups around the globe. In his new book, he traces a recurring pattern across two centuries of business: principled founders build something exceptional, only to watch it be corrupted—not by greedy individuals, but by systemic forces baked into how capitalism is structured. In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, Ries discusses how corporate corruption starts, why shareholder primacy became the norm, the concept of financial gravity, and the structural protections companies can put in place to defend their mission. Key topics discussed: 01:09 | How corporate corruption starts 03:50 | The rise of shareholder primacy 08:18 | Why mission-driven companies outperform but don’t dominate 11:06 | Are private equity and activist investors always destructive? 15:31 | Financial…
People in this episode
Host: Adam Job
Guest: Eric Ries
Topics covered
- corporate corruption
- shareholder primacy
- mission-driven companies
- financial gravity
- structural defenses
Keywords
- corporate corruption
- shareholder primacy
- financial gravity
- mission-driven companies
- structural protections
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BCG Henderson Institute, Long-Term Stock Exchange
Books & works: Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, The Lean Startup
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