Stuart Hart's Newly Released and Updated 'Capitalism at the Crossroads' Receives High Praise

Third edition connects the financial crisis with the need for sustainable innovation

ITHACA, N.Y., June 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World, Stuart Hart, professor of Management at the Johnson School, suggests that the most powerful institutions in the world - multinational corporations - have a unique opportunity to devise the innovations needed to create a sustainable form of global capitalism, while continuing to profit in the process.  Now in its third edition, this latest version offers updated discussion and innovative ideas on narrowing the global prosperity gap that today continues to leave massive pockets of poverty and environmental chaos in the wake of unprecedented growth and wealth.

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Hart says the enormous problems of the world will be solved by uniting the ambitions of profit and sustainability. The multinational corporation, with its efficiency, assets, and capacity for innovation, is the only institution with the resources necessary to produce a sustainable global economy.  In Capitalism, he describes that environmental concerns can be alleviated while spreading prosperity to those at the base of the pyramid, the four billion poor that have been ignored by the global market thus far.

The updated edition showcases significant new material (reflected in the book's updated subtitle) on how the financial crisis figures into the transformation to sustainable enterprise. Hart has also included an almost entirely new chapter describing his and his collaborators' experience over the past three years with "embedded" innovation using the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol–a new approach to co-creating commercial ventures with partners from poor communities at the base of the income pyramid.

Hart also introduces recent work on the "Green Leap" and the "Great Convergence" ideas outlined during 2009's Cornell Global Forum, which involves the commercial incubation of distributed clean technologies in base of the pyramid communities as a first step.  Additional updates include new cases involving the Tata Group (in particular the Tata Nano), and a substantial section on The Water Initiative (TWI)—a start-up company focused on point-of-use water solutions for the poor.

The third edition of Capitalism includes a preface by Al Gore, former vice president, a foreword by Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of S.C. Johnson & Sons, Inc., and has earned praise from a bevy of well-respected individuals including former president and founder of the Clinton Global Initiative, Bill Clinton and David Skorton, the president of Cornell University.

Bill Clinton:

"The third edition of Capitalism at the Crossroads arrives at a pivotal moment—it follows the world's most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. As we address the recession's dire consequences and rebound from the brink of economic collapse, Stuart Hart proposes a sustainable, socially responsible model of capitalism and compels us to seize the opportunities afforded by a fresh start."

David Skorton:

"Stu Hart charts a course to a better future in which the corporate sector can create a sustainable form of commerce that benefits all the world's peoples. Capitalism at the Crossroads was a path-breaking work when it came out in 2005; this third edition takes it up to the present. But the basic thesis of the book remains as compelling as ever. I highly recommend reading the book and following the path that Hart illuminates."

About Stuart Hart

Dr. Hart is one of the world's top authorities on the implications of environment and poverty for business strategy. He is currently the Samuel C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. Before coming to the Johnson School, he taught strategic management and founded both the Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, and the Corporate Environmental Management Program (CEMP) at the University of Michigan (now the Erb Institute's Dual Masters program). He currently does a wide range of consulting work with numerous organizations and companies that include DuPont, Hewlett Packard, GE, Procter and Gamble, Shell and many more. He has written over 60 papers and authored or edited six books. His very influential article, "Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World," won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in the Harvard Business Review in 1997 and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. Along with C.K. Prahalad, Hart co-authored the path-breaking article "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," which articulated for the first time how businesses could profit while serving the needs of the world's 4 billion poor within the developing world.

About the Johnson School

Founded in 1946, the Johnson School is Cornell University's graduate school of management. Consistently ranked as one of the top graduate schools of business, the Johnson School builds upon Cornell's depth and breadth of distinguished research and teaching, and its vast, worldwide network of alumni, faculty, and colleagues. The school's "performance learning" approach offers students defined frameworks and analytical tools, combined with expert feedback to solve real problems in real organizations. Deliberately small and extremely selective, the Johnson School maintains an intense, collaborative community, where students develop teamwork and networking skills that foster innovation and deliver results. Programs include one- and two-year MBA degrees, an Executive MBA and the Cornell-Queen's Executive MBA, which offers interactive videoconferencing sessions across the U.S. and Canada. For more about the Johnson School please visit: www.johnson.cornell.edu.

SOURCE The Johnson School at Cornell University