Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation

A pioneering venture capitalist provides an actionable framework for founders and executives to create innovative, enduring companies built for growth and for societal good.

The Milton Friedman philosophy that companies exist only to increase shareholder value is dead and buried. The old Silicon Valley tenets of “move fast and break things,” minimum viable products, and hyper engagement at any cost must be replaced with new principles for an era of responsible innovation. We can no longer manage businesses solely for growth. With innovation comes responsibility: to generate returns beyond profits and to recenter technology as a force for good in the world. This requires a shift in the way organizations approach and value work.

A company’s mindset―its intent to do good, avoid harmful consequences, and innovate responsibly―is not enough. That mindset must be supported by a business model, a mechanism that leaders must intentionally and proactively build along with the company from the ground up, one that incentivizes and rewards the organization for fulfilling its intentions. Companies need a new set of KCIs, or key consequence indicators, that measure factors such as its impact on customers’ energy consumption, whether its product is being used equally across socioeconomic groups, or if it is actually solving the social problem it is addressing. Not only is this the right thing to do―increasingly, it is what customers, employees, and shareholders demand of business.

In this inspiring, practical, and actionable guide, Hemant Taneja:

• lays out the argument for why a new model of company building and leadership is necessary―and how it can lead to better performance
• explores why social-good businesses are some of the greatest opportunities today, detailing examples of billion-dollar startups that are addressinginequality, climate change, systemic societal problems, and chronic disease―all while generating profit and positive shareholder returns
• presents a topic-by-topic road map that addresses business models, artificial intelligence, ethical growth, culture, governance, and good citizenship

Intended Consequences is designed as the ultimate playbook for founders, entrepreneurs, leadership teams, and investors on how to build and maintain a responsible innovation company.

About the Author

Hemant Taneja is an investor, founder, and author. He is the managing partner of the venture capital firm General Catalyst. Taneja and General Catalyst are investors in market-leading companies such as Airbnb, Commure, Stripe, Livongo (which was acquired for $18.5 billion, the largest transaction in digital health history to date), Samsara, Snap (NYSE: SNAP), Olive, Applied Intuition, Grammarly, Gusto, Ro, and Warby Parker. He serves on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows and has worked on climate and energy issues as the cofounder and chairman of Advanced Energy Economy. He is the coauthor of Unhealthcare and Unscaled.

Kevin Maney is a founding partner of Category Design Advisors. A technology journalist, he has written for dozens of media outlets, including USA Today, Fortune, Wired, and Newsweek, and has appeared regularly on radio and television, including NPR, CNN, CNBC, and CBS Sunday Morning. Maney is the coauthor of the bestseller Play Bigger, the New York Times bestseller The Two-Second Advantage, The Maverick and His Machine, UnHealthcare, and Unscaled, among other titles.