Deep Chats Over the Roundtable
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other business leaders are skipping the small talk, leading straight into a debate about the meaning of it all. That includes their jobs, their companies, their mission, and their purpose. As for their verdict, well, that has investors up in arms!
The Business Roundtable is a group of CEOs. Founded over forty years ago as a forum for corporate debate, item number one on its most recent agenda; ‘how and why we’re all here.’ Well, close enough! Over two-hundred business leaders in the group rethought whether the stock price and profit for investors was still their first priority, as opposed to doing good for the environment or employees’ welfare.
Word of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has spread far and wide. Management teams in this day and age live and die by their CSR scores, especially those working in so-called “dirty” industries like coal or alcohol. Investors are cool with that. When you get down to business, a happy workforce is a capable workforce, and pleased customers usually become paying customers. The Roundtable group agreed unanimously!
The stock market is all about the money, focused singularly on how much cash a business will spin-off in the future. Some market players believe these Roundtable moguls have it confused. Why should environmental and social responsibilities fall to companies with exist to provide different types of value to the world? Mr. Dimon and friends have agreed on prioritizing outside communities. However, many argue that’s simply an alteration of strategy to achieve the same purpose they’ve always shared; making money!
Watch what they do, not what they say. Money is the anthem of the stock market, and investors don’t see that changing any time soon!
