The Long Clock · Chapter Three

Four Objections, Answered Plainly

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter Three of The Long Clock: Purpose, Patient Capital and the Time a Company Needs.

Abstract

The argument for corporate purpose has a reputation, and some of it is earned. It has produced a great many mission statements, a great many conference panels and a smaller number of changed decisions. A reader who runs a company, or looks after a family's money, is right to ask whether purpose is a structure or a costume. Chapter 2 set out Colin Mayer's case: a company exists to create profitable solutions for the problems of people and planet without profiting from creating problems, and it needs owners patient enough to let it. This chapter gives the other side its strongest form. There are four objections that deserve an answer. Each has a scholar behind it and evidence beside it, and each points, once it is taken seriously, to a specific design choice rather than to a reason to give up.

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989078

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). Four Objections, Answered Plainly. In The Long Clock. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989078

@incollection{santaanna2026the3,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {Four Objections, Answered Plainly},
  booktitle = {The Long Clock},
  chapter   = {3},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989078},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-long-clock/03-four-objections-answered-plainly/}
}

References

  1. Mayer, C. (2018). Prosperity: Better Business Makes the Greater Good. Oxford University Press. The British Academy. (2019). Principles for Purposeful Business; (2021). Policy and Practice for Purposeful Business. See chapter 2, note 2, on the wording of the definition.
  2. Bebchuk, L. A., & Tallarita, R. (2020). The illusory promise of stakeholder governance. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3544978
  3. Mayer, C. (2020). Shareholderism versus stakeholderism – a misconceived contradiction. A comment on "The illusory promise of stakeholder governance" by Lucian Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3617847
  4. Hansmann, H., & Thomsen, S. (2013). Managerial distance and virtual ownership: The governance of industrial foundations. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2246116
  5. Stein, J. C. (1989). Efficient capital markets, inefficient firms: A model of myopic corporate behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 104(4), 655–669. https://doi.org/10.2307/2937861
  6. Graham, J. R., Harvey, C. R., & Rajgopal, S. (2005). The economic implications of corporate financial reporting. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 40(1–3), 3–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2005.01.002

Every chapter of The Long Clock

  1. Chapter OneTwo Sentencesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989074
  2. Chapter TwoThe Company Was Chartered for Somethingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989076
  3. Chapter ThreeFour Objections, Answered Plainlydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989078
  4. Chapter FourTwo Clocks in Every Companydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989080
  5. Chapter FiveWhen the Clock Lengthensdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989082
  6. Chapter SixThe Foundation and the Trustdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989084
  7. Chapter SevenHanding It Ondoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989086
  8. Chapter EightThe Quarterly Questiondoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989088
  9. Chapter NineThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989090
  10. Chapter TenHow to Know It Workeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989092
  11. Chapter ElevenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989094
  12. Chapter TwelveA Household on the Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989096
  13. Chapter ThirteenWho Holds the Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989098
  14. The WorkbookThe Workbookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989100

The other books in the library

  1. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyCash Asleep in the Buildingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989319
  2. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyChange That Staysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989557
  3. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book TwoEarneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989328
  4. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IEnough by Designdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989348
  5. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyLuminous Integral Leadershipdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989368
  6. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Morphic Marketing SeriesLuminous Morphic Marketingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989389
  7. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book OneMindful Leadership Masterydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989430
  8. Ecstatic EconomicsOwning the Workdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23988988
  9. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Channel Keeps Itdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989022
  10. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Customer Already Told Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989055
  11. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIIThe Economy That Keeps Becomingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989451
  12. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VThe Embedded Marketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989474
  13. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VIThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989502
  14. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Manager's Weekdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989102
  15. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIThe Pasture Was Never Emptydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989523
  16. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Price Nobody Chargeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989120
  17. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Second Briefdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989141
  18. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IVThe Standing Forestdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989542
  19. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Strategy That Reaches the Floordoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989179
  20. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWhere the Flow Stopsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989196
  21. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWho Decidesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989215

The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.