Narrator: Imagine you're the CEO of a beloved global company. One morning, you get a call. A rival, backed by ruthless investors known for slashing costs and gutting companies, has launched a hostile takeover bid for $143 billion. They represent everything your company stands against: short-term profits over long-term value, shareholder primacy over stakeholder well-being. This isn't just a business deal; it's a battle for your company's soul. This exact scenario confronted Paul Polman, then-CEO of Unilever, when Kraft Heinz came knocking in 2017. The nine-day war that followed, pitting Unilever’s purpose-driven model against Kraft Heinz’s cutthroat financial engineering, serves as the dramatic opening for the book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. Authors Paul Polman and Andrew Winston use this high-stakes corporate drama to ask a fundamental question: What is the true purpose of business in a world facing immense social and environmental crises?

Narrator: The core argument of Net Positive is that the age of businesses ignoring their negative side effects is over. The authors introduce a simple but profound principle: "You break it, you own it." This means companies must take full ownership of all their impacts, both intended and unintended, across their entire value chain. For too long, businesses have externalized their costs—pollution, social disruption, resource depletion—onto society. A net positive company, by contrast, internalizes these costs and actively works to solve the problems it helps create.

This isn't just about reducing a negative footprint; it's about creating a positive "handprint." The authors point to cautionary tales like the "Tide Pod Challenge," where a product's candy-like design led to dangerous, unintended consequences. Tide's parent company, Procter & Gamble, had to take ownership of a problem its design choices created. A net positive approach forces companies to ask not just "Is this profitable?" but "Is the world better off because our business is in it?" This principle of radical ownership is the non-negotiable first step on the path to becoming a net positive enterprise.

Narrator: Becoming net positive isn't a task for the faint of heart. It requires a new kind of leadership, one defined by immense courage. The book highlights the story of Ed Stack, the former CEO of Dick's Sporting Goods. After the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Stack discovered his company had sold a weapon to the shooter on a previous occasion. Horrified, he made a unilateral decision: Dick's would stop selling all assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, and would no longer sell any firearms to anyone under 21.

This decision was an act of moral courage. The company faced immediate backlash, boycotts, and a significant financial hit. But Stack stood firm, believing it was his moral responsibility. This is the kind of leadership Polman and Winston advocate for—leaders who are guided by a strong sense of purpose and empathy, willing to take a stand on critical social issues, even when it's commercially risky. They argue that in today's world, silence is complicity, and moral leadership is no longer optional.

Narrator: A company can't become net positive without a clear and authentic purpose that goes beyond profit. The authors use Unilever's own history as a prime example. When Paul Polman took over as CEO in 2009, the company had been stagnating for a decade, trapped in a cycle of short-term thinking. To turn things around, he didn't just focus on the numbers. He looked back to the company's origins and the values of its founder, William Lever, who built a business in the 1800s to improve public health and hygiene.

This historical purpose became the foundation for the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), an ambitious ten-year strategy to decouple growth from environmental impact while increasing positive social impact. By reviving the company's soul and connecting its modern strategy to a deep-seated purpose, Unilever was able to rally its employees, inspire innovation, and drive a decade of consistent growth. The book makes it clear that finding and embedding this purpose is essential to energize the organization for the difficult journey ahead.

Narrator: Incremental improvement isn't enough to solve the world's massive challenges. Net positive companies must set goals that are so ambitious they seem almost impossible. The authors tell a story about Unilever's goal to make all of its factories "zero waste to landfill." Initially, many inside the company thought it was a crazy idea. But the audacious goal forced teams to think differently.

For instance, a factory in Indonesia had a problem with non-toxic sludge. The "zero waste" mandate meant they couldn't just dump it. This constraint sparked innovation. The team found a partner in the cement company LafargeHolcim, which could use the sludge as a feedstock, offsetting its own fossil fuel use. This single solution saved money, reduced waste, and cut carbon emissions for another company. Unilever achieved its zero-waste goal six years ahead of schedule, saving over €220 million. The lesson is clear: setting "crazy" goals, as Apple's Tim Cook calls them, forces you to blow up internal boundaries and invent the future.

Narrator: Trust is the currency of the net positive world, and it's built through radical transparency. In an age of camera phones and social media, secrets are impossible to keep. As Warren Buffett says, "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked." Instead of waiting to be exposed, net positive companies choose to be an open book.

A powerful example of this is when Unilever invited the NGO Oxfam to conduct a deep review of its labor conditions in Vietnam. The company gave Oxfam free rein, and the resulting report was not entirely flattering. It found that while Unilever's policies were good on paper, there were significant gaps in practice, particularly around living wages. Instead of hiding the results, Unilever published the report. This act of vulnerability built immense credibility. It showed the world they were serious about improving and turned a potential critic into a trusted partner. This transparency is a bridge to the deep collaborations needed to solve systemic problems.

Narrator: No single company can solve systemic issues like climate change or deforestation alone. The book stresses that net positive companies must master the art of partnership, aiming for collaborations where "1+1=11." This means moving beyond simple philanthropy to form deep, strategic alliances with suppliers, competitors, governments, and NGOs.

A prime example is the creation of ELYSIS, a joint venture between Apple and the aluminum giants Alcoa and Rio Tinto. Aluminum smelting is incredibly carbon-intensive. Recognizing this impact in its supply chain, Apple helped broker a partnership to invent a carbon-free smelting process that emits only oxygen. Apple not only invested in the venture but also bought the first batch of this revolutionary, clean aluminum. This partnership didn't just solve a problem for Apple; it created a technology that could decarbonize an entire industry, demonstrating the massive multiplier effect of working together.

Narrator: Finally, a company cannot be net positive if it ignores the thorny, uncomfortable issues—the "elephants in the room." The authors argue that companies must tackle systemic problems like tax avoidance, runaway executive pay, human rights abuses in the supply chain, and lobbying that undermines public good.

They point to the staggering inequality in CEO-to-worker pay, which has skyrocketed from 61-to-1 in 1989 to 320-to-1 in 2019 in the U.S. They also call out companies that publicly support climate action while their trade associations lobby against it. A truly net positive company must ensure its actions are consistent across the board. This involves paying a fair share of taxes as an investment in society, reining in executive compensation, conducting rigorous human rights due diligence, and ensuring its political influence is used for the common good, not just its own narrow interests. Confronting these elephants is the ultimate test of a company's commitment.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Net Positive is that the role of business has fundamentally changed. It is no longer enough to be "less bad." The future belongs to companies that are regenerative, restorative, and reparative by their very nature—companies that profit by fixing the world's problems, not by creating them.

The book leaves us with a profound challenge. It asks leaders to look beyond the next quarter and consider their legacy. The ultimate question for any business is not how much value it has captured for itself, but how much value it has created for the world. Are you, and is your organization, truly giving more than you take?