Abel, the first altruistic entrepreneur 28 octobre 2008

(As per my latest paper where I tried to define a new form of humanitarian enterprise).

In the Bible the first donations in history are those of Abel and Cain and their offering to God. Cain is a farmer and offers a part of the produce of his land, while Abel offers the first born of his flock.

God looks more favorably upon Abel’s offering – the text doesn’t explain the reason of His choice but from my point of view it’s because Abel offers something that although actually worth little (a first born doesn’t offer much meat and doesn’t produce any milk) does however have a very big emotional value and means a lot for the future.

Actually Abel opens his capital up whereas Cain offers only a share of his profit.

Cain is at best similar to the tycoon I mention in my other post who having achieved success donates part of his wealth – and this doesn’t cost him that much. (At worst he acts as those companies – or rather like the people who are responsible for such ventures – investing into charities as a marketing stunt).

The Bible talks a lot about the difference between capital and income, and the superiority of capital. The story of Esau and Jacob (birthright – capital – exchanged for a meal of lentils – produce) is yet another example.

Of course there are many other possible interpretations here. For René Girard, God prefers meat to vegetables because animals play the role of scapegoats (however the first born of a flock doesn’t offer the best qualities to become a good scapegoat able to divert violence, according to Girard himself).

Deep down I like my version better – and it also suits my theories better too…

I’m also aware that even though Abel’s offering pleased God things got tough for him shortly after and I certainly hope it won’t be premonitory.

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Pourquoi Obama va devenir Président des Etats-Unis.
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• René Girard : l’avenir imprévu d’une illusion

               

Adam Smith’s Paradise Lost

Jean-Pierre mentioned in his comments that my idea of altruistic capital is doomed since “Marxist attempts have always failed”.

I don’t think there can be any ambiguity upon reading my paper but I will say it again. The concept of Altruistic Capital is in no way related with Marxism. It would actually be more of a free-market idea.

About twenty years before The Wealth of the Nations, Adam Smith wrote a small book less popular but from my point of view more interesting: The Theory of Moral Sentiments. It’s not as much a book on economy than on moral or social issues (social as in Rousseau’s Social Contract). Adam Smith analyses human characteristics, according to Pareto it’s one of those – individualism – from which modern day free market theories derive.

However according to Adam Smith, man also has “sympathy” in him.

In this context this word doesn’t’ have its usual meaning. According to Adam Smith sympathy is the ability to feel other people’s emotions by stepping in their shoes. It’s a sort of empathy to which we rise thanks to our ability as a human being to imagine ourselves in someone else’s situation. (This is an actually very interesting partly religious, partly psychoanalytic concept that I will further address in another post).

Why does this sympathy disappear in The Wealth of Nations (and then in Pareto’s)? It’s not so much that it no longer exists but that it’s of lesser importance.

The main reason being that you can’t really draw a model out of it and Adam Smith wants to develop a scientific theory.

He disregards it in order to focus on a mathematical model, not for other reasons.

(It can also be argued that sympathy is actually a part of « self-love », as Adam Smith defines it. Sympathy, as defined in TMS, that Adam Smith never denounced, clearly benefits to the self. Modern liberal economists suchs as Friedman have obviously overlooked that point).

I will give an example rather interesting and well-known. In order to invent classic mechanics, Newton needs to separate time from space: he doesn’t have the mathematical or experimental material to go forward without that imposition.

Contrary to what is now believed, this notion of time being independent from space is not that straightforward: back then time was actually only measured by motion through clocks themselves based on the revolving of the earth around itself, around the sun and gravity – and Newton knows it.

Basically time seems linked to motion and Galileo and then Newton boil it down to an independent variable not out of some philosophical concern but in order to go forward with their work. Newton’s doubts on whether time is indeed an absolute variable are evident in his Principia.

In the end classic mechanics are actually rather close to the truth, till Einstein restored time back to its real place by linking it to space and motion (resulting in The theory of General Relativity).

What I’m saying here on Relativity is quoted from Einstein himself. Einstein wonders why “Newton, the great Newton” talked about absolute time and justifies this by saying “He couldn’t do it any other way”.

The same thing happens with the free-market concept. The altruistic characteristic of mankind has been disregarded because it was far too complicated to fit it in a mathematical model – or because it has actually always been there but the words « self-love » lead to some confusion.

Seen like, this Altruistic Capital is a practical rather than theoretical attempt to inject a dose of altruism into the free-market. And from my point of view there should be many others.

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Le Paradis Perdu d’Adam Smith

               

Should an altruistic company adopt a more ethical behavior than any other company? 23 octobre 2008

Keeping my line of thought on the altruistic capital topic I’ll work on clarifying its specifics in my next articles. I’ll pour over the legal, fiscal and selection and evaluation criteria aspects of such enterprises as well as moral issues.

Altruistic businesses are much like any other regular business, except for the fact that their capital (or a share of it) belongs to a humanitarian cause.

So should an altruistic company behave in a more ethical way? Have an ethical management?

I’d say no, or rather not necessarily. Altruist companies should be entirely into the economic game. It’s through the capital gains achieved by the company and the dividends paid to its shareholders that altruistic businesses are useful since their capital belongs to a cause. Any moral management restrains may result in a loss of performance that would cripple such companies in the market.

Altruistic businesses may – I haven’t said should – display a behavior as ruthless and blind as any other.

Let’s look at the example of Bill Gates Foundation (See CoeurdeRoy’s comment).

Let’s assume it had a choice between two investments: an ethical investment with a 2% return and another of non-ethical sort with a 5% return. Taking into account that its mission is to fight AIDS, picking the lower return investment would cripple its action. Over the long-term the foundation’s capital may even loose too much of its value leading to its demise? What should then the foundation’s directors do?

My answer to this is: whatever they want.

An altruistic company may of course decide to make ethical investment, however this is purely their own free will. It’s important for it not to be forced into it. The movement I wish to launch will not set any rules on companies behaviors. Structuring your capital to donate a share of it to a cause is the only thing it takes to become a part of it.

Going beyond this would hinder the altruistic action’s efficiency itself. And more important it would introduce a moral intent. It would be the beginning of a form of politically correct inquisition – anyway as the altruistic movement grows it won’t totally dodge this form of well-meaning inquisition (necessarily well-meaning). It won’t dodge abuse either – non-profits using donated capital to other goals than the ones initially set (more on this in my next article). One would better define each initiative’s framework right from the start to avoid as much as possible such downfalls.

Edit: Cedric suggested a simple modification of a company’s mission statement with a link to the excellent site The Corporation. But again the same concept applies.

An altruistic company may have an ethical mission statement but it shouldn’t be mandatory. Furthermore I feel it’s more important to focus on a company’s capital structure rather than its mission (no doubt one of my Marxist’s recollections).

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth
• A new framework for altruistic action

               

Altruistic capital, altruistic royalties: it’s the financing process that makes it efficient.

Capital – for a company – and royalties – for an artistic venture: in them lies financial value.

I’ve just come across on the New York Times, an example of an “altruistic royalties” put into action by Even Ensler author of The Vagina Monologues. Eve Ensler applied the concept of Altruist Capital by donating the royalties of her play to her V-Day foundation (it fights violence and discrimination against women).
If the play goes ahead with volunteers its profits will be used to finance V-Day’s humanitarian actions.
Results:

• The play has been performed a countless number of times worldwide. It is today the most performed play around the world, before Shakespeare and Moliere (it’s a rather good play, but it’s clear that this worldwide success goes much beyond the simple quality of the piece).
• 39 Millions Euros have been collected over 10 years

.

There is no better example of interaction between an actual donation and the success of a business. It’s thanks to the donation structure chosen by Even Ensler that she could create such a community (directors, actresses – and of course the public) that is the very heart of the play’s success. Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep and so many others have played pro-bono.

This was such a unique and efficient example that the Business School of Harvard turned it into a study case.

Altruistic Capital is quite simply the same exact line of thinking applied to the business world.

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• A new framework for altruistic action
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth

               

Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business

I’ve been getting quite a few messages telling me about such or such social initiative that took the shape of a company. Social Business, as it’s often called, is progressing and will grow each day more. It’s a serious global trend.

If you don’t look too closely Social Business and Altruistic Capital almost sound like the same thing. Therefore my friends tell me I’m being plagiarized in an intolerable way (by a Nobel Prize Laureate!), less friendly readers simply assume that Altruistic Capital is nothing new (this is their mistake) and that my way to introduce the concept is borderline megalomaniac (this is sometimes true).

But beyond the fact that both social business and altruistic capital are two humanitarian inspired attempts to better the world, which is plenty some would say, there is nothing much in common between the two concepts. They have entirely different takes on ho to act on the world and often in their analysis of the current reality.

What is a Social Business?

A social business has a commonwealth mission at its roots. It’s all about providing financial means to a poor population (micro-finance), bringing electric power to remote areas, reducing malnutrition (I’m using as examples the three social businesses created by the most extraordinary social entrepreneur of our times, Mohammed Yunnus).
In a social business, the economic aspect of the company itself nearly comes second and fades away compared to its altruistic mission. For instance, micro financing is at its origin a humanitarian action and it took years for people to understand it could also be an economically profitable enterprise (which it turned out to be, and this is what makes this a really brilliant idea, however it was nearly an unexpected side-effect).

As stated by Mohammed Yunnus (le Monde 05/25/2008), “Social Businesses are similar to traditional capitalist companies”, but they are no such thing deep down since “They are supposed to generate a social profit for a specific social class” and “working for a company with a social vocation will not provide you with any returns”.

I’ve written several articles on the advantages and downfalls of such a concept. Number one advantage is that all of the company’s partners agree to its humanitarian mission. Such a company (the most common status being cooperatives) is able to bring together a great number of goodwill and energy. It also has a direct impact on society through its actions.

However more often than not making economic concerns second in its priorities makes it hard for a social enterprise to become a serious economic actor. Worse than that it its growth is not linked to the value and progression of its capital and this is one of the main reasons behind the social classes gap we witness today with globalization.

On one hand the world of solidarity, 30% of human activity but 0% of worldwide capital. On the other the economic world that always ends up having the upper hand – Bob Reich, Bill Clinton’s former Labor Secretary thinks this will eventually destroy democracy (he’s an optimistic American), I think this may eventually lead to the destruction of humankind itself and almost everything that matters on earth (I’m a pessimist).

What makes Altruistic Capital different?

With Altruistic Capital, the company’s mission is solely economic.

What makes a company altruistic is simply the fact that part of its capital has been donated to a humanitarian cause. It’s through the structure of its capital that it has a commonwealth impact.

Nothing prevents an altruistic company to additionally set social mission for itself – in fact many do and will do so since social businesses are meant to adopt an altruistic structure (to better develop, find financial means, etc… See the case of Goodaction). However the main point here is the lever and inderection side-effect provided by the participation to the capital. No moral conduct is demanded from the company itself. This is all about using the financial returns of capitalism to fight its worst downfalls, since as explains Yunnus so well, “The system is blind to any other consideration than profit” (Bob Reich’s take: it’s pointless to expect companies to do the ‘right thing’). It’s through the progression of capital that the NGO shareholder will be able to make a difference in the world.

An economic lever to change the world.

I’ve already explained how the impact of Altruistic Capital can outweigh those of social business.

The bottom line of the current problem is economic and the lever provided by capital could be limitless. Any company, a startup, a bank, Total, L’Oreal can someday adopt this structure (under consumers’ pressure or by idealism, or with a very low share of their capital it doesn’t matter).

Altruistic Capital can be applied to the entire economic community and provides non-profit organizations with financial means (to apply towards lobbying, to take action, etc…) adapted and commensurate with the means available to the financial world. It is however very hard to find economically sustainable social business concepts, even if Mohammed Yunnus states that “looking all around us you will find ideas to create a social business”. His creative spirit distorts reality.
In our free-market and globalized world, the chances of survival for a social business are quite slim. Even if a sustainable concept was created a social business often becomes less performant from an economic point of view than a regular company (it sets ethical principals for itself, it donates part of its income…). Its financial structure stops it more often than not from lever much capital.

Our ability to economic interference

On the contrary an altruistic company is by definition efficient on an economic level. Its performance translates into dividends, capital gains that are paid to the NGO shareholders. On the short-term altruistic shareholders may really change the world’s balance, modify the way the market’s Invisible Hand acts. Altruistic Capital perfuses a dose of altruism to the very heart of the free-market.

Many forms of social business are nothing but a sham (nowadays you won’t find a single company that doesn’t dabble in it) . So-called social actions by some companies serve nothing but their sole economic interests (and their budgets are taken from or part of their marketing budgets: see the case of Volvic for instance, even though there are others). Altruistic Capital on another hand provides an unquestionable and measurable level of commitment in the form of the percentage of capital donated by the company.

Altruistic Capital is not a metaphysical enterprise either…

Ultimately all forms of social entrepreneurship share common roots, the first social Christian communities or the Israelian kibbutz of the 50s. Some examples of purely charismatic social enterprises were also brought to my attention (see the economy of communion) however as far as I’m concerned I see such idealistic forms of solidarity as unfortunately doomed over the long term and only valid for small communities.

For this reason, such companies are often the brainchildren of either saints or scammers. Altruistic Capital is cut out for real people, to make a difference in the real world.

Its realm doesn’t belong to some other world.

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• A new framework for altruistic action
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth
• Should an altruistic company adopt a more ethical behavior than any other company?

               

Altruistic Capital: Year Zero

Altruistic Capital has now been launched.

In this article I’ll try and provide a concise summary of our “mission” (part of our articles of registration) as well as answer the most frequently asked questions.

If you have any comments, op-eds, questions or suggestions… get in touch with me.

From this day forward I’m looking for supporters, Jacques Attali finds the project terrific and for various reasons related to my own background, micro-finance’s history and his latest book I appreciate the compliment.

(For those of you who wish to learn more about this concept, its background, our goals you’ll find a list of related articles here).

What is Altruistic Capital?

Altruistic Capital bolsters the development of humanitarian causes by providing them with more substantial financial tools through access to private companies capital: altruistic enterprises.

Altruistic enterprises are perfectly normal companies from a financial point of view. They have the same economic goals as conventional businesses (performance, profitability,…). However upon at some point of their development – often at their inception – shareholders decided donate a share of the Capital to a humanitarian cause. They have even picked the said cause.

Our goal is to spur the creation of as many altruistic companies as possible, assist them in their development and through profits thus generated provide as much support as possible to the humanitarian causes that are part of it.

Why such an initiative?

To put a cap to the direst side effects of globalization, from destruction of natural resources to the unavoidable tipping towards conflicts, nothing is possible without financial power. The economic interests at stake are too high.
One has to fight money with money in order to impact on pre-existing economic, political and industrial actors.

NGOs have always been financed through donations. Why is it important to introduce them to Capital?

Access to Capital provides them with an unrivalled financial lever. The value of a company in the stock market is made of the accumulated profits of several years and even decades.
Except some rare exceptions so far the financial lever provided by capital only benefited the development of private investors, leaving humanitarian causes out.
This has led to a growing discrepancy between the impact of the accumulated economic mankind activity and global individual good deeds.
Altruistic Capital is a new type of human economic development that strives to reduce that gap as much as possible.

Which companies are called to adopt the altruistic capital concept?

Since it only requires a simple capital reshaping, any company can at some point of its development convert to it.
This said, we have identified two specific cases perfectly suited for this transition:

– The creation of new businesses (startups)

Upon the inception of a new company, the founder(s) may wish to engrave in marble their will to play an altruistic part in our society.
They may therefore when creating their business decide to donate a percentage of its capital to one of several causes that they wish to support. Some of those companies will flourish, others will fail, but slowly the financial means provided to humanitarian causes will be huge: over 80% of Nasdaq’s capital gains derives from companies les than 30 years old.
For any entrepreneur, knowing that through your daily management of your company he/she is also impacting on society is a powerful source of motivation – very often the entrepreneur can’t afford the time to act otherwise. It can also become a motivational and inspirational source for customers and employees.

Millions of citizens ask themselves how to act, how to make a difference but they have no available solution at hand. At the end of the day a great deal of financial means is required to support a humanitarian cause full-time. Such altruistic companies would allow anyone with a ‘normal’ job to also have a real mission, quite different from the companies other more conventional goals.
Alternatively members of any NGO may also decide to broaden their action by creating their own altruistic business.
By increasing both the visibility and public awareness of Altruistic Enterprises, we try and support their development in a way that the initial capital donation may also economically benefit the founders as much as possible.
We should see Altruistic Capital as a new means to develop a company – Altruistic Capital is at the end of the day the other side of the Capital risk coin.

– Converting Open Source projects into companies

Launched in 1984 the Open Source movement favors the free exchange of knowledge and software (as opposed to private ventures such as Microsoft’s), support the cooperation between engineers and make available to them the full results of their work.
Open Source projects are Altruistic by nature.
[In the Open Source movement you can see in action all of the power of cooperative projects, Internet and globalization around which the 21st century will revolve. Open Source today is a glimpse of what collective action could become tomorrow – it’s already an inspiration for companies composed of programmers who mainly telecommute.]
No one can deny the great impact Open Source has had on society since it’s the founding stone of the Internet itself, however we can criticize the concept’s lack of ambition: freedom of distribution and no-charge software are empty words if you don’t give them a meaning.
The fathers of the open source license concept main idea was to get rid of any downsides related to proprietary software, however no further positive impact for the world derives from it. It’s mind bogging that there should be no large humanitarian group based on the positive use of proprietary licenses. It’s unsettling how programmers spend their time developing software with no other goal than free distribution, rather than programming for a positive cause no matter which one.
Altruistic Capital provides both an economic and legal frame available to all those who wish to develop technologies within a cooperative structure with an altruistic intent and would rather do it in an Altruistic Company structure rather than through Open Source.
It’s perfectly feasible to go from Open Source projects and create “entirely altruistic” businesses devoting all of their capital to some humanitarian cause.
Generally speaking Open source projects cannot be directly transposed to a business plan since they are only composed of programmers. Economic experts should be brought into the game so as to create a business model. Broadcasting these projects to a wider audience is one of our goals.

Can Altruistic Enterprises be profitable? Won’t they be less competitive than others?

Altruistic companies are identical to any other regular company, except that their capital (or a share of it) is held by an NGO.
No other additional obligation is made concerning their management or ethics.
Go any further by attempting to moralize a company’s actions would take a toll on the efficiency of the altruistic action itself, by decreasing the profits generated by the said companies and thus the financial means of the causes they support.
It would also be the beginning of some form of political correctness inquisition we strive to avoid at all costs.
Much on the contrary, opening a company’s capital is a very important means of development:

– By giving a commonwealth meaning to the employees work, we attract the best among them and make them more performant. It knits work teams closer together.
– It also is a very positive point for customers. There already are ethical companies.

There are even ethical investment funds.

Altruistic enterprises are nothing alike ethical funds or ethical companies we see nowadays. Ethical funds are supposed to check on the ethical nature of any companies in their stock portfolio, however and additionally to doubts one may raise on the quality of such verifications since at the end of the day the fund’s main goal is to return a profit, no positive action per say derives directly from it and often the ethical nature of the fund is nothing but a marketing stunt to attract capital or clients.

The same thing could be said about most of altruist sponsoring events led by companies (you may have noticed that most all of energy companies finance campaigns for a cleaner planet)?
On the other hand the percentage of capital in a company that belongs to a cause, unquestionably validates both structurally and quantitively the nature and strength of its commitment.

Don’t you think some ethical companies may also be hypocrite in their approach and acquire such a status only to derive benefits from it?

It’s perfectly plausible, however we don’t try and analyze the inner motivations driving companies – or rather their shareholders, since the mechanism behind capital donation guarantees that whatever their initial reasons may be the end result will generate a profit for the humanitarian causes commensurate with their share of capital.
We provide certifications based on the portion of altruistic capital donated by the company. The granting of such a label certifies of the reality of the donation as well as the humanitarian nature of the chosen cause.

What are the philosophical implications of the Altruistic Capital?

Marx is dead. Attempted alternatives to Capitalism (communism, alter-globalization…) are no longer credible.

Altruistic Capital makes humanitarian causes wealthier: it provides a limitless structure to allow them to take a part in companies’ capital.

Much as micro-credit, it develops alongside globalization and not against it. And as in micro-finance this is its main strength.

In a world that is and will remain mercantile, Altruistic capital corrects the abuses of the Invisible Hand by adding an altruistic level into economy.
It provides altruistic actors with a more important economic lever and allows them to tip the economy balance in a direction that will better serve humankind’s interests.

• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth
• A new framework for altruistic action
• Should an altruistic company adopt a more ethical behavior than any other company?

               

Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth

(This article refers to a paper on Le Monde about Supercapitalism) I’d also like to thank you ‘lv’ for having pointed another article on the WSJ describing Bill Gates’ take on this topic.

As Bob Reich states it’s indeed pointless to expect from businesses a moral conduct. It’s not their purpose and those who claim to act towards a commonwealth are being hypocrite – subconsciously or not – or else according to the conventional free market theories, end up loosing in efficiency thus benefiting their competitors and at the same time doing more harm than good to the causes they were supposed to uphold.
(suite…)

• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Similarities and differences between Altruistic Capital and Mohammed Yunus Social Business
• Altruistic Capital: the one-page business plan
• A new framework for altruistic action
• Should an altruistic company adopt a more ethical behavior than any other company?

               

Quelques gouttes d’huile dans les rouages pour Capital IT 29 mars 2006

La sélection pour Capital IT passe par une phase de « coaching » du dirigeant. J’y allais sans espérer grand chose au départ tellement j’ai tout vu, et surtout du n’importe quoi, dans ce domaine.

(suite…)

• Interview : six questions sur le Capital Altruiste
• Altruistic Capital: Year Zero
• Le Business Plan du Capital Altruiste, en une page
• L’esprit perdu de l’article 28 de la loi de 1905
• Capital Altruiste : année zéro

               

Internet 2.0 Glossary 23 février 2006

« One to one » : Initially a hazy marketing theory, it quickly became the quickest and most efficient way to steal money from the Venture Capitalists before year 2000.

« One-two-one » : See Kamasutra, page 173

« One to many » : Jeff Jarvis’ blog.

« One to zero » : Any other blog – See : There are more blog authors than readers (in french).

« 0 to many » : Google News.

« Anything to many » : Wikipedia

« Many to 0 » : Former Vivendi portal (Vizzavi)

« Many to many » : eBay.

« Web 2.0 » : 2006 « One to one » new release.

« W 2000 » : (Windows 2000). 1988 Mac OS, Light version.

« 2:00 » : Time this glossary has been written at, which unfortunately may not be an acceptable excuse for its poor content.

Note: I have translated this from french « by popular demand ». Any english-speaking reader who wants to improve the style of the translation – or provide examples/links better adapted to the english-speaking world – is more than welcome.

• A new framework for altruistic action
• Glossaire Internet, version 2.0
• Altruistic Capital or how to conciliate profit and commonwealth
• Comment Nespresso transforme Wikipedia en brochure publicitaire
• Google: la fin du début / Google : the end of the beginning (part 2)