Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation

A pioneering venture capitalist provides an  actionable framework for founders and executives to create innovative,  enduring companies built for growth and for societal good.

The  Milton Friedman philosophy that companies exist only to increase  shareholder value is dead and buried. The old Silicon Valley tenets of  “move fast and break things,” minimum viable products, and hyper  engagement at any cost must be replaced with new principles for an era  of responsible innovation. We can no longer manage businesses solely for  growth. With innovation comes responsibility: to generate returns  beyond profits and to recenter technology as a force for good in the  world. This requires a shift in the way organizations approach and value  work.

A company’s mindset—its  intent to do good, avoid harmful consequences, and innovate  responsibly—is not enough. That mindset must be supported by a business  model, a mechanism that leaders must intentionally and proactively build  along with the company from the ground up, one that incentivizes and  rewards the organization for fulfilling its intentions. Companies need a  new set of KCIs, or key consequence indicators, that measure factors  such as its impact on customers’ energy consumption, whether its product  is being used equally across socioeconomic groups, or if it is actually  solving the social problem it is addressing. Not only is this the right  thing to do—increasingly, it is what customers, employees, and  shareholders demand of business.

In this inspiring, practical, and actionable guide, Hemant Taneja:

• lays  out the argument for why a new model of company building and leadership  is necessary—and how it can lead to better performance
• explores  why social-good businesses are some of the greatest opportunities  today, detailing examples of billion-dollar startups that are addressing  inequality, climate change, systemic societal problems, and chronic  disease—all while generating profit and positive shareholder returns
• presents  a topic-by-topic road map that addresses business models, artificial  intelligence, ethical growth, culture, governance, and good citizenship

Intended Consequences is  designed as the ultimate playbook for founders, entrepreneurs,  leadership teams, and investors on how to build and maintain a  responsible innovation company.