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Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes, and What Capitalism Can Learn from the NFL

Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes, and What Capitalism Can Learn from the NFL

By Roger L Martin

American capitalism is in dire straits, caught in a perilous pattern of increasing volatility, decreasing investor returns, and ongoing bad behavior by executives. And it's getting worse. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, we've seen two massive value-destroying market meltdowns and a string of ethics breaches, including accounting scandals, options-backdating schemes, and the subprime mortgage debacle.

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Book Information

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Publish Date: 05/03/2011
Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781422171646
ISBN-10: 1422171647
Language: English

What We're Saying

December 21, 2011

Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book. . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

November 23, 2011

strategy + business's yearly list of the best business books is always one of the finest. They do something really simple, but simply brilliant, having authors and thinkers who work in each category come in and curate the year's books with lengthy essays. This always makes it one of the most thorough and thoughtful lists put out every year, and this year is no exception. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

June 17, 2011

How we have come to define the debate on free and fair trade in this country and around the world fascinates, and often frustrates me. I think trade needs to remain just that—free and fair—but I don't believe that "free" necessarily means "unfettered," or that "fair" means "protected. " Those that point to the fact that more open markets in China, India and elsewhere have pulled more people out of poverty more quickly than any other force in the history of the world have the past 30 years of evidence on their side, and those that argue that labor and environmental concerns need to have a seat at the table so that they're not being exploited have history on their side. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

May 17, 2011

Fixing the Game

Book Review by Porchlight

With the NFL owners and players union currently in court over the lockout, it might seem like an odd time to use the NFL as an example for how to run anything. But current labor disputes aside, the NFL is by far the most successful business operating in sport today—it must be doing something right. And Roger L. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 10, 2012

The time has come! Drum roll, please. . READ FULL DESCRIPTION

January 04, 2012

What was the Best Business Book written in 2011? Watch this 90 second video and find out more. Ok, so we didn't tell you what the best book was. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

November 14, 2014

There’s a difference between designing products with your customer in mind and designing products born from thoughtfully developed empathy with your customer. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

October 29, 2015

Roger L. Martin & Sally R. Osberg define and document the growing field of social entrepreneurship. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

Full Description

American capitalism is in dire straits, caught in a perilous pattern of increasing volatility, decreasing investor returns, and ongoing bad behavior by executives. And it's getting worse. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, we've seen two massive value-destroying market meltdowns and a string of ethics breaches, including accounting scandals, options-backdating schemes, and the subprime mortgage debacle. Just what is going on here? Is it the inevitable decline of the American economy? Is it the new normal in a technology-enabled global marketplace? Or is it possible that the very theories we've embraced to underpin our capital markets are actually producing these crises? In Fixing the Game, Roger Martin reveals the culprit behind the sorry state of American capitalism: our deep and abiding commitment to the idea that the purpose of the firm is to maximize shareholder value. This theory has led to a massive growth in stock-based compensation for executives and, through this, to a naive and wrongheaded linking of the real market--the business of designing, making, and selling products and services--with the expectations market--the business of trading stocks, options, and complex derivatives. Martin shows how this tight coupling has been engineered and lays out its results: a single-minded focus on the expectations market that will continue driving us from crisis to crisis--unless we act now. Using the National Football League as his primary example, Martin illustrates that it is possible to take a much more thoughtful and effective approach than we now do to the intersection of the real and the expectations markets and to governance in general in the capital markets. Martin shows how we can act to end the destructive cycle, including: - Restructuring executive compensation to focus entirely on the real market, not the expectations market
- Rethinking the meaning of board governance and role of board members
- Reining in the power of hedge funds and monopoly pension funds Concise, hard-hitting, and entertaining, Fixing the Game advocates seizing American capitalism from the jaws of the expectations market and planting it firmly in the real market--and it presents the steps we must take now to do so.

About the Author

Roger Martin is an author, business school professor, and strategy adviser to CEOs. He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, where he served as Dean from 1998 to 2013. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and other leading publications and has published nine books, including Playing to Win, The Opposable Mind, and Creating Great Choices.<

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