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For more than a century, American companies have been generating huge returns on progressive investments in employees and communities.

10 Big Bets On Optimism That Changed The Business World

[Illustration: Peter Oumanski]

BY David Lidsky2 minute read

1. Business is about more than profit, 1908

At a time when success in business was equated with ruthlessness, Harvard president Charles Eliot launched a graduate school to teach executives to be moral actors in society.

The impact: The Harvard MBA remains a pinnacle achievement in higher education, and doing good is now widely considered good business.

2. The $5 workday, 1914

Henry Ford doubled his employees’ pay in the hope that other mass producers would follow, establishing a class of consumers who could afford Ford cars and other goods.

The impact: Ford helped create the middle class, but globalization and stagnant wages have since stalled the American flywheel of success.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Lidsky is deputy editor of Fast Company. He’s responsible for helping to steer its overall editorial direction, with an emphasis on finding, commissioning, and editing long-form narrative feature stories that appear in print and online More


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