Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Grow the Pie summary
Alex Edmans
How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit
21 mins
Brief summary
Grow the Pie by Alex Edmans argues that companies can create both social value and profit by prioritizing purpose over short-term gains. It provides practical frameworks for sustainable business practices that benefit all stakeholders.
Table of Contents
Grow the Pie
Summary of 5 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 5
Embracing the pie-growing mentality for business and society
Imagine discovering that a life-saving drug has increased in price by 5,500% overnight. This was the reality for physician Judith Aberg at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York when Daraprim’s price soared from $13.50 to $750 per pill. How did this happen? Well, the producer, Turing Pharmaceuticals, under the leadership of Martin Shkreli, made this drastic decision, prioritizing profits over patients’ health.
Martin Shkreli, a hedge fund manager turned biotech CEO, followed a strategy focused on maximizing investor returns by acquiring existing drugs and significantly raising their prices. This approach made essential medications unaffordable for many, particularly affecting patients with severe illnesses like toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection. While legally permissible, Shkreli’s actions sparked widespread outrage and highlighted a significant issue in business practices.
Why do some businesses operate this way? We can call this the pie-splitting mentality, where businesses view value as a fixed pie to be divided. Shkreli’s strategy aimed at increasing investors’ share, even if it meant reducing the shares of other stakeholders such as patients and healthcare providers. This mentality often results in exploiting customers, workers, and suppliers to boost profits.
But there’s a better way to run a business. Consider Roy Vagelos, the former CEO of Merck, another pharmaceutical company. In the late 1970s, Merck discovered that ivermectin, a drug for livestock, could cure the parasitic disease known as river blindness in humans. Despite the high cost of distributing the drug to impoverished communities in Africa, Vagelos decided to give it away for free. Driven by a commitment to serve society, this decision saved millions of lives, enhanced Merck’s reputation, and attracted talent and investors, ultimately benefiting the company in the long run.
This is what we mean by the pie-growing mentality – where businesses aim to create value for all stakeholders, expanding their overall value rather than merely redistributing existing value. Companies with this mindset integrate social responsibility into their core operations, innovate continuously, and prioritize long-term societal benefits alongside profits.
So, how can businesses adopt this mindset? Well, it involves focusing on value creation across the board. This means paying fair wages, developing new and beneficial products, reducing environmental impact, and engaging positively with communities. But how exactly does this play out? Let’s find out in the next sections.
Want to see all full key ideas from Grow the Pie?
Key ideas in Grow the Pie
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Grow the Pie about?
Grow the Pie (2020) shows how businesses can thrive by creating value for society while also achieving sustainable profits. It reveals that companies prioritizing the well-being of all stakeholders often outperform those focused solely on shareholder returns. By presenting extensive research and real-world examples, it makes a compelling case that long-term success comes from growing the pie for everyone.
Grow the Pie Review
Grow the Pie (2020) explains how focusing on expanding the economic pie, rather than fighting over it, benefits both individuals and society. Reasons why this book is worth reading:
- It emphasizes long-term value creation over short-term gains, offering a refreshing perspective on business and economic strategy.
- The book showcases real-life case studies and practical examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of its principles in various contexts.
- By promoting collaboration instead of conflict, it sparks new ideas and encourages readers to think differently about success and progress.
Who should read Grow the Pie?
- Business leaders seeking sustainable growth strategies
- Investors interested in long-term corporate performance
- Academics studying corporate governance and responsibility
Categories with Grow the Pie
Book summaries like Grow the Pie
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
35 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
Grow the Pie FAQs
What is the main message of Grow the Pie?
The main message of Grow the Pie is about creating value ethically to benefit both society and investors.
How long does it take to read Grow the Pie?
Reading Grow the Pie takes a few hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in 15 minutes.
Is Grow the Pie a good book? Is it worth reading?
Grow the Pie is worth reading for its insights on responsible business practices and sustainable growth.
Who is the author of Grow the Pie?
Alex Edmans is the author of Grow the Pie.
What to read after Grow the Pie?
If you're wondering what to read next after Grow the Pie, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Chill by Mark Harper
- Good Team, Bad Team by Sarah Thurber & Blair Miller
- The 80/20 CEO by Bill Canady
- Essays In Persuasion by John Maynard Keynes
- The Self-Made Billionaire Effect by John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen
- Liars by Cass R. Sunstein
- Take Back Your Brain by Kara Loewentheil
- Electra by Sophocles
- The Fine Art Of Small Talk by Debra Fine
- The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway