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Catching up With Author Ed Chambliss: Fixing a ‘Broken’ Business Model
June 22, 2022 | Dan Beaulieu, D.B. Management GroupEstimated reading time: 10 minutes
Beaulieu: Please explain exactly what “shareholder” means.
Chambliss: Simply put, a shareholder is someone who has a contract with a corporation. That contract entitles them to receive a financial dividend if the corporation is profitable. It also entitles them to vote on certain activities the corporation can take, such as a stock split or sale of the enterprise. However, and contrary to popular opinion, shareholders are not the owners of a corporation. Unlike a true owner, they do not direct the day-to-day activities of the enterprise, they do not hire management, and they have zero liability (beyond their investment) should the corporation do something wrong—all things a true owner can’t claim. In fact, as a separate legal person, a corporation owns itself and can’t be owned by someone else since it would be a violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits slavery.
Beaulieu: I love the metaphor of the stool; it’s such a great idea. What are the other legs of the proverbial stool?
Chambliss: For the stool of business to be stable, and for it to continuously elevate humanity, it needs more stakeholders than just shareholders. It needs customers (the sole source of revenue), employees (to create, sell, and support products), and communities (in which to place facilities.) Together, these stakeholders create an interconnected ecosystem that the company needs to succeed.
Beaulieu: What do you think we have to do to change to a more three- or four-legged stool type of business thinking?
Chambliss: Essentially, we need to retrain our society so that it expects business to serve human beings, instead of the other way around. Collectively, we granted life to the institution of business, so we are its parents. As our corporate child has grown up, it has unfortunately developed some bad habits. So, it’s up to us to stage an intervention and set the expectations that will result in our child becoming a productive member of society. To be effective, this intervention needs to permeate all the roles we play, including customer, employee, citizen, and investor, and it has a bit of a “carrot and stick” to it. The carrot is to reward companies that do serve the greater good. The stick is for companies that continue to favor shareholders over everyone else, by not buying their products, not working for them, not welcoming them into our communities, and not investing in them.
Beaulieu: Excellent. So, what happens now? What is your next step?
Chambliss: I’m trying to promote the ideas contained in the book so that as many people as possible hear them. That includes engaging with business leaders, nonprofits, academics, civic groups, and government representatives. And for those business leaders who realize something is wrong with shareholder primacy and want to transform their own companies, I work with them to define the best way to profit by satisfying the human needs of all their stakeholders.
Beaulieu: I hope you will humor me for a minute. I have a fascination about the process of writing and especially writing a book like yours. Let’s talk about your process. Is this your first book?
Chambliss: Yes.
Beaulieu: Are you a natural writer? Would you say that writing comes easily to you?
Chambliss: I think I’m a person who naturally wants to share what I find interesting so others can have the same joy of discovery that I did. But it takes practice to write in a way that allows the reader to participate in the pseudo-conversation of a narrative, rather than just a one-sided delivery of what I think.
Beaulieu: Do you write articles?
Chambliss: Yes, primarily op-eds for the business community.
Beaulieu: When did you start writing the book?
Chambliss: I started working on it full-time in March 2019.
Beaulieu: How did you write it? What was your process?
Chambliss: I had some understanding of what problems shareholder primacy was causing, just as I had some ideas for how to solve it, but I spent much of the first year educating myself on the legal and economic foundations, how we got here, and how other forms of inequity have been successfully changed by society. After strengthening my foundation, then I was able to craft the text, knowing it was deeply based in facts and not just speculation.
Beaulieu: How long did it take?
Chambliss: Three years.
Beaulieu: How did you do research for the book?
Chambliss: Lots of reading in academic journals, news articles, and books. I also conducted a fair number of personal interviews with experts in the areas of law and economics so I could benefit from their deep understanding of how all the details work together.
Beaulieu: First, thanks so much for writing this great book first, and second, a special thanks for spending time with me today. What’s next? Where do you go from here?
Chambliss: Good question. I don’t know. My mission right now is bringing the conversation about shareholder primacy to everyday people and to start a national (if not global) discussion about it and how the role of business should change. I don’t know if that will take me back into the corporate world, a nonprofit, or even public service. Whatever pathways seem to provide the most traction are the ones I’ll travel.
Beaulieu: Thanks again Ed.
Chambliss: My pleasure Dan.
Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.
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