Capitalism 2.0 – more ways than one to a better way of doing business?

• Cooperative, Mindful, Progressive, Responsible, and Sustainable? The answer is that they have all been applied to the word Capitalism. Commenting on this adjectival cornucopia in a recent blog post, Michael Townsend, Founder and CEO of Earthshine Solutions, wrote: “It is pleasing to see that the ground is fertile, with many schools of thought emerging. We have found at least ten [count them] different new recipes for better forms of capitalism”.

• For those who believe that business can, and should, be a force for good, a stimulator of innovation, a creator and distributor of wealth, there is a critical need to find a better way of doing it. More of the same is not an option.

• But is every alternative approach as good as any other. Almost certainly not. In an era of transformative thinking when not even the precise nature of the problems can be agreed upon, let alone the solutions, there are bound to be some bum notes in the mix. But what is clear is that there are some consistent themes coalescing – themes which are strongly reflected in an emerging model which even its developers, Earthshine Solutions and TSSS, acknowledge is still a work in progress.

• A Journey in Search of Capitalism 2.0 proposes a number of specific principles but is predicated on a belief that there are real “opportunities for businesses that create genuine value, in meeting the real needs of people, our communities, and the environment, in universally affordable and sustainable ways”.

• Now that’s an aspiration I find it difficult to fault. And for as long as that’s the goal that people are working towards, perhaps it doesn’t matter too much what you choose to call the methodology. A rose by any other name…