65 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE commitment to innovation through heavy spending on products that will expand its reach in new markets. Novo Nordisk is pioneering new obesity-management drugs in order to carve out a new niche in the health-care space and forging strategic partnerships with other companies to generate new insights in additional areas of health care. An example of this latter effort is Novo Nordisk’s partnerships with Microsoft and Flagship Pioneering, which will use artificial intelligence, big data, and scientific expertise to identify new business opportunities (Novo Nordisk, 2022). Maersk channels increased focus into its e-commerce operations while heavily investing in automation. Carlsberg has been focusing on developing new, nonalcoholic lines of beverages. Philanthropy An aspect of these companies that cannot be overstated is their emphasis on research-focused philanthropy, which is a key component of the charters of both Novo Nordisk and Carlsberg. Written into the charter of the Carlsberg Foundation is a commitment to “fostering and supporting the natural sciences, mathematics and philosophy, the humanities and the social sciences, granting funds to the Carlsberg Research Laboratory, maintaining and developing the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle, granting funds for socially beneficial purposes… especially in support of Danish trade and industry” through the dividends earned by the Carlsberg Foundation’s shares in Carlsberg A/S (Carlsberg Foundation, n.d.). Similarly, the charter of the Novo Nordisk Foundation dictates that the foundation provide “a stable basis for the commercial and research activities of the companies in the Novo Group (Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S); and supporting scientific, humanitarian and social causes” (Novo Nordisk Foundation, n.d.). These charters have the effect of instilling the value of focused philanthropy as good for business and vice versa. The companies’ financial support of scientific causes aids the objectives of their business: the money that Carlsberg spends to support the natural sciences could be used to discover a new beer formula; the research that Novo Nordisk funds could be used to develop new medication. In 2021, The Novo Nordisk Foundation donated $1B to quantum computing research (Novo Nordisk, 2022). Surely, this donation meets the criteria of the foundation’s charter—it supports scientific causes, after all. But this research will also give Novo Nordisk an advantage over its competitors in an emerging field. Maersk is no different in its strategic philanthropy. The A.P. Moller Foundation created the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping with an initial 400Mkr donation in 2020. In 2022, the Foundation donated 320Mkr to the Center. The Center produces collaborative research on carbon denaturalization and advocates for regulatory reform to accelerate maritime decarbonization. Although Maersk’s creation of the Center can be interpreted as altruism, it aids Maersk in its goal of becoming carbon neutral, which would result in an advantage over competitors in an increasingly climate change–ravaged world (Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, 2022). The philanthropy embedded in the legal structure of foundations encourages strategic altruism. In other words, the foundations for both Carlsberg and Novo Nordisk are not just throwing their money around; they are directing it at the causes that they know could benefit them years down the line. This principle is most clear in the approach of Maersk, Novo Nordisk, and Carlsberg in the arena of sustainability, which is at the forefront of many corporations’ agendas as climate change becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. Lessons to be learned In terms of environmental sustainability, innovation, and philanthropy, corporations all over the world can learn from foundation-owned firms. The first lesson can be found in these firms’ mission-oriented mindset. Foundation-owned firms follow their mission like a map, using its guidelines to decide in which direction to take the company. It is this focused understanding of their company’s purpose and values that allows foundation-owned firms to take a strong stance in decisions on important issues of our time. If all corporations were monitored by the governments of their respective countries for the degree to which they followed their missions or graded by watchdog agencies on their adherence to their missions, they could be held more strictly accountable, just as Denmark has done for their foundation-owned firms. The implementation of long-termism into corporate culture is another lesson to be learned from foundation-owned firms. Corporations will always be profit-oriented, but foundations have the effect of forcing the firms they control to act with a view to the long term and thus sustainably with respect to business, which, in turn, results in unique innovations and a greater emphasis on the environment. In these fraught times, it is important to curb the inherent selfishness of big businesses, both for the planet and future generations. The foundation-owned firm shows that this can be accomplished through environmentally and socially prioritized research and by donating money to the communities they affect.
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