In the fall issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, FSG’s Mark Kramer reviews Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas, a former New York Times foreign correspondent.
“Business elites are taking over the work of changing the world,” Giridharadas observes. “Many believe they are changing the world when they may instead—or also—be protecting a system that is at the root of the problems they wish to solve.”
In his review of the book, Mark reflects on his own career and work at FSG:
It is an important book that challenges those of us working for social change within existing systems of power to consider whether we are inadvertently perpetuating the problems we seek to solve. It is also a very personal challenge to me, as I represent the very type of person who so worries Giridharadas: I am a former venture capitalist, cofounder of a social impact consulting firm, and a proponent of for-profit solutions to social problems.
From my perspective, it is a highly engaging yet sobering experience to read this book, and it imparts new insights into the limitations and compromises inherent in the way I and many of my friends and colleagues have chosen to work for social progress.
Read “Are the Elite Hijacking Social Change?” >
