ESG: Do We Need It and Does It Work?

The first lecture in the Indiana University - ECGI Online Series was delivered by Professor Alex Edmans (London Business School), on the topic "ESG: Do We Need It and Does It Work?". 

Professor Edmans compared and contrasted the traditional model in Finance (that of shareholder primacy as propounded by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman) with his "pieconomics" model in which he contended that organisational leaders should pursue the strategy of "growing the economic pie." He suggested that since economic activities are a positive-sum game such pie growing strategies will in the long run create both profits and serve society more reliably than will a narrow focus on profit maximisation.

Alex has a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and the TEDx talk “The Social Responsibility of Business” with a combined 2.4 million views. Alex’s book, “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit,” was named a Financial Times Business Book of the Year in 2020.

The public lecture series is organised by The Kelley School of Business Institute for Corporate Governance (ICG), in partnership with the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University and ECGI.