The Long Clock · Chapter Six

The Foundation and the Trust

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

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

Abstract

Three of the most durable industrial companies in Europe have an unusual thing in common. Each is controlled by an owner that is not a person, does not take its profits for private use, and in practice does not sell. The optics and glass companies of Jena, now Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG, have been owned by a foundation since the 1890s. Robert Bosch GmbH has been held by a foundation since 1964. Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company, is controlled through an investment company owned by a foundation whose roots go back to 1922. The three are cited so often in arguments about purpose that they have become a kind of shorthand, and shorthand loses the detail that makes a case useful. This chapter reads the three in their own published figures, separates what each source shows from what it is cited for, and asks the question a leader can take home: what, exactly, does a foundation owner do to a company's clock?

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989084

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). The Foundation and the Trust. In The Long Clock. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989084

@incollection{santaanna2026the6,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {The Foundation and the Trust},
  booktitle = {The Long Clock},
  chapter   = {6},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989084},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-long-clock/06-the-foundation-and-the-trust/}
}

References

  1. Hansmann, H., & Thomsen, S. (2013). Managerial distance and virtual ownership: The governance of industrial foundations. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2246116

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  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
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