by David Korten

When I read Korten's book last summer 1999, I was first greatly inspired and then suddenly skeptical, feeling that the "how" - the action plan - was somehow missing. I identified with his philosophy, with his personal story, and with his account of the state of humanity and economics, but was left with many questions. When I had the opportunity to meet the author in October in one-on-one conversation, I understood that he also had these questions. He was in fact hungry for good ideas while remaining convinced of his thesis, and I - as a young pioneer - felt a responsibility to help fill the gaps, to provide some "hows", and to collaborate in making an idealistic vision, with a true and sincere origin, happen.

Korten takes ideas from biology as his starting point -life as organism, instead of machine- ideas that have also guided the origins of the Pioneers of Change network. Having been a student of development economics and politics, I was delighted to see these ideas (which have made it into management literature earlier) applied by a former "development professional" to his institutional world of economics and politics. The main idea that I keep coming back to from his book, and find useful, is the competition between two stories, by which we can choose to live - the story of life or the story of money. Sometimes it helps in making decisions and evaluating actions of oneself and others to ask, "is this idea, or this action, a part of the story of life or the story of money?"

Korten argues that capitalism's claims to being the engine of wealth creation, the champion of democracy, and the embodiment of the market economy are unfounded, and that the current economic globalization and the expansion of corporate power have in fact led to a completely unsustainable development spiral. In order to ensure long-term survival, he advocates a radical cure, "virtually eliminating the institution of the limited liability for-profit public corporation as we know it". The book is a wake-up call - we have to open our eyes to our own illusions before it is too late. We need to see the systemic problems of the way we have organised ourselves and to understand the fundamental changes that need to take place. What he is advocating is a paradigm shift. It is not to say that the people behind corporations are evil, but that they/we live with illusions, unaware of the monster nature of the institutions we live with, and of the ethical and mindful nature of alternative markets and economic democracy. If we can change our way of thinking, we can realistically reorganize institutions to "eliminate the economic pathology that plagues us and create truly democratic, market-based, life-centered societies."

We have to think big in advocating the small. Korten calls for a global network of small-scale, democratically governed, market economies that empower citizens and embrace community values. In my conversation with him, it became clear that being a pioneer in a global corporation will not mean only introducing community development programs or reviewing the company's values towards its stakeholders, but to rethinking the size, systems and structure of the corporation and recognizing that these can be problematic in and of themselves. And, in partnership with others, to come up with answers as to how to create institutions that are a part of the story of life.

• Reviewed by Mille Bojer

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