Publication Of Markets and Men

Executive Summary

Tomorrow’s Company is proud to co-publish, along with the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, this important publication which we believe will be regarded as a significant contribution to the debate on changing the City.

James has raised thought provoking points about how finance has come to reflect Western thinking that is increasingly individualistic, reductionist, utilitarian, controlling and pragmatic and has set out key principles to change this.

Now, in his new book of Of Markets and Men this vision reaches its full expression. In it James sets out a radical path for change, one that is both personal and institutional, that is about “building cathedrals”.

James has a powerful conviction that “ideas have legs” and we agree with him. In the strength and clarity of his ideas we believe there’s an opportunity to rethink issues fundamental to our future well-being and prosperity.

Of Markets and Men – Reshaping finance for a new season, by James Featherby

Synopsis:

Our finance reflects our philosophy. The current crisis represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to relay its foundations. This publication clearly identifies the ways in which our thinking needs to change, and sets out four radical structural changes needed to help us become more relational, more holistic, more neighbourly, more adventurous, more purposeful, more humble and more principled in our business and finance.

James Featherby has worked in the City for more than 30 years. For most of this time he was a corporate finance partner of Slaughter and May, regarded by many as ‘the’ City law firm, specialising in cross border mergers and acquisitions and real estate investments. He is now personally and professionally involved in a number of investment activities in the UK and Africa, including as Chair of the Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group. James is a Fellow of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and a member of Tomorrow’s Company. He is the general editor of Global Business and Human Rights and the author of The White Swan Formula: rebuilding business and finance for the common good. He writes here in a personal capacity.