Alliance Forum Foundation

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What is Public Interst Capitalism?

Who owns companies? According to the Company Act, shareholders own company. Some people say, therefore, shareholder value maximization is the right way to run company. However, a question of “What is a primary reason for companies to exist?” is more controversial and open to debate.

Given importance of company’s roles in today’s economy, the second question is more important. In addition to shareholders, a company has many stakeholders such as customers, employees, executives, and business partners. Even the society as a whole is a stakeholder. Thereby, the purpose of a company should be to serve the interest of those stakeholders through products, services, employment, tax, dividends etc… as an entity. Those business activities make people and society rich and fulfilling.
Furthermore, a company and stakeholders build a community where capabilities, technologies, skills, knowhow, and trust are accumulated. These accumulated assets assure company’s future prosperity and sustainability.

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Since the early 20th century, the community structure has shifted significantly by separation of company ownership and management. To be sure, the shift has been great help for capitalism to grow faster with bigger capital and thus has led us to present prosperity.
As a result, however, shareholders came to interact with the community through financial markets, common interest diminished and the relationship with the community was weakened. This means stockholders became less interested in assets accumulated in the community and more interested in return to their investment. Hedge funds and activists have accelerated this movement. They see company as a device to produce profit to their investment. The ideology of “shareholder value maximization” became the zeitgeist in a business world, where the success of a company was measured by ROE which solely indicates the efficiency of shareholders investment.
Consequently, it is often observed that company’s executives make a decision to meet stockholders’ expectation though it may impact company’s sustainability.

Alliance Forum Foundation has been seeking for an indicator in place of ROE. We call it the RTC (Return to Company); a measurement of the value company has created with stakeholdrs. We are currently undertaking in-depth research on various components of the RTC, in cooperation with major corporate executives and professors in Japan.

In recent years, Wall Street driven shareholder oriented management is getting embraced even in Japan for the nobler purpose of globalization. But, before we talk about Japan, let’s review what are happening in US based on various economic data.

Our Activities

■ PIC(Public Interest Capitalism) seminar

This is a 6 months long seminar to cultivate human resource capable of future corporate leaders. Students will learn concept and actual practice of Public Interest Capitalism through reflective dialog with active corporate leaders.

■ AFG

This 3days forum pursues ideal market-oriented economy through research of current issues and discussion of possible measures and policies. 50 plus corporate leaders,
scholars, and politician come together for intensive discussion.

■ WAF

WAF is the largest AFF hosted forum. Every year, we present AFF policies and activities along with theme of the year to 300~400 audiences to get better understanding and support to AFF.

Publications

Publications on public interest capitalism:

The Alliance Forum Foundation promotes public interest capitalism through various avenues, including the course on public interest capitalism at Tokyo University Graduate School and events with executives and policymakers. We advocate the society with a mid- to long-term vision where socially beneficial technologies thrive.
http://www.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kifu/alliance.html

21世紀の国富論(平凡社)

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新しい資本主義 (PHP新書)

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NHK Special “Money Capitalism and How not to Repeat the Crisis” (Japanese Only)

代表理事の原丈人が出演  (2009年7月20日 )
http://www.nhk.or.jp/special/detail/2009/0720/index.html

100年に一度とも言われる金融危機が世界を席巻した——。震源地のアメリカはもちろん、EUや日本、新興国、ロシアや中東といった産油国……世界のいたるところで、実体経済の疲弊しています。なぜ誰も止められなかったのか—。この事態を招いた原因について、金融工学が生まれた経緯から、金融危機が起こるまでになった話などをわかりやすく取り上げています。最終回では、金融危機をどのようにして止めていくのか、様々な識者による提言が行われています。

BS Fuji Prime News “Proposal: Japan Saves the World from Financial Crisis” (Japanese Only)

代表理事 原丈人、神永氏(カウンシルメンバー) 出演(2012年11月9日 )
http://www.bsfuji.tv/primenews/text/txt121109.html

報道番組にて、金融危機の起こる原因、その対処法などを解説しました。
映像については(前半/後半:40分程度)下記のURLでご覧いただけます(2012.12.20現在) http://www.bsfuji.tv/primenews/movie/index.html?d121109_0 (前半)
http://www.bsfuji.tv/primenews/movie/index.html?d121109_1 (後半)