Redefining profit, centering human flourishing, and building an incorruptible mission-driven roadmap w/ Eric Ries #260

In this episode, we’re joined by Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup, to discuss insights from his latest book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad… and How Great Companies Stay Great. Eric shares what inspired him to write the book and why we need to move beyond and redefine what true profit looks like. He shares the history behind businesses transitioning from serving public interests to shareholder primacy and why leaving behind a people-first business approach can actually reduce profitability. Additionally, Eric discusses financial gravity, the “harder is easier” principle, and how these practices connect to AI & current engineering leadership challenges.

 

ABOUT ERIC RIES

Over the last two decades, Eric Ries’s ideas about continuous innovation, long-term thinking, governance, and market reform have reshaped company building and management practices. He is the creator of the Lean Startup method, and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup; The Leader’s Guide; and The Startup Way.

As a founder, he has put his own ideas into practice with The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE); Answer.AI, an AI R&D lab; Virgil, a legal services startup; and IMVU. On The Eric Ries Show, he talks with world-class technologists, thought leaders, and executives building for the long-term. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children.

 

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SHOW NOTES:

• The inspiration behind Eric’s new book Incorruptible (5:22)
• What it means to redefine profit (8:03)
• Understanding profit considerations like externality, ethics, and inputs (10:44)
• Why human life / value can never be an input factor of production (12:31)
• The history behind business practices benefitting the public (15:00)
• When businesses transitioned to shareholder primacy over public interest (17:16)
• Navigating the tension between mission vs. fiduciary responsibility (21:01)
• The role of financial gravity & shareholder primacy in the Silicon Valley bank story (25:04)
• Using Eric’s book to build a mission-driven roadmap (29:12)
• How committing to a principled way of business can drive profitability (31:15)
• An example of the principle “harder is easier” (33:40)
• How this connects to AI & emerging eng leadership challenges (36:53)

 

LINKS AND RESOURCES

• Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great - Drawing on two decades of work with founders, CEOs, and investors, best-selling author Eric Ries reveals the forces that make companies vulnerable to destruction from within and without. Then he offers solutions that safeguard against them for the long-term. Incorruptible is the blueprint for companies that will prosper and endure without losing their soul. Its lessons and tools are designed to help founders, executives, investors, an