On September 21, 2016, the Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG) officially released the 2016 “Fair Wealth List”, a chart based on the system design, material collection and meticulous data analysis in the past year and the questionnaire feedbacks from nearly 500 participating scholars.

Fair development

According to iSIG’s research, “fair wealth” is a complete theoretical framework and application of the fair development theory in the field of business. The core value it emphasizes is different from traditional concepts. Fairness as the core value of fair wealth is a concept fundamental to the development of philosophy, politics, sociology, psychology and other fields in the past hundreds of years. Its meaning is clear and widely accepted. The definition of fair wealth is business wealth created under the precondition that all participants (people, animals and the overall environment) are fairly treated.

Fair development is an idea of human development similar to but with important differences from sustainable development. This people-centered theory with fairness as the core of development encourages different groups of people and countries to adopt definitions of internal and external fairness suitable for them and establish specific development plans on this basis.

Six dimensions of fair wealth

On the basis of the fair development theory and the idea of fair wealth, iSIG carries out evaluation of nearly 100 enterprises of the top 50 wealth owners in mainland China (the rankings are based on The Forbes World’s Billionaires) according to the fair wealth evaluation system, selects the top 25 best-performing entrepreneurs and includes them into the fair wealth list. Meanwhile, the sub-lists of the top 25 enterprises and the top 25 enterprises of six dimensions are generated, bringing the total number of charts to 8.

According to the introduction, the whole process of preparing the whole chart starts with determination of wealth-generating enterprises, which are substantial objects of evaluation in the fair wealth evaluation system. Then, the DAI (Dimension－Aspect－Indicator) Evaluation System consisting of 6 dimensions, 14 aspects and 62 quantitative indicators is used to evaluate every enterprise and then obtain its fair wealth score.

The expert committee of the fair wealth evaluation team said that fair wealth evaluation’s full consideration of various aspects of enterprises’ social performance is the most prominent characteristic distinguishing it from other wealth lists. The six dimensions include:

 “Taking the world as the home”: This dimension requires enterprises to take the world into perspective, bear more burdens while dealing with the boundary between enterprises and the society and shoulder more responsibilities. In the fair wealth evaluation system, this dimension includes two aspects: environment friendliness and technological progress.

 “Treating all people as the family”: This dimension requires enterprises to treat various stakeholders involved in enterprise operations like the family. In the fair wealth evaluation system, this dimension includes five aspects: employee security, rational remuneration, priority of customers, responsibility for a win-win situation and creation of benefits for one region.

 “Knowing shame and cultivating morality”: This dimension requires enterprises to abide by rules and laws and take pride in it. They should know glory and dishonor and have bottom lines. This dimension includes one aspect: compliance and good faith.

 “Becoming independent at the age of 18”: This is a highly social dimension requiring that individuals have full opportunities to receive education and tap their potential before adulthood. After becoming adults, they should earn their own living and become independent social individuals. Though enterprises do not need to directly participate in this course, they have the responsibility of making efforts to create conditions for it. This dimension includes two aspects: full education and introduction to the society.

 “Eliminating disadvantaged people’s disadvantages”: On the one hand, this dimension requires that all people live with dignity and that their basic needs, whether material or spiritual, be satisfied. Elimination of poverty and bridging of digital gaps are examples related to it. On the other hand, this dimension also requires that disadvantages other than inherent ones be eliminated. In other words, disadvantaged people should not suffer unfair treatment because of their inherent disadvantages in fields where they do not have any disadvantage. For example, enterprises should not reduce handicapped employees’ opportunities for brainwork-related positions. This dimension includes two aspects: charity and equal opportunities.

 “Promotion for reasons”: This dimension means enterprises should provide conditions of career development for employees and give every one of them opportunities to embark on the road to success. Meanwhile, enterprises should not impose any artificial restriction on individual employees’ promotion in any aspect.

Reexamining the perception of wealth, reshaping the business environment

Based on the fair development theory and the mode of fair wealth evaluation, the degree of combination between fair wealth and enterprise operations is quite different from other traditional concepts such as the idea of sustainable development. Prof. Yihong YU said fair wealth with a view to business wealth creation clearly defines the junction of this theory and enterprise operations, i.e. the whole course of wealth creation, the core mission of enterprises. This definition better integrates fair wealth into the whole course of enterprise operations.

Prof. Min DING said fair wealth does not mean that enterprises cannot create profit for their owners or must reduce returns to entrepreneurs. It only means the game rules on wealth creation have changed. Those companies that understand and adapt to (and even take advantage of) the new rules will obtain comparative advantages and new opportunities to create value, while those companies that ignore the changes and still confine themselves to the past operation models will become history.