The Economist - USA (2021-10-09)

The Economist October 9th 2021 Books & arts 83

Businessethics

Virtue’s reward

W

hatisthepurposeofacompany?
For  some,  the  answer  is  simple:  to
make  as  much  money  for  shareholders  as
the law permits. But many modern compa­
nies take a much broader view. They argue
that  business  should  also  serve  workers,
consumers  and  society  at  large,  and  that
profit  should  not  be  pursued  at  the  ex­
pense of the environment or social justice.
One  figurehead  of  this  movement,
dubbed sustainable capitalism, is Paul Pol­
man,  ex­chief  executive  of  Unilever,  the
consumer­goods giant. In that role he un­
veiled  Unilever’s  sustainable­living  plan,
which made commitments to cut its envi­
ronmental footprint by half and help a bil­
lion people improve their health. Together
with Andrew Winston, a writer, he has pro­
duced  a  book  on  his  approach,  defining
“net positive”, the catchphrase of the title,
as “a business that improves well­being for
everyone it impacts and at all scales”. 
Such grand statements attract criticism
from both the right and the left. Conserva­
tives disdain the philosophy as “woke cap­
italism”, which wastes shareholders’ mon­
ey  on  gestures  that  make  executives  feel
good  about  themselves;  left­wing  critics
view it as a smokescreen that allows busi­
nesses to keep raking in profits by mislead­
ing  consumers.  It  doesn’t  help  that  advo­
cates  of  sustainable  capitalism  are  overly
fond of acronyms and jargon. This book is
no  exception,  containing  phrases  such  as
“leverage  the  company’s  dna to  serve
stakeholders better”. 
But  it  distinguishes  itself  by  detailing
the many practical steps that Unilever took
while Mr Polman was in charge, as well as
the difficulties the company faced and the
progress  yet  to  be  made.  For  example,  it
achieved  the  goal  of  paying  all  its  direct
employees a living wage by 2020, then set
about  requiring  all  its  suppliers  to  do  the
same by 2030. The aim of ensuring that all
agricultural inputs came from sustainable
sources  by  2020  proved  too  difficult,  not
least  because  it  was  hard  to  define  what
“sustainable” meant in this context.
Mr  Polman  says  tough  targets  force
managers to come up with innovative sol­
utions.  Lack  of  ambition  is  a  fault,  in  his
telling. “If a goal is not making you uncom­
fortable,”  he  advises,  “it’s  not  aggressive
enough.” Aiming to get only 60% of energy

fromrenewablesources,forinstance,im­

pliesthat40%willinvolveclimate­chang­

inggases.Andthereweresuccesses.Uni­

levermanagedtoreduceitscarbonemis­

sions by 65% in manufacturing, while

sendingzerowastetolandfill.MrPolman

points out thatthese programmeshave

helpedthecompanysave€733m($851m)in

energycostssince2008.Italsoachieved

genderparityinmanagement.

Allthismeantthatthecompany’sfi­

nancialperformancewasstrongenough

forittofightoffa takeoverbidfromKraft

Heinzin2017.Itssurvival,inMrPolman’s

view,wasbecauseofitscommitmentto

sustainability,notdespiteit.TakeLifebuoy

soap,oneofitsoldestbrands.Aninitiative

that focused on the health benefits of

handwashing in developing countries

boostedsales.Buta studyalsoshowedthat

the schemereduced cases ofdiarrhoea,

acuterespiratoryinfectionsandeyeinfec­

tionsamongparticipatingIndianfamilies.

CynicsmightsneerthatUnileverwas

motivatedbyprofit.Butnoonewhoreads

thisbookcan doubtthesincerity ofMr

Polman’sbeliefthatcapitalismandgood

workscanbecombined.n

Net Positive.By Paul Polman and Andrew
Winston. Harvard Business Review Press;
352 pages; $30 and £22

Literarylives

Daylight on the

magic

T

homasmann’slast,unfinishednovel

tells  of  a  confidence  trickster  named

Felix  Krull.  In  “The  Magician”,  Colm

Toibin’s  fictionalised  portrait  of  the  great

German writer, the ageing Mann thinks of

himself  as  a  similar  “dodger”  who  “got

away with things”. He believes that the skill

to  “reverse  their  own  story  as  the  wind

changed” is a hallmark of humankind.

In  Mr  Toibin’s  immersive  novel  about

the author’s life and times, Mann is a con­

summate actor. His “distant, bookish tone”

and  “personal  stiffness”  mask  a  restless

and  conflicted  soul.  Most  obviously,  this

long­married  father  of  six,  an  upright  pil­

lar  of  German­speaking  culture,  learns

how to cloak his homosexual desires. After

brief  encounters  during  his  bourgeois

upbringing in Lübeck and Munich, Mann’s

taste  for  younger  men  settles  into  chaste

flirtations,  private  diaries,  or  just  “the

secret energy in a gaze”.

In  politics,  too,  Mann  knows  how  to

dissemble  and  compromise.  Even  when

his conservative patriotism has given way

to outrage at the Nazis, his courage falters

and  he  prevaricates  over  taking  a  public

stand.  Slowly,  when  an  honoured  exile  in

America, he rises to become a champion of

democracy. It takes almost until the end of

his  80­year  life  for  this  great  pretender  to

feel “he could freely speak the truth”.

The saga has other threads. Mann’s un­

ruly brood of troubled children act out all

the emotional drama that the Nobel­prize­

winning author of “Death in Venice”, “The

Magic  Mountain” and  “Doctor  Faustus”

forbids  himself.  After  the  suicide  in

Cannes  of  Klaus  Mann—reckless,  outspo­

ken,  openly  gay—Michael,  another  of

Thomas’s  sons,  tells  him  that  “we,  your

children, do not feel any gratitude to you.”

The  literary  prophet,  touted  as  a  post­war

president of liberated Germany, earns little

reverence at home.

Many  chroniclers,  including  four  of

Mann’s  six  children,  have  told  his  story.

So “The Magician”, which invents dialogue

but  takes  no  flagrant  liberties  with  facts,

rests on a mountain of prior testimony. Yet

admirers  of  Mr  Toibin—best  known  for

“Brooklyn” and “The Testament of Mary”—

will  see  what  drew  him  to  this  tormented

dynasty.  The  Irish  author  has  often

explored same­sex love in hostile climates,

unpicked  the  entangling  bonds  that  par­

ents and children share, and, especially in

“The Master”, his novel about Henry James,

probed the mysterious links between self­

denial and creativity.

From  Bismarck’s  Germany  to  the  cold

war, “The Magician” covers a lot of history

alongside its personal tumult. With such a

wagonload of baggage, the narrative some­

times  feels  like  a  trudge.  But  Mr  Toibin

shines in close­up scenes of thwarted long­

ing,  delivering  a  grave  homage  that  is

nevertheless  flecked  with  irony  and  mis­

chief—just the tone Mann himself perfect­

ed. The novel gently removes a con­man’s

wardrobe  of  disguises,  while  celebrating

this “dull interloper become magician”for

the enduring spell his art has cast.n

The Magician. By Colm Toibin. Scribner; 512

pages; $28. Viking; £18.99

“Death in Venice”, immortalised on screen