I have long been a fan of Eric Ries’s work, dating back to his breakout (now classic) The Lean Startup.
Ries has a knack for taking a constellation of powerful ideas (both well-established and his own) and
putting them into a simple but compelling formulation, brought to life by compelling examples, often
from Ries’s own experiences.

This latest book continues in this tradition, but takes on a far more ambitious, one might even say,
revolutionary tone. Whereas The Lean Startup focuses on the task of launching a successful startup,
Incorruptible aims at the problem of maintaining the mission and purpose of startups that do become
successful, and eventually attract the attention of those seeking to cash in on this success. But beyond
offering pages of inspiration, hints, and examples of successful businesses that were able to maintain their
visions (and post mortems of numerous failures by way of warning), Ries seems to be on his own mission
to bolster the soul of the capitalist enterprise itself. In the last few chapters of the book, he displays a
brand of soaring optimism of the possibility of investor-driven capitalism to offer hope, ethos, and spir-
ital salvation, if only the lofty aspirations of “builders” might not be corrupted by forces seeking purely
financial gain.

The drama over the soul of capitalism, in Ries’s telling, is not purely a tale of good versus evil. Ries
develops adopts a concept of superorganisms from the academic social sciences that analyze how indi-
vidual members become a part of a larger social or cultural movement, and find it difficult to act based
on their own personal ethics, but instead are drawn in by the “gravity” of accepted practice. Ries details
how the history of the legal and social reality of the modern corporation has led to a situation where the
“best practice” of corporate governance is to value “shareholder primacy” above all other purposes. This
leaves mission-driven founders in a precarious position of potentially having to sacrifice their long-term
mission for short-term financial gain out of fudiciary responsibility to their founding corporate charters.
However, there is hope to change this dominant culture of shareholder primacy. Ries cites nu-
merous examples of companies that found ways to uphold their founding visions—Costco, Patagonia,
Mondragón—and still manage to financially outperform companies that sought short-term gain. The
“best practice” of shareholder primacy can also be assailed by creating new standards—like Volvo’s three-
point safety belt technology that was shared freely with all car manufacturers—or the development of
new “civic infrastructure” like Ries’s own Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) that attempts to limit the
power of short-term investors to drive corporations to turn their backs on their founding visions.
As for the style of the book, Ries conjures a powerful mix of anecdotes, carefully selected research,
and personal reflections that the reader can’t help but feel are words he has often said behind closed doors
in his work as a consultant, investor, and business leader, now finally available to the broader public in
the form of a book. I even sensed a hint of relief in Ries’s writing that he is finally able to articulate his
ideas for a broad audience.

As is arguably fitting for a book about mission, the tone of the book has an unmistakable “missionary”
tone. The book is largely written in a robust, often challenging, imperative tone. Numerous sentences
start with “You”, confronting the reader with instructions, challenges, and searching questions. In the
final pages of the book, Ries appears to admit that this book will be challenging to many and potentially
divisive. I don’t get the sense that Ries is looking to turn down a fight with those who peddle the “best
practices” of corporate governance, which he feels strongly is undercutting the potential of businesses. If
anything, my sense is that Ries is almost eager to court some controversy and backlash in order to call his
detractors to a higher purpose. He seems intent on bringing the “good news” of a better way of doing
business to even the most incalcitrant of readers.

I felt this missionary zeal contributes to a potentially off-putting impression of defensiveness through-
out the book. Incorruptible is a book that feels like it is steeling itself for attack. Ries recapitulates the
long-term financial performance of mission-driven companies that don’t follow “best practices” repeat-
edly in the book. This regular recapitulation of the main message is typical of the “business non-fiction”
category, but Ries seems to be even more determined to hammer home his points than usual. In the un-
corrected proof I read, I felt the pace was plodding at times. Ries mentions in the introduction that the
book could be read starting at the beginning of each of its parts, which somewhat explains my sense of “re-
hashing”, but I felt Ries’s mood of being careful and defensive better explains my feeling of “indigestion”
while reading.

After reading the whole book, I hoped that the practical advice of how to actually set up mission-
driven corporate governance structures might have appeared closer to the beginning of the text. A reader
who loses patience before reaching later chapters might get the impression that Ries is trying to sell his
own consulting services rather than provide readers with careful enough detail to learn how to become
“incorruptible” by simply reading his book. This is not an uncommon feeling for any regular reader
of this genre, but I do give credit to Ries for offering a wealth of practical and actionable advice from
Chapter 9 onwards, albeit largely in a United States-centric mold. My final impression was that Ries was
not seeking to enlist further consulting clients (I am sure he already has more than he can handle), and
was instead trying to spark a kind of movement larger than himself. Someone who only gets through the
first few chapters might not capture this vision.

But this leads to maybe my most significant critique. I am not exactly sure who the intended audience
is for Incorruptible. Certainly, the most favored protagonists in Ries’s vision of mission-driven capitalism
are what he calls the “builders”. Ostensibly, the book should appeal to these “builders” who hope to
grow their companies without compromising their foundation of “love” and “mission”. It is essentially
unquestioned that “good” companies will want to scale to bring their inspiring products, services, and
visions to the generality of humankind. One might view it as a kind of “love”-washing of eager-to-scale,
investor-driven businesses that overlook the “mission” of the many small and medium-sized businesses
that offer “love” in small doses throughout our societies. I think this goes some way to explain why Ries
offers generally optimistic views of investors, who seem to be the other main audience for this book. He
expresses his view on multiple occasions that investors want to invest in mission-driven companies, but
that it’s only “gravity” arising from a “shareholder primacy”-driven superorganism that stops them. One
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can’t help but note that Ries himself is both a ”builder” and ”investor” and his sympathies for these roles
arise naturally. But I think it also belies a vision of Big Love and Big Mission, as opposed to a “small is
beautiful” view of the world that naturally avoids the “gravity” that is endemic to scale. Ries notes in later
chapters that we can use “gravity” for good, but gravity at its most impactful is nonetheless a large body
influencing the behavior of many small bodies, for good or evil. If there are large bodies, they remain
forever susceptible to being corrupted. One can’t help but think that attempting to limit the size of any
one body might be a better way to distribute love and mission to the world.

Overall, I found Ries’s book inspiring and spirited. I truly applaud him for sharing what some might
consider a “naive” view that there is a groundswell of goodness just awaiting to be unlocked by a “more
perfect” investor capitalism. The practical advice on how to structure mission-driven businesses and the
breaking down of the received view of short-termism are surely invaluable contributions to the discourse
on corporate governance. I hope that the future finds other authors taking up the challenge of critiquing,
extending, and expanding the vision Ries bravely sets before our eyes in Incorruptible.

This book was phenomenal. I figured I would be denied if I tried to request the book so I was delighted to see it as a read now. I immediately got it and devoured it. The advice on how to structure companies was well researched and thorough. I liked the way the information was presented and his examples were unique cases that I was completely unaware used these strategies. This is definitely a must read and I will be picking up a copy when it drops in May.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Incorruptible highlights how systems and institutions can be designed to resist corruption and encourage transparency. Eric Ries presents thoughtful ideas on accountability, leadership, and building organizations that serve people fairly. A brief but insightful read on ethical systems and responsible governance.

When Eric Ries started the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), or at least an idea of it, he was brimming with unbridled optimism and hope. A bulwark against pernicious short-term thinking, LTSE would not only be a beacon of sustainable and inclusive business practices, but it would also be a perfect alignment between interests of long-term investors and public company experience. But bucking conventions turned out to be an exercise in utter futility. Hostile overtures and subtle threats later, not only did LTSE vanish as a dream, but the entire experience also left its potential founder literally curled up on his bathroom floor in a fit of unconstrained anguish.

But the indefatigable bestselling author of “Lean Start Ups” did finally end up founding LTSE with its original mission intact. In his latest work he endeavours to provide what he terms to be an ‘incorruptible blueprint’ for aspiring founders. At its core this blueprint embeds two quintessential and uncompromising principles: first, create something worth protecting, and second, build with structural integrity. Backing his reasoning with a plethora of real-life cases, Ries contends that enduring and indelible organisations are those that are neither investor-controlled nor founder-controlled. Instead, such persevering entities are always mission controlled.

Ries begins the book on a solemn note by providing an exhaustive list of once stories companies, that fell by the wayside, consequent to sacrificing business and customer ethos at the altar of greed. Polaroid, the evanescent dream of Edwin Land, and an once powerhouse of R&D (“intersection of art and science and business” according to Steve Jobs), vanished into oblivion after an egregious board sacked Land in 1982 and literally annihilated its R&D processes. The fall of Cadbury from grace where after 170 momentous years, the company lost its Royal Warrant, the elimination of 33,000 jobs by Toys “R” Us in 2018, after close to eight decades of bringing joy to innumerable families, all demonstrate, in the words of Ries, a dangerous erosion of values and culture.

Six primary reasons for the decimation of a prospering organisation lies in existing investors killing the golden goose, external raiders putting paid to the hopes of enduring legacies, boardroom betrayals, succession vacuum, extraction of returns and mission drifts. A mission controlled organisation creates adequate guard rails against such dangerous possibilities. There are companies that have rebelled against potential destruction of values and principles. A classic case in point, 3M. When a decline was noticed in the “New Product Vitality Index”, an innovative metric that tracked the percentage of revenues stemming from products introduced in the previous five years, it was immediately attributed to the detrimental practices of the CEO. The board undertook extraordinary ameliorative measures and the CEO parted ways with 3M. This was in the year 2005.

Ries terms psychological pressures that shapes behaviour in organisations, ‘Financial Gravity’. Such pressures are a consequence of resource imbalances, and its laws even override direct authority Working more via perception than reality, financial gravity leads to systemic collapses. The need of the hour, according to Ries is a paradigm shifting and shaping form of governance that entails building an exoskeleton with four ‘load bearing’ responsibilities: compliance, purpose, coherence, and integrity.

Every founder also happens to be a builder with great many choices. Such choices either encourage human flourishing or completely obliterate it. The value of trust by which Costco swears by, following decades of consistent practice, is a classic example. When then COO Craig Jelinek in 2008 proposed increasing the price of the famous Costco hotdog, CEO Jim Sinegal barked back, “if you raise the f&^ing hot dog price, I will kill you. Figure it out.” Even after Jelenik took over as the CEO, the price of the hot dog remained untouched. During the financial recession that racked the world in 2008-09, Costco instead of following the practices of layoffs, raised hourly worker wages by $1.50, to be split over the succeeding three years.

The most novel concept in the book, personally speaking is that of Spiritual Holding Companies. In the words of Ries, a Spiritual Holding Company is a separate entity with governance authority over one or more organisations, designed specifically to protect and advance their core mission over the long term. The spiritual here animates more an essence than a religious attribute. These companies preserve and protect in the fiercest of fashion, the spirit of the organisation by coalescing it with various operational aspects.

Finally in conclusion, Ries lends a clarion call for companies to birth an innovative and ingenious “Civic Infrastructure.” Organisations with Civic Infrastructure, ensure that their decisions manifest as other’s constraints. For example, the moment the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) promulgates an accounting rule, there is no choice but adherence on the part of every public company that is regulated by the FASB. The only real currency possessed by companies boasting a Civic Infrastructure is the currency of trust.

Incorruptible is a hard hitting, genuine and iconoclastic handbook hoping to usher in a tectonic shift in organisational culture, management, and operations. While not a singularly new concept, it is a curated distillation of unconventional yet productive practices that have been the hallmark of a handful of organisations marking themselves for preservation in perpetuity!

Incorruptible – Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, is published by Authors Equity, and will be available on sale beginning 26 May 2026.

Thank You, Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy.