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Case Study

Friedman meets Freeman – Who got it right on the future of capitalism? (Revised) (Mini Case)

By Salvatore Cantale and Knut Bjarne Haanaes

5 pages

May 2020

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Reference: IMD-7-2197

This mini case sets up a debate about capitalism. Milton Friedman, in 1970, shared his view of the social responsibility of business to be increase its profits. This contrasts with Blackrock’s Larry Fink, who in 2018, 2019, and 2020 announced the era of purposeful capitalism. The case gets participants to think about stakeholder capitalism to meet societal demands. The key question posed at the end of the case is if there was a debate Fink meets Friedman, who has got it right for the future?

Learning Objective

This case is part of a mini-series focused on business and society that challenges participants to consider the lessons of various events and examples and how they can apply the learning to their own context. In this case the learning objectives are: – Considering whether capitalism has evolved. – Understanding capitalism from different perspectives across 50 years.

Keywords

Strategy, Business, Society, Capitalism, Purposeful Capitalism, Environmental Social and Governance, Environment, Purposeful Organization, Business-Society Collaboration

Settings

World/global
1970-2020

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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This case study is part of a series

Addressing the Covid-19 crisis: The CEO agenda (Mini case)
Climate change: How fast can change happen? (Mini case)
Distinguishing greening from greenwashing (Mini case)
Friedman meets Freeman – Who got it right on the future of capitalism? (Revised) (Mini Case)
From crisis to the new normal (Mini case)
Looking back from 2030: We turned the corner on climate - How did we get here? (Revised) (Mini case)

This case study is part of a series

Addressing the Covid-19 crisis: The CEO agenda (Mini case)
Climate change: How fast can change happen? (Mini case)
Distinguishing greening from greenwashing (Mini case)
Friedman meets Freeman – Who got it right on the future of capitalism? (Revised) (Mini Case)
From crisis to the new normal (Mini case)
Looking back from 2030: We turned the corner on climate - How did we get here? (Revised) (Mini case)

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