yeah, we definitely need to change that "democracies... free of politics" line. A more accurate statement would be something like "What if corporations where me

yeah, we definitely need to change that "democracies... free of politics" line. A more accurate statement would be something like "What if corporations where meritocracies... free(er) of personal politics" As for Visa, I completely agree with you, they are in no way an inspiration on the social enterprise or 'values' front. They are however a really good example of how an innovation in organizational governance (namely a decentralized meritocracy) can be leveraged to compete effectively. They didn't start out with only one competitor. At the time they started Americard had the lion's share. And I totally agree that the consumers are different from the people who pay the fees. Dee Hock (the founder) notes in his biography that one of his biggest regrets was his failure to give the consumers and the merchants decision-making power in the governance of VISA.