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Dr. Astrid J. Scholz's avatar

Really insightful, Jamie -- once you decouple impact and financial returns, it forces you to think about the rest of what a company is doing. For example, if profit is maximized, how is it shared with shareholder and / or stakeholders? If there is a commitment to impact, how is it anchored in the business practices and operations, much like Vincent pointed out.

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Sebastian's avatar

Thanks for this reflection! I wonder if the TOMS example isn't, in fact, a good way to highlight how impact-maximization and profit-maximization are logic opposites? Don't get me wrong, I'm not in the anti-Friedman group. But maximizing profits, like Bain Capital surely aims at, means that money is extracted as profits that could otherwise be used for creating positive impact. So, even though I agree that each case has to be reviewed carefully, I think it is also safe to say that profits and impact can't be maximized at the same time. In the end, it's always an either-or decision

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