Moe on The Mission Corporation

so many well known companies. His new book is called The Mission, How Contemporary Capitalism Can Change the World one Business at a time. And he joins us on the phone from California. Michael, it is great to have you back with us. How are you? And tell me about your world, Carol, that's great to be with you. Um, everything is um, you know, so you know, we're waiting to have things open up a little bit, but you know, the world's moving ahead nonetheless. I mean, I think the

acceleration to digital just as um pre stunning. But UM listen to President Biden and talk about being able to move forward with the vaccine. UM that that's encouraging news as well. Well. And I think you and others and your book really gets into this. You know, we are at this interesting time where so many trends, whether it's digitization and other trends, have been accelerated because of the pandemic. It's also a time though, that we are spending a lot of money to help out the economy, and we

can think about how to do it better. Can we make you know, the world greener? Can we solve climate change? At the same time you write about better capitalism? What is better capitalism? Well, essentially, you know Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, which created the concept of capitalism, that invisible hands broken and we see that in the right of ways, and that was certainly true before the pandemic, that that became more fractured during the pandemic. And yet we don't believe

the um you know. The solution to this is to cut the handoff. It's really just to fix it and fix it with um an evolution, which we call contemporary capitalism. That is that we think that the great businesses of tomorrow will combine the ambition of a for profit with the heart of a not for profit. It's this idea of multiple constituents, you know. So it's not just the shareholder, it's also the employee, it's the consumer, is the community, it's the environment and at the center all that is.

Company needs to have a sense of purpose and meaning to what they do. How is it different than say, the conscious capitalism that John Mackie, co founders CE of Hall Foods and and a guest to you on our program, has written about what's different? Yeah, I would say that again. I love what he's done, and he's certainly on influence

on our thinking. I think partly what we tried to do was both to put UM some some We have seven declarations in the book talking about we think that you know, Prince A. Bowles, the companies that want to reflect this new contemporary capitalism UM to aspire to it.

We purposefully kept them as general because we think this is going to get UM evolve over time into more specific ways that the companies are able to reflect that you know, their their purpose, I mean, their success is driven by UM fundamentals that are beyond just you know, making the most profit that they can to that quarter. Michael, reading in and prepping for our conversation today, I was thinking, all right, so how does China complicate this process of

kind of a better capitalism? Because don't you need global cooperation in order for it to really work on all levels. Yeah, I mean again, I think the forces that work there are human forces and and it's it's gravity. And so as much as China has um, it's all in highbrid form of capitalism, you know, Chinese capitalism. I mean there's there's you know, people are people around the world, and what people are seeking and whether they say it this in an articulate way or not, is people are looking

for purpose. They're looking for meaning in their life and their work. And so people being inspired or of employees either um don't like their work or neutral towards at work. And you look at the research the science behind that, there's two reasons for that. Because they don't feel like

their their position matters. I mean, they don't have a purpose to what they're doing, and they don't think their company has a purpose to what they're doing, or if they do, it's not well articulated, and they don't feel like they're part of that team. And so I mean that's just a fundamental reality. You can create different do you lose, Michael, We're gonna see what. I'm sorry, I don't know where you ask We got you? Okay, So you're talking about people in the importance of you know what,

basically what their work is about. Yeah, I mean people are seeking men and purpose, right, and that's that's that I think is what drives motivation, and that's going to be true whatever the political system is. No, it's listen. You know, I have a lot of conversations with my younger nieces and nephews and even my own daughter, who's you know, a teenager, and they really care about this stuff in terms of what companies and you know, leaders

stand for. I do wonder too, though, how does you know we live in certainly my world is a publicly you know, held market world where I know we keep hearing conversations about multiple stakeholders, and I do wonder about it, you know, if if every multiple stakeholder is as important as the other. But does the public markets complicate this idea of better capitalism or profit with a purpose? I know it doesn't have to, but I just wonder how

it complicates it. Well, I think it ultimately be reflected and multiples paid for companies that have sustainable values to their business model. So you might be able to make more money this quarter because you were able to do shortcuts or make decisions that UM might benefit the near term numbers, but the multiple that investors are going to put on that, in my view, UM is going to be lower. And you're starting to see this shift is

really thinking. I mean, this kind of river of business is flowing in a different way that it's ever flowed before. And so as you talk about young people, you talk about your daughter and your and your nieces and nephews. I mean, this is a this is a phenomena that's really embedded, and you know what people you know are looking for what they want and that ultimately, ultimately all companies are valued the same way, which is future casual is discud back to the day. Companies that have these

mission driven values. I really you know, it really equates to more of a sustainable growth, more sustainable business model, which should mean that their future profits are going to be greater, which means that you know that what what

health the market ultimately vas those should be higher. And it's interesting too because when I talked to you know, you mentioned my nieces and I mentioned my nieces, and you know, there is a feeling that capitalism is bad, and you know, I try to remind them that it builds a lot of things that we take for granted today. Um, you know, what is your what would be your message message to someone if they say, listen, capitalism just doesn't work anymore. Yeah, I mean again, young people were believe

that socialism is a better system than capitalism. It's not that they're ignorant or that they don't know history. What they've experienced as a system that feels great. You see growing inequality. You see where you know the people running companies have made you know they're average feel makes four times the average worker and fewer and fear people feel like they're getting a faving a fair system. Today's world.

Basically your future depends on how well how well you select your parents, which is not it's not a fair system. So people are looking for a better system, and that's what we're saying. You can't in socialism is O N forty two, So we know that. So it's really how do you, as I said before, how do you fix the invisible hand of capitalism that's broken and make it

better and make it reflect where there's worth going. So what's out there on the horizon that gives you hope, whether it's leaders, whether it's companies, whether it's the younger generation that gives you hope that capitalism can be better. Well, I think you do. Ship and the young entrepreneurs and what they are doing in terms of the businesses they're creating. It's not just how can they get rich? In fact, most of them are saying, how can they dent the

universe for good? How can they change the world for good? You talk about Left is a company that you had good numbers to report, um, you know, an interim and the stock reflecting that. Well, the fact is Left as a company has embetted values that I think reflect a lot of what we talked about contemporary capitalists going vack. To see this last twelve months of what we've gone to, this race to create a vaccine, which is just extraordinary.

What's happened. There's this cooperation between big pharmaceutical companies which aren't exactly the most loved you know, and that's not the best behavior. Even all of a sudden, it was sort of this kind of rallying for good, for doing making a society better or not not from how to make more money. So that those kind of signs are encouraging. Hey, listen, just got about thirty forty seconds here just quickly, Michael, if there was one government policy, I know you talk about,

you know, better tax incentive structures. If there's one policy that could come down that would really make a difference here, what would it be, and just quickly if you could, ye, I think it's it's you know, it's it's removing friction from the whole start up ecosystem. And I think it really be more than just tax policy. It's liberating companies to tax big problems and have investors support those problems

that they're going to make a little better. So whether that's health care with its education for that environment and climate, and then we can we can we can create them sent us to just see the resources and focus developed there. I always feel inspired, Michael, thank you, Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Michael Moe, co founder of gs V Asset Management. Check out his book The Mission Corporation, How contemporary capitalism can change the world one business at a time.