Corporate accountability is key to the success of ‘stakeholder capitalism’

ImpactAlpha, Aug. 22 – Increasing accountability to employees, customers, suppliers and communities shouldn’t mean decreased accountability to shareholders. Especially when some of those shareholders are the ones who have been arguing on behalf of the interests of other stakeholders. 

Corporate accountability would seem to be the core of the new statement of corporate purpose adopted this week by nearly all of the CEO members of the Business Roundtable (see, “Stakeholder primacy: CEOs redefine the role of business in society”). The statement acknowledged the interests of stakeholders other than shareholders, but included no new mechanisms to enforce accountability to those interests.

Indeed, the Business Roundtable, along with some of the CEO signatories, have tried to limit resolutions from shareholders seeking to hold corporate management to account on issues ranging from climate risk to gun control to executive pay and diversity.  Read Full Article - Impactalpha, August 22, 2019