Culture
Shareholder Value Is No Longer Everything, Top C.E.O.s Say
This is a subtle but important move saying corporations exist for all stakeholders. Finally chipping away at the narrowly focused Chicago-school of economic thought that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” that Milton Friedman proffered in 1970.
21st century companies need to be responsive. That doesn’t forgo profit and shareholder responsibility but that there’s a longer game which means that corporations have a broader responsibility to customers, employees and the environment generally. Having the Business Roundtable take this step is an important sea-change.
Nearly 200 chief executives, including the leaders of Apple, Pepsi and Walmart, tried on Monday to redefine the role of business in society — and how companies are perceived by an increasingly skeptical public.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/19/business/business-roundtable-ceos-corporations.html
