This is a book without a theory, which I mean as a compliment. Because instead of theory it has wisdom. As usual, the publisher’s subtitle – Why (Almost) Everything We Are Told About Business Is Wrong – can’t quite cope with this concept. The “almost” is a nod to the book’s distaste for over-simplicity, but the revisionist tone drags it towards the “smart thinking” genre, where it doesn’t quite belong. Because although John Kay is a leading economist, this is really a history book – history written with a sustained moral outlook and world-view. It’s a history of global business, a primer on organisational thinking, and a comparative study of how national identities are shaped by corporate ownership and its obligations. Above all, it is a history of how people live and work together.
A central thread in Kay’s argument is that shareholders don’t own companies. So who does? In legal terms, this is complicated and contested territory, with a long tradition of court disputes between shareholders and company management about competing rights and powers. Philosophically, it may be simpler, but with a peculiar kind of simplicity. “So who does own Apple or Amazon?” Kay asks. “The answer is that no one does, any more than anyone ‘owns’ the Mississippi River… or the air we breathe.”
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