Taking back control: Building businesses for the long term

This article is the first part of a three-piece series. Here is part 2

Where we've been and where we're going

In my first article, I asked a simple question: If "the market demands high returns," why have I never actually had the market knock on my door?

We traced the real origin of shareholder value maximization — not to Milton Friedman's 1970 essay, but to the corporate raiders of the 1980s who used leveraged buyouts to extract value from companies. I shared my painful personal experience of seeing a cash-rich company become unable to pay its bills overnight, and eventually cease to exist.

In my second article, we followed the money. We learned that the real demands come from a tiny minority: private equity firms on 3-5 year exit timelines, venture capitalists with high-risk portfolios, and activist investors holding just 1-2 percent of shares. Meanwhile, the majority of shareholders — the long-term institutional investors — stay silent.

Today, I want to talk about what you can actually do about this. How do you build a business for the long term when the whole system seems designed to push you toward short-term thinking?

And I'm going to end with hope. Because there is hope. Things are changing. And you have more power than you think.

The most important thing I've learned

Once I understood that "the market" isn't a unified force, but rather a collection of specific actors with distinct interests, I could start to choose which actors I would engage with.

You can choose your investors. You can choose your ownership structure. You can choose what demands you respond to and which ones you politely decline.

This is especially important for those building businesses in the sustainability and climate space, because the businesses we need — the ones that will help us transition to a thriving, regenerative economy — are precisely the kinds of businesses that require patient, long-term capital.

My biggest regret

Let me talk about something close to my heart, and honestly, one of my biggest regrets.

Twenty years ago, when I was leading companies, I didn't push for employee ownership. I didn't advocate for employee buyouts. I didn't structure things so that the people building the business and creating value would actually own a meaningful piece of it.

Why not? Partly because it wasn't as common at the time. The models weren't as developed. The legal structures were more complicated. And honestly, I was afraid. I was afraid the employees didn't have enough means to raise the funds. I was afraid the owners would reject it because it likely meant they would have to accept a cash down payment and most of the balance on a payment plan. And I was afraid of letting the employees down by suggesting an idea I wasn't even sure could ultimately be accepted.

But man, do I wish I had shoved the fear aside and gone for it.

Because here's what I've seen employee ownership do. It aligns incentives perfectly.

When employees own the company, they are more likely to care about its long-term health. They're not going to strip assets for short-term gain. They are not interested in stripping their own future. They're not going to defer critical investments either. Because they're the ones who'll have to deal with the consequences.

Employee-owned companies tend to be more stable, more innovative, and yes, more sustainable. Because the people making the decisions are the same people who'll be living with those decisions for years to come.

And here's the good news.  Employee ownership is taking off now. Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) are gaining popularity. Worker cooperatives are growing. There are new legal structures, new funding models, and new support organizations.

If you're in a position to consider this, don't let fear hold you back the way it held me back.

Structures that can protect long-term thinking

Let me share what I've learned about other structures and strategies for resisting short-term pressure.

B Corporations are a powerful, imperfect tool. A B Corp is a for-profit company that's legally structured to consider multiple stakeholders. Not just shareholders. ALSO employees, the community, and the environment.

In many jurisdictions, becoming a B Corp actually means you change your legal charter. You provide your board with legal protection to make decisions that may not maximize short-term shareholder value, provided those decisions serve the interests of other stakeholders.

So when an activist investor shows up and says, "Why aren't you cutting costs to boost margins?", you can say, "Because we're a B Corp. We're legally obligated to consider our employees and environmental impact, and cutting those corners would violate our charter."

It's not a perfect shield, but it's a real one.

Long-term stock structures are another option. Some companies are creating different classes of shares, such as those that grant more voting rights the longer they are held.

This rewards patient capital. It gives long-term shareholders more say than short-term traders. And it explicitly signals “we're building for the long haul.”

Are any of these structures right for your business? I can't say. But they're worth understanding and considering as you think about how to protect long-term thinking in your organization.

Choose your investors like you'd choose a spouse

If you're raising money, you're entering into a marriage. And, like any marriage, you'd better make sure you're compatible before saying "I do."

This is something I learned the hard way, watching mismatch after mismatch play out.

Ask potential investors about their time horizon. Ask about their other portfolio companies. Ask what they expect from you in year one, year three, and year five.

If a VC tells you they need a 10x return in five years, and your business model is focused on building steady, sustainable growth, you're not compatible. Walk away.

If a PE firm's standard playbook is "cut costs, optimize for EBITDA, exit in four years," and you need to invest in R&D and sustainability, you're not compatible. Find different partners.

There are impact investors out there. There are family offices with 50-year time horizons. Some foundations care about mission as much as returns. There are patient capital funds explicitly designed for sustainable businesses.

They exist. You have to find them. But they're out there. And every year, there are more of them.

How to push back against activist pressure

Let me talk about something practical: How do you push back against activist investors or short-term pressure from existing shareholders?

Here's what I've learned works:

First: Build alliances with your long-term shareholders. Remember, they own most of your stock. They're just quiet.

Reach out to them. Have conversations. Ask them: "If an activist shows up with demands that would hurt our long-term value, would you support us?"

Often, you'll find that yes, they would. But nobody thought to ask them!

Second: Be proactive in communicating your long-term strategy.

Don't just focus on quarterly earnings calls; also consider other key metrics. Have investor days where you lay out your 5-year, 10-year vision. Show the investments you're making and why they matter. Educate your shareholders about the trade-offs you're making.

If you're deferring short-term profit to build a circular economy business model, explain that. Show the market opportunity. Show the regulatory tailwinds. Show the talent advantages. Make the case for why this is the smart long-term play.

Many investors will get it, especially if you make the case clearly and repeatedly.

Third: Use your board strategically.

Your board should be your shield against short-term pressure. They should be helping you make long-term decisions.

If your board is full of people who are incentivized by short-term stock performance, you have the wrong board. You need board members who understand your industry, your strategy, and your time horizons.

And if you're building a sustainability-focused business, you need board members who understand that sustainability investments pay off differently than traditional investments. In other words, it often has longer timelines but more durability.

I've sat on boards that got this right and boards that got it wrong. The difference in what those companies could accomplish was night and day.

Why this matters for climate businesses

Everything about building a sustainable business conflicts with short-term thinking:

• Switching to renewable energy costs money upfront, but saves money over 10-20 years
• Building a circular business model requires new infrastructure and reverse logistics
• Investing in climate resilience means spending money to prevent problems that haven't happened yet
• Developing sustainable materials or processes requires R&D with uncertain timelines

None of this fits neatly into a 3-5 year PE fund timeline or a quarterly earnings framework.

But here's what gives me hope. The investors who understand this are growing. Impact investing is becoming mainstream. ESG criteria are being integrated into major funds. Even traditional investors are starting to see that climate risk is ultimately a financial risk.

More importantly, the market is shifting. Customers want sustainable products. Employees want to work for companies with a purpose-driven mission. Regulations are catching up. Climate impacts are becoming impossible to ignore.

In other words, the long-term competitive advantage is increasingly in favour of sustainable businesses.

What might be possible if you structured your business to play that long game from day one?

Things you can do right now

Here are things you can do right now, whether you're a CEO, a founder, or someone working inside an organization. These are practices I wish I'd adopted earlier in my career:

First: Audit your decision-making framework. Next time you're facing a trade-off between a short-term profit boost and a long-term investment, write down whose interests you're actually serving. Is it long-term business health, customer needs, employee wellbeing, or environmental sustainability? Or are you optimizing for a quarterly earnings call?

Simply becoming aware of this is the right first step.

Second: Have explicit conversations about time horizons. If you're working with a board, ask them: "What time horizon should we be optimizing for? Three years? Ten years? Thirty years?"

If you're pitching investors, ask them: "What does success look like to you in year five? Year ten?"

Get everyone on the same page about the game you're playing.

Third: Find your people. There are networks of B Corps, employee-owned companies, impact investors, and mission-driven businesses. Find them. Join them. Learn from them.

You're not alone in this. There are more of us than you think.

Fourth: Tell your story. If you're making long-term investments, whether in sustainability, R&D, your people, or something else, don't hide them. Don't apologize for it. Tell that story loudly and proudly.

Shape the narrative. Don't let someone else shape it for you.

The inflection point we're at

We're at an inflection point. Climate change is accelerating. Resource constraints are tightening. Social inequality is reaching breaking points. The old model of extracting, exploiting, and optimizing for quarterly returns is literally running up against planetary boundaries.

The businesses that will thrive in the next 30 years are not the ones that squeeze the most profit out of today. They're the ones that build resilience, invest in regeneration, and create value that lasts.

And that requires precisely the kind of long-term thinking that the current system discourages.

By resisting short-term pressure, building for durability, and prioritizing planetary health alongside profit, you're not just making a moral choice. You're making a strategic choice.

You're building the kind of business that can actually survive and thrive in the world we're heading into.

At least, that's what I've come to believe after watching enough businesses fail because they optimized for the wrong timescale.

What I've come to believe

After decades in business, after leading companies through booms and busts, after seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly, here's what I've come to believe:

Business can be a force for good. Not always. Not automatically. But it can be.

When businesses are structured correctly, have patient capital, are accountable to multiple stakeholders, and take a long-term view, they can create jobs, drive innovation, solve problems, regenerate ecosystems, and support communities.

But only if we choose to build them that way.

The mythology of "the market demands" has been a permission slip for short-term thinking, extraction, and prioritizing profit over people and the planet.

But once you see through that mythology, you don't have to accept it anymore.

You can tell a different story. You can build different structures. You can make different choices.

And every time one of us does that — every time a company chooses long-term value over short-term extraction, every time a leader resists pressure to cut sustainability investments, every time employees gain ownership, every time impact capital flows to mission-driven businesses — we're building the new normal.

Maybe I'm wrong about some of this. Perhaps the structures I'm suggesting won't work in every context. But I've seen enough now to know that the old way isn't working. And I've seen enough glimpses of the new way to believe it's worth fighting for.

My final ask

Whatever role you're in, founder, CEO, board member, employee, investor, ask yourself:

What mythology am I accepting without question? What pressure am I responding to that might not be real? What would I do differently if I weren't afraid of "the market"?

And then: Do that thing.

Because the businesses we need for a thriving future won't be built by following the old playbook. They'll be built by people brave enough to question it.

The truth is, we are all living with the unintended consequences of actions we have collectively taken over the last 100 years. And most of us are shaking our heads, going ‘Why did we do such stupid things, and wouldn't it be nice to get a do-over?’ But you and I both know that do-overs are a fantasy. The only thing we can do now is to do better and that do better absolutely must be in the highest good for all.

Twenty years ago, I didn't push for employee ownership. I didn't question the dominant narrative. I accepted short-term pressure as inevitable.

I can't go back and change that. None of us can change the past. But we can absolutely shape the future.

And that future is being shaped right now by the decisions you, I, and every leader make today.

So make them count. Build for the long term. Resist the mythology. Find your people. Tell your story.

And know that you're not alone in this.

Because one Buddha is not enough. We need many. And you're one of them.

illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

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