The Rethinking Capital Foundation’s mission is to rethink the rules that govern modern capitalism to create a more just, prosperous and equitable society.
We are rethinking economics, finance, money, governance and accounting.
We are developing the ideas, systems and practical tool kits to unlock the hidden value in organisations. This will help leaders align their decision making and incentives with 21st century value creation for resilient and sustainable outcomes.
The Rethinking Foundation has produced a series of thought leadership papers that set out the Foundation’s thinking and practical solutions. scroll down
The Normative Method
What is the normative methodology, and why is this seemingly antiquated notion resonating today?
Before addressing normative methodology, we start with a reminder that normative resets relate to societal changes that are governed by what is fair, just, and appropriate for the times.
Time for a Normative Reset: Setting and the Context
The work of The Rethinking Capital Foundation has at its core a normative approach.
Normative theory is the only set of ideas that explains what is happening, why changes are happening and how these changes affect business, the economy and society. It also provides a practical agenda on what can, or should be done.
Rethinking Capitalism
The Rethinking Capital Foundation is reimagining modern capitalism.
Democratic societies are grappling with how to address the shortcomings of capitalism in order to build more resilient, sustainable economies. The economic principles, accounting practices and banking protocols that surround and mobilise the value in capital need to evolve to reflect wealth creation in the modern era. Reforms are needed in all areas of our institutional system to account for new classes of assets, value and risk; to distribute value more appropriately in modern society; and to reward value-generation behaviors over value-extraction behaviors. We focus on the root causes of dysfunction in modern capitalism to identify how to align the capitalist system with 21st century expectations – society’s rapidly evolving norms, values and sensibilities – i.e., a normative reset of capitalism.
Rethinking Economics
The formal study of economics is now several hundred years old. It has grown and advanced as a field of study through a turbulent history of democratisation, industrialisation, World Wars, Great Depressions and now a globalised digital economy of uncertain consequences. Today neoclassical economics has strengthened to the point where it represents a kind of sacred orthodoxy – the cornerstone of legitimate thought and policy. However, this orthodoxy is now being challenged by the reality of persistent financial crises and economic challenges on an historic scale. Neoclassical economics’ strengths as an exchanged-focused science are also its weaknesses. A narrow market-centric field of study and an analytical reliance on scarcity can be argued to have contributed to many of the ills that plague modern society. Neoclassical economists are seemingly unable to deal with growing inequality, the rise of a new digital economy or to help identify undocumented risks, because – in part – the complexity of capital is an understudied area of economic thought.
Rethinking Accounting: Why normative accounting for intangibles?
The Rethinking Capital Foundation brings together over 20 years of research and practice on normative accounting for intangibles. We are rethinking accounting using a normative approach that takes its cues from social dynamism and recognises changes in social norms to reflect the world as it should be in line with these norms, not how it may be at the time. We have designed a new accounting taxonomy for intangibles, informed by existing accounting practice and standards, to create normative financial statements. These statements incorporate all tangible and intangible assets/liabilities to properly represent the commercial reality of a business enterprise and, in an ideal world, a national government.
Rethinking Accounting: How to Account for Intangibles
This paper follows on from the paper introducing why the Foundation is undertaking work on normative accounting for intangibles and describes how to account for intangibles. This process has been applied and developed with a number of businesses and has achieved significant commercial outcomes. (available on request).
Rethinking Governance
What is Governance?
Governance generally refers to the systems and processes by which organisations or societies are directed, controlled, and managed. Governance is future oriented and aspirational, in that a desired future is identified as part of the governance process – an agreed destination for the group. Governance involves the establishment of structures, rules, and practices to ensure that actions are aligned with the achievement of the desirable end. Effective governance helps ensure operational efficiently, that ethical standards are met, and that a larger purpose informs individuals’ actions in achieving goals and objectives.
Rethinking Capital: A roadmap to a just, equitable and prosperous society
This will outline a model of system change with suggested agendas for change to achieve a normative reset and will be developed through a process of co-creation and collaboration.
The Rethinking Capital Foundation 