Ries: Shareholder primacy is only 40 years old
Eric Ries · How Anthropic, Costco, and Patagonia all build incorruptible companies | Eric Ries · May 10, 2026 · at 58:24
Author Eric Ries argues that historically corporations were chartered with specific public purposes, contrary to modern assumptions about corporate law.
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“For the vast majority of the time, for hundreds of years, we have had joint stock corporations. Only the last 40 have we had this idea. Before the eighties, it was considered obvious. Our grandparents thought it was obvious. Our great grandparents thought it was obvious. Like Adam Smith thought it was obvious. Everyone before thought it was obvious that corporations existed to pursue a specific thing, what's called a beneficial purpose in the law.”
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