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How Conventional Companies Work

The ownership and governance model most jobs still use: shareholders, boards, stock and executive pay, explained mechanically.

8 lessons· 31 min total

This track covers companies with conventional capitalist ownership: outside shareholders hold the equity, elect a board, and hire management to run things day to day. That is how most jobs in the economy work, including at some of the mission-driven employers on this platform. Here is how the mechanics actually work.

Ownership and control

  1. 1What is a shareholder-owned company?4 min read
  2. 2How a board of directors works, and who it answers to4 min read
  3. 3What stock actually is, and how employees get it4 min read

How decisions and pay get made

  1. 4Who sets executive pay, and how3 min read
  2. 5Why public companies prioritize stock price3 min read

What this means for a worker

  1. 6What happens to employees when a company goes public or gets acquired4 min read
  2. 7Every owner Staples has ever had6 min read
  3. 8Why this structure is still how most jobs work3 min read
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