U.S. Businesses Embrace Inclusive Capitalism - But Do They Know What This Means?

This summer, some of the world’s biggest companies quietly abandoned one of the key tenets of US capitalism for the last half century or so – the primacy of shareholders, or the idea that companies primarily exist to serve the needs of shareholders.

Almost 200 CEOs, including the chiefs of JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, GM and Johnson & Johnson, signed a new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, in which they committed to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers and communities as well as investors.

It is a significant departure from the previous consensus, which was built on economist Milton Friedman’s dictum that “the business of business is business” and its only social responsibility is to increase its profits. “The new Statement outlines a modern standard for corporate responsibility,” the Roundtable said. Read Full Article - Forbes, September 13, 2019