Résumé
Business occupied the 'commanding heights' of global influence and authority. The prevailing philosophies of government–legacies of the Reagan and Thatcher revolutions–reduced the power and role of the state and advanced the power and role of business. So strong was the capitalist surge that it helped topple the Berlin Wall and circumvent the Great Wall of China. Economic expansion and growth were visible and seemed unstoppable almost everywhere. The historic moment poses challenges to conventional free-market capitalism at both the systemic and the firm levels. At the systemic level, the questions are profound. The perennial discussions around the 'business case' for corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility and sustainability present clear evidence that the decision rule of 'give me the numbers' reigns supreme as the only acceptable metric, even for non-financial objectives. In the fall of 2008 in the United States this concept of truth-in-numbers came crashing down to earth.