Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World

George Soros is a billionaire and philanthropist. Influenced by having lived as a Jew under Nazi rule in Hungary, he founded the Open Society Foundation to promote justice. In 2016, however, he founded the Economic Advancement Program, which borrowed from MarketWorld philosophy, including developing an impact investment program. Soros hired Sean Hinton to run the program. Hinton had worked as a consultant with McKinsey, and for Goldman Sachs and other major corporations.

Hinton began his career with an interest in music, including studying ethnomusicology in Mongolia. After completing his studies, he decided to stay in Mongolia. Drawing on his knowledge of the country, he became an economic liaison and consultant after the communist government ended. Later, he left Mongolia to work with McKinsey. He found it hard to adjust to the consultancy’s approach to problem solving, which wasn’t about having knowledge but rather about being able to analyze a situation despite ignorance, to transcend unfamiliarity” (137).

Michael Porter, professor at Harvard Business school and a leading influence on the neoliberal ideas underpinning MarketWorld, began to reassess some of his own ideas. He authored an essay with Mark Kramer on “Creating Shared Value.” Published in the Harvard Business Review, the essay explores how companies have developed an overly narrow idea of value creation that isn’t in the best interest of communities, individuals, and the environment.