Net Positive

How can business truly make the world better rather than merely less bad? In Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, Paul Polman and Andrew Winston argue that the next era of capitalism requires companies to aim for net positive impact—improving the well-being of people and planet through the very core of their operations. Profit remains essential, but it becomes a consequence of doing good rather than the singular objective. The book challenges leaders to move from minimizing harm to maximizing benefit, changing the purpose, metrics, and relationships that define success.

At its heart, net positive business asks one powerful question: “Is the world better off because your company exists?” To answer yes, you must own all impacts, positive and negative, along your value chain, align long-term success with societal flourishing, and form partnerships that change systemic conditions. This approach is not ideological—it is deeply strategic. The authors demonstrate through Unilever’s transformation under Polman that purpose-driven companies attract better talent, stronger investor loyalty, and more resilience in crises.

The tension with traditional capitalism

Traditional shareholder primacy, which dominates finance and governance, measures progress by short-term metrics—quarterly earnings, EPS, and immediate returns. In contrast, the net positive model puts multi-stakeholder value first: employees, consumers, suppliers, communities, and ecosystems. When this model is internalized, shareholder gains follow via trust, innovation, and sustained performance. The Unilever vs. Kraft Heinz episode, when Unilever resisted a $143 billion takeover, illustrates this principle: a company grounded in stakeholder trust can mobilize society and investors to defend long-term purpose against short-term raiders.

The scope of responsibility

Polman and Winston expand accountability beyond carbon and labor practices. They introduce an ethical concept akin to extended “scopes”: businesses should recognize their influence not only through production (Scopes 1–3) but through advocacy and cultural messaging (Scopes 4–6). A company’s behavior in politics and media, and its effect on consumption norms, shapes far more than emissions numbers. Leaders must reject corporate lobbying that protects privilege and instead engage in net positive advocacy—policy work and partnerships that deliver shared societal progress.

From purpose to systems change

The authors argue that being net positive means expanding from internal reforms to external collaboration. Companies alone cannot fix climate change, inequality, or deforestation. They must form “courageous collectives”—three-way partnerships among business, government, and civil society that redesign markets and rules. Examples include the Tropical Forest Alliance’s global work to stop deforestation and Unilever’s participation in water-management coalitions like the 2030 Water Resources Group. These partnerships offer legitimacy, finance, and political stability that solo efforts lack.

The leadership imperative

The change begins with people. Net positive leadership combines purpose, empathy, courage, inspiration, and a partnership mindset. Leaders must act on conviction even when it costs them. Ed Stack at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ken Frazier at Merck, and Polman himself exemplify moral clarity—making public decisions grounded in values rather than polls. Polman abolished quarterly guidance at Unilever so teams could think in years, not weeks. That act of courage created long-term returns and cultural renewal. (Note: this mirrors Jim Collins’s concept of “Level 5 leadership” that joins humility with fierce resolve.)

Why the transition is urgent

Humanity faces accelerating crises—climate instability, biodiversity loss, and widening inequality—that threaten economies and lives. Governments and NGOs alone cannot close the gap; private enterprises command 60%+ of global GDP and must lead. Net positive business becomes both survival strategy and moral duty. It reduces risk, spurs innovation, and enhances resilience. As shown during the Covid-19 pandemic, Unilever’s stakeholder trust enabled swift action to protect workers and stabilize supply networks, while purely financial peers faltered.

A new measure of success

Finally, the authors call for redefining what success means. GDP and quarterly profit are incomplete indicators of well-being. Companies—and societies—must measure outcomes like human development, ecosystem restoration, and happiness. Adopting well-being metrics and regenerative models marks the transition from extractive capitalism to restorative economics. The question becomes not “How big did we grow?” but “How well did people and planet thrive because of our actions?”

The book’s unifying message: set bold ambitions rooted in science and morality; act transparently and courageously; collaborate across sectors; and repair the social contract. If you follow this path, you will not only build resilient companies—you’ll help shape a net positive world where business drives human progress instead of planetary decline.

Polman and Winston emphasize that transformation begins with leadership character. You must embody humanity—purpose, empathy, courage, inspiration, and partnership thinking. Technical fixes without moral clarity fail. A leader’s personal evolution precedes corporate change: you must first discover your own purpose and align it with your organization’s mission.

Traits that make the difference

Purpose anchors direction. Empathy broadens perspective. Courage turns principle into action—especially when markets, media, or shareholders resist. Inspiration communicates authenticity, not slogans. Partnership recognizes that real progress needs allies. Unilever’s leadership programs (ULDP) helped executives identify personal “crucibles”—moments of challenge that clarified values—and connect them with brand purpose. That inner coherence made decisions stronger and more consistent.

Examples of courage in action

Ed Stack of Dick’s Sporting Goods removed assault-style weapons from stores after a school shooting, choosing conscience over revenue. Merck’s Ken Frazier resigned from a presidential council after Charlottesville, demonstrating integrity in public. Polman’s abolition of quarterly guidance at Unilever gave managers space for long-term R&D and brand investment. These acts of courage often invite criticism in the short term but build reputational and cultural strength.

Nurturing courage and empathy

You can foster these traits through organizational design. Reward long-term decisions, protect leaders who take principled risks, and normalize humility—admitting gaps and inviting collaboration. Courage, the authors note, comes from coeur, the French for “heart.” It merges moral intent with analytic discipline. Combining heart and head ensures you act boldly but wisely, driving both human and financial success.

Empathetic courage transforms employees from agents of compliance to agents of change. When leaders live values publicly, they model what responsible capitalism looks like and set a new standard for corporate behavior in society.

Purpose without cultural reinforcement dissolves under pressure. The authors describe Unilever’s revival as proof that operational rigor and cultural renewal are prerequisites to sustainability. When Polman arrived, Unilever was fragmented; he re-established clarity through the Compass strategy and the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), integrating social and environmental aims into every function.

Making purpose operational

USLP set measurable ten-year goals: improve health for a billion people, halve environmental footprint while doubling business, and improve livelihoods for millions. Those audacious targets became the company’s organizing spine. Purpose-led brands like Dove, Lifebuoy, and Domestos embedded human benefit in product design—selling hand-washing campaigns and hygiene education alongside soap sales. Measurable purpose turned values into performance metrics, verified externally by PwC.

Culture as lived behavior

Culture, Polman reminds you, is what people do when nobody’s watching. Unilever created immersion programs—sending managers to rural families—to build empathy and outside-in thinking. Diversity expanded innovation capacity; gender parity in management and inclusive brands signaled authentic commitment. Internal systems like Partner to Win tied senior leaders to supplier relationships, reinforcing values across the chain.

Embedding culture in operations

Purpose appeared in R&D through a “green funnel” demanding environmental and social checks before product launch. Finance adopted sustainability as a standard investment lens, not CSR charity. Culture became the glue connecting strategy, brand, and daily decision-making. The result: purpose-led brands outperformed, employee engagement surged, and trust became Unilever’s crisis shield.

The lesson: Align every system—hiring, metrics, product design, and capital allocation—with purpose. Over time, these routines make values self-sustaining, creating a resilient culture that endures leadership changes and external shocks.

Incremental progress is not enough. The book urges you to set science-based, absolute and aspirational goals—targets that make teams uncomfortable and force structural change. The authors redefine SMART goals into “SMART 2.0”: specific, measurable, time-bound, but aspirational, absolute, and accountable. Relative metrics mask growth effects; absolute goals expose real impact.

From ambition to design

Science-based targets for carbon neutrality, biodiversity, and social equity are now baseline expectations. Companies such as Microsoft pledge carbon negativity and historical carbon removal; Unilever commits to carbon-neutral products by 2039. True leadership extends targets beyond operations—covering suppliers and consumer use (Scope 3 impacts). For consumer brands, heating water dominates emissions, pushing innovation in product formulas and packaging.

System redesign, not optimization

Polman and Winston call this “blowing up boundaries.” Rather than tweak isolated processes, redesign entire systems—materials, energy, logistics, behavior. Collaborations like Apple’s ELYSIS partnership revolutionize aluminum production without carbon emissions. Unilever’s green funnel and refill pilots in Indonesia show circularity at work. These moves demand cross-functional collaboration and new financing models like &Green Fund and Green Bonds to scale sustainable infrastructure.

Why discomfort matters

Discomfort is creative tension—it uncovers assumptions and identifies leverage points for systemic innovation. Reverse goal challenges (“If you accept 60% renewable, you tolerate 40% fossil”) keep moral clarity visible. Only through ambitious, uncomfortable goals can you trigger breakthroughs that move industries from neutral to regenerative.

In short: make targets scientifically rigorous, system-level, and morally urgent. That discomfort becomes the fuel for transformation—and the foundation for lasting advantage.

Trust is a strategic asset, not a public relations tool. Radical transparency—publishing data, admitting failures, and inviting critics in—is central to the net positive model. Hidden problems inevitably surface; transparency turns potential scandal into credibility.

Why openness pays

The Volkswagen diesel fraud showed how secrecy destroys value. In contrast, Unilever’s openness through the USLP, PwC verification, and public reporting strengthened resilience. Transparency built alliances with civil society and regulators that proved invaluable during crises like the Covid-19 shock and Kraft Heinz takeover attempt.

Operational transparency

Practical steps include publishing supplier data (palm oil mills), ingredient lists (fragrance subcomponents), and product footprints. Disclosure enables NGOs and unions to shift from adversaries to partners. When Unilever exposed human-rights issues via an Oxfam review, it earned trust by declaring problems publicly and committing to fix them.

Building partnership through openness

Transparency activates collaboration—it gives stakeholders permission to help rather than attack. When you open your books and supply chains, you invite constructive input. That shared visibility builds the social capital required to scale solutions across industries.

The takeaway: treat transparency as an operating system—make honesty habitual and disclosure routine. In a world of constant scrutiny, openness is not a risk—it’s insurance for reputation and resilience.

No company can solve global challenges alone. The authors distinguish two partnership levels: multiplier collaborations that accelerate change across industries, and system partnerships involving government and civil society to remake markets. Together, they translate ambition into scale.

Multiplier partnerships within value chains

Unilever’s Partner to Win connected senior leaders directly to suppliers, unlocking innovations like enzyme detergents with Novozymes that reduce energy use in consumer washing. Industry coalitions—Consumer Goods Forum, Champions 12.3—unify competitors around shared standards, amplifying effect (“1+1=11”). These alliances distribute costs and create rapid diffusion of best practices.

Three-way partnerships for systems change

System-level issues demand cross-sector collaboration. The book presents Unilever’s role in TFA, the Global Battery Alliance, and the World Bank’s Water Resources Group as models. Business brings scale and logistics, government brings policy and finance, NGOs bring legitimacy and local insight. Successful coalitions use blended finance, data transparency, and co-created incentives to align interests.

Navigating complexity

Coalitions face political risk and competing agendas. Net positive leaders manage that risk by approaching policy with solutions, not demands. Transparency and inclusive representation de-risk involvement. Over time, such collaborations normalize higher standards across sectors, making sustainable practice the market default.

The partnership mindset flips competition from zero-sum to regenerative synergy—the more partners act collectively, the faster the system shifts toward well-being.

Net positive cannot coexist with unresolved ethical contradictions. Polman and Winston highlight “elephants in the room”: taxes, corruption, executive pay, buybacks, and human rights. Ignoring these erodes legitimacy and progress.

Taxes and the social contract

Many profitable corporations exploit loopholes to pay minimal taxes. The authors argue transparency and fairness are non-negotiable. Publish effective tax rates, support OECD minimums, and help developing nations build tax capacity. Treat taxes as investments in infrastructure and society that sustain your business.

Anti-corruption and fair practice

Corruption costs trillions and stunts development. Create speak-up cultures, clear compliance systems, and refuse facilitation payments when integrity is compromised. Sometimes you must walk away from certain markets—Unilever’s exit from the DRC exemplifies this stance.

Fixing capital incentives

Excessive CEO pay and stock buybacks siphon value from innovation and workers. Reorient compensation toward long-term performance and sustainability outcomes. Use internal carbon prices (Unilever’s €40/ton, Microsoft’s $15/ton) and divert profits to R&D and resilience investments rather than short-term enrichment.

Protecting human rights

Beyond audits, create supplier voice mechanisms, push living wages, and collaborate pre-competitively to raise standards. Publishing supplier lists and joining multi-stakeholder worker initiatives are practical steps to clean your supply chain.

Facing these elephants directly restores the moral foundation and social license essential for a sustainable, regenerative economy.

If the rules reward short-termism, you must help rewrite them. The authors argue that reforming finance is critical to sustaining net positive progress. Capitalism’s flaw lies in unpriced externalities and time horizons that favor exploitation over regeneration.

Internalizing externalities

Price carbon, water, and natural capital internally. Use fees as investment funds for decarbonization. Unilever, LVMH, and Microsoft already practice this, transforming sustainability into financial leverage. Advocate public carbon pricing and tax fairness—collective standards foster competition on positive innovation, not avoidance.

Reforming investor horizons

Engage long-term investors and stewardship funds. Avoid engineering that inflates short-term EPS while draining future potential. Movements like FCLTGlobal and investors like GPIF’s Hiro Mizuno show how patient capital delivers durable performance.

Advocacy over lobbying

Trade associations that fight environmental rules sabotage progress. Net positive advocacy replaces closed-door lobbying with transparent coalition-building. Unilever’s exit from BusinessEurope and ALEC illustrates values-driven alignment. The goal is to build policies that create public goods—circular economy standards, producer responsibility, fair taxation—rather than carve-outs.

Financial and policy reform completes the loop: when externalities are priced and the time frame lengthens, doing the right thing becomes not only ethical but economically inevitable.

The book concludes with a philosophical shift: prosperity must mean more than growth. GDP measures activity, not welfare. You must rethink success using metrics of well-being, resilience, and ecological health.

Beyond GDP

Polman and Winston highlight models like New Zealand’s well-being budget, Genuine Progress Indicator, and B-Corp movement as early steps. These frameworks measure outcomes that matter—happiness, human development, environmental restoration. Business can adopt similar metrics, integrating social and ecological KPIs into annual reports.

Challenging consumption

Brands are starting to ask consumers to buy less but better. Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” KLM’s fly-less campaigns, and IKEA’s resale programs exemplify courageous honesty. Purpose-led marketing shifts culture away from endless consumption toward mindful sufficiency.

Toward regeneration

The ultimate aim is not sustainability—keeping things as they are—but regeneration—actively improving natural and social systems. Solitaire Townsend’s “Scope X” concept represents leaders committing to restoration. Timberland’s regenerative leather and Microsoft’s local housing investments show companies embracing this expanded role.

When success aligns with planetary boundaries and human flourishing, business becomes an agent of renewal. The shift from extractive to regenerative economics completes the net positive vision.