Our Firm

OUR ETHOS

Milton Friedman, 1981. *Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace Records, Hoover Institution Archives*

To our fellow Business Leaders,

 We have all contributed to constructing an economic machine of unprecedented efficiency. By every standard metric-liquidity, velocity, yield-the global system is performing at peak capacity. Yet, to the lucid observer, it is evident that our world is technically functional but culturally hollow.

The Hollow Success

We are witnessing a paradox at the heart of the modern corporation. Organizations have never been more optimized, yet they have never been more fragile. In our drive to strip away "inefficiency," we have stripped away the very buffers-redundancy, culture, trust-that allow organizations to survive shocks.

We see leaders achieving what the market defines as success, only to find themselves presiding over hollowed-out institutions. The narratives of "mission" and "purpose" broadcast externally are increasingly disconnected from the human operational reality. We are optimizing a system that produces financial density but human vacuity.

We are winning the game, but the game has ceased to be worth playing.

The Confusion of Means and Ends

This disorientation is not an accident of fate; it is the direct consequence of a specific historical rupture. In 1970, the business world adopted a new compass, formalized by Milton Friedman in his doctrine: the idea that the sole social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.

In doing so, we unmoored capitalism from its founding philosophy. Two centuries prior, Adam Smith-the father of modern economics-warned against this precise error. Before he wrote of the "invisible hand," Smith wrote of the "impartial spectator"-the moral conscience that must guide human action. To Smith, the market was a mechanism for social cooperation, not a vacuum of moral indifference.

The widespread implementation of the Friedman doctrine triggered a fatal inversion of logic. In the classical view, profit was understood as a vital Means to sustain Human Ends. The Friedman shift elevated the Means to the status of the End. It turned the tool into the goal.

The consequences of this inversion are now systemic. By making the financial metric the ultimate compass, we detached economic logic from anthropological reality. We created a closed loop where companies are forced to liquidate their human and cultural capital-the very source of their longevity-to satisfy the short-term demands of the gauge.

We mistook the scoreboard for the sport. This error has trapped decision-makers in a tunnel of rationality where the only "logical" choice is often the one that destroys the most value over the long term.

The Principled Alternative

Glenshore was founded on a singular premise: The Friedman era is not the eternal rule, but an abnormality in human history.

We advise principled business leaders who recognize that the compass is broken. They are ready to reorient their organizations toward the True North of capitalism: a hierarchy where profit is the means, and Meaning is the end.

We define Meaning not as a vague sentiment, but as an anthropological imperative. It is the ability of a system to satisfy three fundamental human needs: Agency (the meaningful capacity to act upon the world), Reciprocity (the maintenance of trust through mutual exchange), and Lineage (the transmission of value to future generations).

We support leaders as they make strategic and financial decisions where capital serves the mission, not the reverse. As business leaders ourselves, our ambition is to champion this alignment alongside our clients, and in doing so, inspire others.

Together, we ensure that decisions made today are defensible not just to shareholders next quarter, but to our successors in the next generation.

The Return of Agency

Moving on from Friedman requires a deliberate act of will by those who hold the levers of the economy.

We envision a business world where the inversion of profit and meaning is corrected. A world where Mergers & Acquisitions are no longer a liquidation of mission, but a transmission of responsibility. A world where the corporation is once again viewed as a human adventure, encoded with a purpose that transcends an Excel spreadsheet.

This is not a retreat from capitalism. It is a restoration of the moral legitimacy Adam Smith originally envisioned. It is the return of a business leader who is sovereign-one who refuses to be a mere functionary of a blind system and chooses instead to be an architect of a human future.

The realignment begins with a choice every business leader can make today: to restore the compass to its true north when making corporate decisions.

Decision after decision. Every single time.

We hope you will join us in making that choice.

Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006) was the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the "Chicago School" and arguably the most consequential economist of the 20th century, known for reshaping both government policy and corporate ethics. He dismantled the post-war Keynesian consensus with his theory of monetarism, arguing that inflation is a result of money supply mismanagement, a view that guided the deregulation and free-market policies of the Reagan and Thatcher eras. Crucially, he also fundamentally altered the global business landscape with his 1970 New York Times doctrine arguing that "the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits," which established shareholder value maximization as the dominant operating principle of modern capitalism. His legacy is defined by this dual transformation, shifting the center of gravity for both state economies and private corporations toward strictly market-centric models.

Adam Smith (1723–1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher who founded modern economics, but whose legacy is defined by the tension between his two major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. While he is famous for demonstrating how the division of labor and the "invisible hand" of self-interest create prosperity, Smith argued that these market forces must be contained within a strong moral framework based on empathy and justice. Far from advocating for unbridled capitalism, he viewed the "commercial society" as a means to improve the condition of the poor, warned extensively against the political power of business monopolies, and championed the state's role in providing public goods like education. His true impact was not just identifying the mechanics of free trade, but establishing the ethical view that national wealth is measured by the living standards of the common people, rather than the gold in the king's treasury.

OUR ETHOS

Simultaneously maximise your financial objectives and pursue your vision. Let us take care of your next deal.