Dear Friends,

When was the last time an interaction with a company made you feel like you were losing your mind?

For me, it was a long-term care insurance provider. My parents, both in their 80s, had paid into their policy for decades. But when my dad tried to submit a claim, he hit a wall — and I naïvely assumed I could sort it out. Instead, I found myself mired in a Kafkaesque maze. Emails disappeared. Forms were rejected or lost. Even when the company admitted it had received something, months passed before anything moved.

This wasn’t just bad service — it was a system designed to exhaust people until they give up.

It’s a textbook case of what I call predatory capitalism: the growing willingness of companies to harm their customers in pursuit of short-term profits.

You see it across industries. In private equity-owned nursing homes, studies show care quality and patient mobility decline, while pain and mortality rise. In online gambling, especially sports betting, companies have used analytics to target problem gamblers — who, it turns out, account for a huge share of their profits. When online sportsbooks launch in a state, searches for gambling addiction help rise by over 60%.

None of this is illegal. But ethics and legality are not the same — especially when corporations help write the laws. And over time, predation corrodes trust. In 1990, 30% of Americans had high confidence in big business. Today, it’s 16%.

What changed?

In a word: financialization. As finance has taken over the economy, companies have shifted from creating long-term value to squeezing short-term gains — often from those least able to push back. Creating new customers takes imagination. Extracting more from existing ones takes nerve — or a lack of conscience.

This isn’t just unsustainable. It’s dangerous. If leaders are puzzled by rising public anger, they should look around. The system people are losing faith in is the one many companies helped build.

Want to fix it?

Start here:

• Stop hiding behind shareholder value. It’s not a legal obligation — it’s a convenient excuse.

• Support real regulation. Sometimes the only way to prevent unethical behavior is to ban it. Leaders should say so.

• Lead as a steward, not a predator. Predators are feared. Stewards are trusted. The choice is yours.

—Gautam

Countries Race for Trade Deals….

If you’ve enjoyed reading, please subscribe to The Indispensable Newsletter to have relevant content sent straight to your inbox twice a week!

Further Reading….

If you like this kind of deep dive on leadership and innovation, I’ve got some more suggestions. Here are some books you’ll love.