S1.E5. Conquest: The Legacy of the Lion - Part 2

Physical growth is inherent in nature, but it doesn’t continue ad infinitum. And yet, there is a widely held belief that economic growth is always good and should be continuously strived for. Now business has to face the fact that economic growth does not automatically benefit either society or the environment. The UNDP puts this qualitative difference in a nutshell when it identifies the following five damaging forms of growth: jobless, voiceless, rootless, futureless and ruthless. When the lion pride grows, it may well be at the expense of other species and the environment. Many companies claim and believe that society and the environment will automatically be better off if they simply focus on maximising value for their shareholders and increasing the packages of their directors. But in lion companies, the benefits always seem to trickle upwards. The incentives in our current economic system make it almost impossible not to choose profits over people and the planet. But the landscape is changing.