8 takeaways from Henry Blodget’s IGNITION keynote on better capitalism

BI

• Business Insider’s IGNITION
  2018 conference kicked off Monday, featuring two days of
  programming with the biggest names in business, tech, and
  media.
• Business Insider CEO Henry
  Blodget took the stage to open the conference with remarks on
  a better model of capitalism and the role businesses should play
  in the economy.
• Here are the top takeaways from Blodget’s remarks on stage.

Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget kicked off IGNITION 2018 on
Monday with remarks on the role of businesses and shareholders in
our current economy.

His presentation, titled “It’s Time for Better Capitalism,” laid
out the idea that businesses need to take into account more than
just their shareholders, who are the economic elite. To better
benefit the economy, Blodget said, we need to create “better
capitalism,” which means creating value for shareholders, yes,
but also the employees who work at the company, its customers,
and society as a whole.

Check on the top takeaways from Blodget’s keynote
presentation:

1. Businesses are often defined by
   making money for their shareholders, but Blodget says there’s a
   better way to define the role of businesses: “to create value
   for shareholders, employees, customers, and society.”
2. Blodget presented the idea of “shareholder capitalism” in our
   economy, where only the shareholders at the top percentage are
   getting the majority of benefits and gains from the system.
3. Blodget criticized the idea of a “trickle down” economy. The
   trickle down of investment and gains is truly a very slow
   “trickle,” which Blodget says results in an economy that doesn’t
   work for everyone. 
4. Job creation comes not just from employers, but from
   customers too, Blodget said. Using Business Insider as an
   example, Blodget said that the publication is able to hire and
   sustain its growth due to Prime subscriptions, advertisers, and
   readership.
5. “Shareholder capitalism” has been our economic model for
   decades now, Blodget says. “Forty years of shareholder capitalism
   has made us a country of overlords and serfs.”
6. There’s an “extraordinary array of high-quality products we
   have available to us now,” but consumers are struggling to make
   the money required to actually purchase them, Blodget says.
7. He applauded recent moves by companies like Amazon and cities
   like Seattle for raising their minimum wages to $15 an hour.
   Blodget presented data that 40% of jobs pay less than $15 an
   hour, but insisted we need to raise wages if we want consumers to
   take part in creating a better economy.
8. The solution to our economic issues is “better capitalism,”
   Blodget says. He cited BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who has called
   on companies to “make a position contribution to society.”

See who’s speaking now — check out the livestream of
Business Insider’s IGNITION 2018: