Value extraction is not innovation

I have a new Sunday morning ritual: reading and reflecting on all the posts and links I saved over the previous week because I wasn’t in the headspace or didn’t have the time to give it.

I saw an intro to a piece from Anna Branten—somehow, I had not come across her work before—and instantly knew I would love it. Surprising no one who knows me, her conclusion resonated the most:

We must stop treating value extraction as innovation. When a company builds its success by underpaying creators, outsourcing environmental costs, or avoiding transparency, it’s not entrepreneurship—it’s reallocation. Moving value from the weak to the powerful, from the margins to the center, from the future into the now.

There are other ways. Companies that genuinely create value, rather than just shift it around. Those that pay fairly, take ownership of their impact, and build with a long-term vision.

Yet the more we sharpen our awareness as consumers, the clearer it becomes which companies are truly walking their talk. If we want something different from endlessly celebrating new unicorns, we need to shift our gaze. Transformation doesn’t start just with ourselves—it starts when we stop romanticizing the old logic of business and start celebrating the ones who are building the future.

The entire article is worth a read.