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TED
Paul Tudor Jones, pictured, wants corporations that recognize the human aspect of capitalism.
- This post is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.
- Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones cofounded the nonprofit JUST Capital in 2013 to measure what Americans want from corporations, and which of these corporations are contributing to a "more just" society.
- JUST issues an annual ranking of the world's largest corporations based on how they are creating long-term value in the United States through strong relationships with employees,
customers , and society at large. - The companies that ranked highest in 2017 include Intel, Microsoft, and Nike.
The investor Paul Tudor Jones loves capitalism. It is, after all, the economic system that made him a billionaire.
But in a 2015 TED Talk, he explained: "Now, over the past 50 years, we as a society have come to view our companies and corporations in a very narrow, almost monomaniacal fashion with regard to how we value them,and we have put so much emphasis on profits, on short-term quarterly earnings and share prices, at the exclusion of all else. It's like we've ripped the humanity out of our companies."
It's why in 2013 he created the nonprofit JUST Capital, alongside a founding board that included entrepreneur Arianna Huffington and United Nations special envoy Ray Chambers. JUST began polling Americans in 2014 to determine both how they perceive corporations behaving and how they would ideally like these companies to behave.
Then, JUST started an annual ranking of the world's largest companies, as determined by the Russell 1000 Index. The ranking uses polling and data weighed against seven criteria: workers, customers, products, environment, communities, jobs, and management and shareholders. Each of these is further broken down into sub-criteria, such as "does not discriminate on pay" for "workers."
According to JUST's principles, the companies that recognize the human aspect of their business don't have to make sacrifices to feel good - by acting in a "more just" way, they are investing in long-term value that trumps chasing fleeting short-term gains at the expense of everything else.
JUST released its 2017 survey results and ranking in December, concluding that, "The tacit social compact that knits us together feels more and more like it's unraveling, and both elected leaders and Corporate America are susceptible to the outcome this represents."
It found that among this year's 10,000 survey respondents chosen to match the national demographics of the US, 62% of them distrust large corporations, and the vast majority of all surveyed would rather support companies they believe are just. Those who responded said that they most value a company's relationship with its employees, and care least about its relationship with management and shareholders.
Below you'll find JUST's top 15 companies of 2017, with highlights explaining why the nonprofit determined them to be working toward what we call at Business Insider a "better capitalism."