Last August, nearly 200 of the world’s top business executives announced a new purpose for their corporations. Maximizing returns for shareholders would no longer be the defining mission of their companies, they said in the historic Business Roundtable commitment.
They pledged that moving forward, their bottom lines would include the interests of broader stakeholders: employees, communities, future generations. It was a hopeful declaration that would see companies’ traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts shifting from peripheral programming to driving an integrated ethos.
