The Economist: Reinventing the company

Con una portada marca de la casa, el último ejemplar de The Economist contiene diversos artículos de mucho interés relacionados con ese titular llamativo. Especialmente sugerente es Reinventing the company, con un análisis muy lúcido de la realidad actual de las nuevas compañías, basado en algunas constataciones, en general conocidas, pero que agrupadas en un articulo breve y conciso nos dan algunas claves para reflexionar.

• The appeal of the insurgents’ model is partly a result of the growing dissatisfaction with the public company.
• After a century of utter dominance, the public company is showing signs of wear. One reason is that managers tend to put their own interests first.
• The rise of big financial institutions (that hold about 70% of the value of America’s stockmarkets) has further weakened the link between the people who nominally own companies and the companies themselves.
• Lastly, a public listing has become onerous

La segunda parte del artículo explica también algunas ideas centrales de esas nuevas y exitosas companies

• But the most interesting alternative to public companies is a new breed of high-potential startups that go by exotic names such as unicorns and gazelles. In the same cities where Ford, Kraft and Heinz built empires a century ago, thousands of young people are creating new firms in temporary office spaces, fuelled by coffee and dreams. Their companies are pioneering a new organisational form. The central difference lies in ownership: whereas nobody is sure who owns public companies, startups go to great lengths to define who owns what.

Otros artículos muy recomendables relacionados con el tema de portada: Reinventing the deal. America’s startups are changing what it means to own a company o The age of the torporation, cuyo párrafo final no me resisto a transcribir -incorporo ese concepto de exquisite trap: For all their obsession with growth, big listed firms appear paralysed. They long to expand, yet also want to protect peak profits, restrain wages and investment, buy back shares and hold armfuls of excess cash on their balance-sheets. What might make sense at the firm level causes stagnation across the economy, which in turn guarantees firms will stagnate. How many big companies will summon the strength of will to escape this exquisite trap?

Como contraste (o en realidad como refuerzo de esas tesis), hoy mismo se publica que Apple logra los mayores beneficios anuales de la historia empresarial

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