Robert Aaron Gordon (1908–1978) American economist
Source: Business Leadership in the Large Corporation (1945), p. 350
Source: Business Leadership in the Large Corporation (1945), p. 24, footnote 20; as cited in: Marco Becht et al. Corporate Governance and Control, 2005. p. 61
Robert Aaron Gordon (1908–1978) American economist
Source: Business Leadership in the Large Corporation (1945), p. 350
Neil Fligstein (1951) American sociologist
Source: The transformation of corporate control, 1993, p. 10 ; As cited in: François L'Italien, BÉHÉMOTH CAPITAL. Contribution à une théorie dialectique de la financiarisation de la grande corporation. Université Laval, 2012. p. 147 (Many of the following quotes came from this source)
Ha-Joon Chang book Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 5: 'Man exploits man; Private enterprise good, public enterprise bad?', The pitfalls of privatization, p. 116
Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Supreme Court Justice
Dissent, Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933), at 565-67.
Judicial opinions
Context: Through size, corporations, once merely an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business have become an institution-an institution which has brought such concentration of economic power that so-called private corporations are sometimes able to dominate the state. The typical business corporation of the last century, owned by a small group of individuals, managed by their owners, and limited in size by their private wealth, is being supplanted by huge concerns in which the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of employees and the property of tens of hundreds of thousands of investors are subjected, through the corporate mechanism, to the control of a few men. Ownership has been separated from control; and this separation has removed many of the checks which formerly operated to curb the misuse of wealth and power. And, as ownership of the shares is becoming continually more dispersed, the power which formerly accompanied ownership is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few... [and] coincident with the growth of these giant corporations, there has occurred a marked concentration of individual wealth; and that the resulting disparity in incomes is a major cause of the existing depression.
Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer
Speech in York (2 June 1973), quoted in The Times (4 June 1973), p. 2.
1970s
Robert S. Kaplan (1940) American accounting academic
Can you figure out what you believe, as if you were an owner?
Can you act on those beliefs?
Do you act in a way that adds value to someone else: a customer, a client, a colleague, or a community? Do you take responsibility for the positive and negative impact of your actions on others?
These elements are not a function of your formal position in an organization. They are not a function of title, power, or wealth, although these factors can certainly be helpful in enabling you to act like an owner. These elements are about what you do. They are about taking ownership of your convictions, actions, and impact on others. In my experience, great organizations are made up of executives who focus specifically on these elements and work to empower their employees to think and act in this way.
Source: What You're Really Meant To Do, 2013, p. 22-23
Thorstein Veblen book The Theory of the Leisure Class
Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 23
Roy A. Childs, Jr. (1949–1992) American libertarian essayist and critic
Roy A. Childs, Jr. “Property Rights/Civil Liberties: Two Sides of One Coin,” lecture presented at Stanford University for Cato Institute’s Summer Seminars on Political Economy (August 6, 1978). Reprinted in Liberty Against Power, San Francisco: CA, Fox & Wilkes (1994) p. 210