52 McKinsey on Cooperatives Autumn 2012
Rosabeth Moss
Kanter
How great companies
think differently
There is a growing critique of Western capitalism as far too focused on nancial transactions, putting
shareholders above other stakeholders and short-term prots above creation of long-term value
to society. Critics are calling for a new model of capitalism, one that retains free enterprise and the
innovation that stems from it, while acknowledging the relationship of business and society.
My recent research identied a group of companies I called “supercorps” for their ability to combine
innovation, prots, growth, and social good. They are publicly traded—listed in their headquarters
countries and beyond—but they ourish by emphasizing both nancial and social considerations, as
well as by seeking long-term sustainability as institutions that contribute to the well-being of
multiple stakeholders. Their cultures could be the wave of the future.
Among global companies, the supercorps represent a tiny, if growing, fraction, and they are
maneuvering against the tide. But there is another set of enterprises that shares many values with
these vanguard companies and has proved its viability over the long term. In the cooperative
A Harvard Business School professor sees parallels between the great public
companies she identified in her research and the cooperative movement.
53
movement, values-based, stakeholder-sensitive activity is the norm, not the exception. There are
even cooperative ventures of large scale and scope that I can call “super coops.”
Super coops are organized to serve the needs of stakeholders as members. Membership is a
metaphor sometimes used by supercorps, but for cooperatives, this is a structural requirement and
an entitlement. Coops cannot forget their core purpose of service, and this includes a desire to
improve the lives of members and the communities in which they operate. Moreover, members have
a voice: a role in decision making and in selecting those who represent them in strategic and
managerial roles.
Cooperatives think differently, and they share or exceed the standards for good companies that
I sought in my research. Any enterprise seeking long-term sustainability would do well to learn from
both the supercorps and the super coops that stress purpose, values, principles, partnerships,
and member voice. This abridged version of an article I published in the Harvard Business Review
discusses what I call the “institutional logic” that supercorps follow. Although the examples I cite are
of public companies, this same institutional logic applies to the management of super coops.
It’s time that beliefs and theories about business
catch up with the way great companies oper–
ate. Traditionally, economists and financiers have
argued that the sole purpose of business is to
make money—the more the better. That conve-
religion. Great companies work to make money, of
course, but in their choices of how to do so,
they think about building enduring institutions.
They invest in the future while being aware of
the need to build people and society.
