đź“š: Incorruptible, Eric Ries
- Posted: 2026-10-06
- 2 min
I found Incorruptible convincing; it makes a compelling case for how, by structuring organizations carefully, we can protect them against gradually becoming corrupted by shareholder primacy.
It provides plenty of examples —organizations like Patagonia, Novo Nordisk, Mondragon Corporation, Costco and several more.
The main ideas are:
- Organizations, as systems, are significantly more powerful than any individual (chapter 2).
- There’s a very real force that frequently corrupts corporations: financial gravity (chapter 3).
- Profit should be defined in terms of maximizing human flourishing (chapter 5).
- We can turn the tables on financial gravity and ensure that it becomes a force that reinforces the mission: steward ownership. Ries somewhat generalizes this as “Spiritual Holding Companies” (chapters 10, 11).
I had been thinking about this topic for a long time. Working at Google from 2007-09 to 2026-10 gave me direct visibility to how it gradually become corrupted —e.g., start taking more and more questionable decisions based on short-term gains. The ideas in this book resonated strongly with me.