Businesses must consider how to recalibrate their purpose urgently. To justify making profits they must solve problems not assume they can get away with creating them.

Professor Colin Mayer is a leading and radical thinker on profit. Here at TTU we urge that his alerts and new thinking are taken seriously. The future viability of capitalism hinges upon this essential shift, and here he explains why.

Colin is an Emeritus Professor at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Here he highlights the paradox: capitalism fosters prosperity, but it also breeds societal and environmental issues.

He says capitalism must remain at the heart of our economies. But as the fast growing evidence of abuse of nature and biodiversity confirms it creates deepening problems instead of resolving them.

So leaders must grip this profound challenge. In no way should they assume it will just vaporise.

He highlights the need to speed up a shift towards purpose-driven businesses while also achieving a new kind of profitability. This is exemplified by companies like the hugely successful Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. In its push for new drugs to tackle Type 2 Diabetes it prioritises societal betterment alongside profitability.

We would like Colin Mayer’s radical view to inspire all leaders.

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