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
profit should not be pursued at the ex
pense of the environment or social justice.
One figurehead 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, defining
“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 profits 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 difficulties 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 difficult, not
least because it was hard to define 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
sendingzerowastetolandfill.MrPolman
points out thatthese programmeshave
helpedthecompanysave€733m($851m)in
energycostssince2008.Italsoachieved
genderparityinmanagement.
Allthismeantthatthecompany’sfi
nancialperformancewasstrongenough
forittofightoffa takeoverbidfromKraft
Heinzin2017.Itssurvival,inMrPolman’s
view,wasbecauseofitscommitmentto
sustainability,notdespiteit.TakeLifebuoy
soap,oneofitsoldestbrands.Aninitiative
that focused on the health benefits of
handwashing in developing countries
boostedsales.Buta studyalsoshowedthat
the schemereduced cases ofdiarrhoea,
acuterespiratoryinfectionsandeyeinfec
tionsamongparticipatingIndianfamilies.
CynicsmightsneerthatUnileverwas
motivatedbyprofit.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,unfinishednovel
tells of a confidence trickster named
Felix Krull. In “The Magician”, Colm
Toibin’s fictionalised 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 stiffness” mask a restless
and conflicted 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
flirtations, 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 flagrant 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 flecked 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