Ideas worth spreading

TED@BCG

September 2021

|1.5M views

What makes a job "good" -- and the case for investing in people

Businesses need to stop cutting labor costs and start investing in people, says social impact investor Warren Valdmanis. In this perspective-shifting talk, he breaks down the essential ingredients of a "good" job -- which is more than just the size of a paycheck -- and shares why they're key to building great companies.

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This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with BCG. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about the TED Institute.

Businesses need to stop cutting labor costs and start investing in people, says social impact investor Warren Valdmanis. In this perspective-shifting talk, he breaks down the essential ingredients of a "good" job -- which is more than just the size of a paycheck -- and shares why they're key to building great companies.

This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with BCG. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about the TED Institute.

About the speaker

Warren Valdmanis

Social impact investor

See speaker profile

Warren Valdmanis is a partner at Two Sigma Impact.

Michael O'Leary and Warren Valdmanis  | Harper Business, 2020 | Book

Accountable: The Rise of Citizen Capitalism

Corporations are broken, reflecting no purpose deeper than profit. But the tools we are relying on to fix them — corporate social responsibility, divestment, impact investing and government control — risk making our problems worse. O'Leary and Valdmanis cut through the tired dogma of current economic thinking to reveal a hopeful truth: If we can make our corporations accountable to a deeper purpose, we can make capitalism both prosperous and good.

Zeynep Ton | New Harvest, 2014 | Book

The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits

Almost one in four American working adults has a job that pays less than a living wage. Zeynep Ton, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, makes the compelling case that even in low-cost settings, leaving employees behind — with bad jobs — is a choice, not a necessity. Ton shows how operational excellence enables companies to offer the lowest prices to customers while ensuring good jobs for their employees and superior results for their investors.

Anneken Tappe | CNN Business, 2021 | Article

"America runs on bad jobs"

Michael O'Leary and Warren Valdmanis | Harvard Business Review, 2021 | Article

"An ESG Reckoning Is Coming"

Mike Judge | Twentieth Century Fox et al.,1999 | Watch

Office Space

Two Sigma Impact | TSPI, LP, 2020 | Explore

"Two Sigma Impact" website

The Good Jobs Institute, 2017 | Explore

"The Good Jobs Institute" website

JUST Capital, 2013 | Explore

"JUST Capital" website

Learn more

About TED Institute

Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.

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