Breakfast for Dinner

A Remarkable Vision of “Betterness”

Betterness: Economics for Humans by Umair Haque
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This ebook was a fascinating read, full of hope for a new paradigm of human transaction beyond that of soul-sucking, cut-throat, competitive profit making (otherwise known as “business.”) Haque asks tough questions of the status quo, such as, “Why is the generally accepted definition of prosperity the growth of industrial output, not the emotional, social, intellectual, physical, or ethical growth of humans?” He goes on to argue that “profit itself is an industrial-era conception of performance” and that America’s economy is revving harder than ever, but dramatically losing horsepower. This is happening because “today’s economy rewards people most for merely allocating existing capital. That’s not a recipe for prosperity; it’s simply a game of musical chairs.”

Once in a while, Haque breaks up the intensity with witty passages such as this: “Call me crazy, but prosperity doesn’t merely mean spectacular achievements like plastic razors with yet more blades and mystery-meat burgers with an extra patty or three.” In the process he persuasively demonstrates that the short term financial gain that most companies aim for are tragically outdated and shortsighted.

Midway through the book, Haque argues that new rules for competition are already emerging. He convincingly demonstrates that companies that still operate from an old industrial-era paradigm are being outperformed by companies that have moved on from competitive advantage to GENERATIVE advantage, contributing to the Common Wealth of societies, rather than merely increasing profit margins and increasing value for share holders. “Destroying the Common Wealth is easy, abundant and cheap… Enhancing it, in contrast, is the scarcest, rarest, and single most disruptive capability an organization can possess.”

He sums up the paradigm shift this way: “Going from business to betterness means going from vision, mission, strategy, and objectives to ambition, intention, constraints, and imperative.”

He further reaches down to the ground level by name-dropping companies that are beginning to innovate and invest the Common Wealth of society (albeit imperfectly) such as Apple, Google, Nike, Pixar, WalMart, and Whole Foods. The exercise in contrasting the nauseating “vision” statements of Polo Ralph Lauren, McDonalds, and Microsoft with the AMBITION statements of Nike, Lululemon Athletica, and Google is a hilarious, but thrilling testimony to the fact that much of what he is saying is already in motion. By the time he gets to this statement, the reader is already convinced: “financial capital is the least valuable, enduring, and meaningful kind of capital.”

In the end, I’d say Haque has launched (or at least introduced to amateurs like me) a fascinating discussion and proposed a theory that is currently being tested and needs to be further tested. I’m sure many will roll their eyes at these concepts and brush them off as idealistic pipe dreams - in much the same way that revolutionaries and history makers have been dismissed and scoffed at for centuries. The discussion has only just begun, but the hope that his vision inspires is worth whatever risk lies before us in the quantum leap.