Beyond Profit synthesizes contemporary academic research to show how leaders can create a "Wellbeing Economy" aligned with a sustainable future. Authors Victoria Hurth, Ben Renshaw, and Lorenzo Fioramonti argue that modern leaders are "locked into" the pursuit of sustained growth and endless financial returns, often leaving a legacy they are ashamed of. The book introduces a transformative framework of three "logics," characterizing the dominant "Logic 1" as a decision-making approach that mistakenly treats financial income as a proxy for wellbeing. It calls for a shift to "Logic 3," where organizations are regenerative and distributive by design, and governance optimizes collective long-term wellbeing through decisions with environmental, economic, societal, and moral implications.
The authors describe profit not as the goal of a company but as a "means," using the metaphor of oxygen—vital for life, yet not its purpose. Beyond Profit provides a coherent roadmap for leaders to find answers to existential challenges, focusing on core pillars like purpose, governance, marketing, leadership, and culture. By breaking the dominance of finance over business, the work shows how leaders can move away from extraction and exploitation toward an inspiring future based on wellbeing-centered citizenship and community in balance with nature. This is not presented as a naive idealism but as the "only pragmatic path that makes economic, social, and planetary sense".
Structural Re-engineering of the Market: The "hardware" of transformation proposed by Hurth and her colleagues involves reclassifying GDP from a goal to a parameter and building national wellbeing accounting systems. The Sacred Canopy of Care is functionally supported by "Logic 3" governance, which addresses the "structural lock-in" that makes truly sustainable decisions currently feel irrational. By rewiring the governance of economies and institutions, leaders can prevent harm before it occurs and design just systems from the start (Pre-Distribution). This requires courageous leadership that sees the humanity of employees not as obstacles but as the company’s most important assets.
This work supports the Sacred Canopy of Care by demonstrating that compassion, responsibility, and ethics must power the engine of the economy, providing a "boardroom literate" guide to remaking business for the benefit of all.