Lynn Stout has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is The Shareholder Value Myth.
The Shareholder Value Myth
Summary
Executives, investors, and the business press routinely chant the mantra that corporations are required to "maximize shareholder value." In this path-breaking book, renowned corporate expert Lynn Stout debunks the myth that corporate law mandates shareholder primacy. Stout shows how shareholder value thinking endangers not only investors but the rest of us as well. It leads managers to focus myopically on short-term earnings; discourages investment and innovation; harms employees, customers, and communities; and causes companies to indulge in reckless, sociopathic, and irresponsible behaviors. Additionally, Stout looks at new models of corporate purpose that better serve the needs of investors, corporations, and society.
©2012 Lynn Stout (P)2015 Lynn Stout
Citizen Capitalism
Summary
Corporations have a huge influence on the life of every citizen - this book offers a visionary but practical plan to give every citizen a say in how corporations are run while also gaining some supplemental income. It lays out a clear approach that uses the mechanisms of the private market to hold corporations accountable to the public. This would happen through the creation of what the authors call the Universal Fund, a kind of national, democratic, mega mutual fund. Every American over 18 would be entitled to a share and would participate in directing its share voting choices. Corporations and wealthy individuals would donate stocks, bonds, cash, or other assets to the fund just like they do to other philanthropic ventures now. The fund would pay out dividends to its citizen-shareholders that would grow as the fund grows. The Universal Fund is undoubtedly a big idea, but it is also eminently practical: it uses the tools of capitalism, not government, to give all citizens a direct influence on corporate actions. It would be a major institutional investor beholden not to a small elite group of stockholders pushing for short-term gain but to everyone. The fund would reward corporations that made sure their actions didn’t harm people, communities, and the environment, and it would enable them to invest in innovations that would take more than a few months to pay off. Which is another reason corporations would donate to the fund - they could be freed from the constant pressure to maximize their quarterly share price and would essentially be subsidized for doing good. The authors demonstrate that our current economic rules force corporations to be shortsighted and even destructive because for most large investors, nothing matters but share price. The Universal Fund is designed to be a powerful positive balancing force, making the world a better place and the United States a better nation.
©2018 Lynn Stout, Sergio Gramitto, and Tamara Belinfanti (P)2018 Lynn Stout, Sergio Gramitto, and Tamara Belinfanti