This is Part 7 in our BRT Series – see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 It is a truism that management consultants can only be as good as the organizational context in which they work. This has been recognised for many years; see for example “Leadership and the Organizational Context: Like the Weather?”. […]
Have US CEOs finally shaken off the Friedman doctrine they subscribed to for nearly 50 years? They have certainly taken a bold step to legitimately grant themselves permission to put societal value first. They must, however, determine a common purpose and measure their progress. The Maturity Institute’s OMINDEX rates corporations to determine their Total Stakeholder […]
Part 6 in our continuing series on the implications of ‘BRT’– see parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Critical observers have been monitoring the seismic tremors underneath business education for many years. Now, the high salaries for MBA alumni are even more questionable, since the Business Roundtable shifted the American capitalist paradigm, away from shareholders and quarterly profit figures, […]
“It’s almost astonishing… (BRT are) in effect coming right out and saying, ‘We’ve been wrong for the last 20 years…some folks in the BRT are recognizing there’s something unsustainable about an economy that’s all about shareholder primacy. … it’s probably good politics on their part in addition to good economics.” Robert Hockett, Professor at Cornell Law […]
This is Part 1 in our BRT Series – see parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Monday 19th August 2019 – mark it in your diary. It will forever be remembered as the day the world finally grew up, for the betterment of all humankind. It will be seen, in hindsight, as the day all of us were […]
“…. the great test all countries will soon face is whether current feelings of common purpose will shape society after the crisis.” “Virus lays bare the frailty of the social contract – Radical reforms are required to forge a society that will work for all” FT Editorial Board, 3 April 2020 Coronavirus exit strategies can pave […]
Davos this year coincides with the 50th birthday of the World Economic Forum (WEF). So Gillian Tett, under the FT’s Moral Money series, chose this opportunity to ask its founder, Klaus Schwab, a list of fundamental questions about the relevance of WEF’s annual show. In the face of mounting global problems these questions are increasingly […]
Part 5 in our ‘BRT’ series – see parts 1, 2, 3, 4 In Part 3 of this series I explained some of the broader implications stemming from The Business Roundtable’s (BRT) ‘Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation’. Now we need to look in more detail at how it has shifted the ground underneath […]
Richard Walker, MD of Iceland Foods, was fast out of the blocks on Covid-19: understanding that the most vulnerable of his company’s customer base needed help and being quick to provide it. By setting aside specific time for elderly and disabled customers to get essential supplies, he granted them exclusive access to Iceland’s products, and […]
“There is a climate change component to this…but there’s also a failure of management.” said Michael W. Wara, director, climate and energy policy program at Stanford University Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E Corporation) came to widespread prominence in the 1990s after the company was found to have contaminated the water supply of local residents in […]