Headline, October 06 2020/ ''' PROFITS FIRST PROMPTS '''

''' PROFITS FIRST 

PROMPTS '''

PROFITS STILL COME FIRST : RACIAL ISSUES AND PANDEMIC TEST idea that companies can focus on social goals.

Marc Bentoff, chief executive of the technology giant Salesforce, presents him as an evangelist for stakeholder capitalism : the idea that companies must elevate the interests of workers, the environment and local communities alongside those of shareholders.

He has written books and opinion pieces arguing that profits are not sufficient : Companies must do good. He attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a hotbed for such thinking.

And the company was among the 181 members of the Business Roundtable, a club of chief executives, that promised last year to broaden its traditional obsession with bottom line to include societal concerns. 

In late August, as Salesforce celebrated more than $5 billion in quarterly sales, Mr. Benioff proclaimed validation.

''This is victory for stakeholder capitalism,'' he said in a television interview. The next day in the midst of the pandemic, Salesforce informed 1,000 employees that their jobs were no longer needed.

The coronavirus, its attendant economic devastation and the movement against racial injustice have collectively posed the first test of lofty words proclaiming a kinder form of capitalism. The results have fallen short of the promise according to a study that was released on Tuesday last and obtained by The New York Times.

The Business Roundtable statement of a purpose of a corporation, released last year, was touted by prominent executives as a landmark in the evolution of corporate governance,

But its signatories have done no better than other companies in protecting jobs, labor rights and workplace safety during the pandemic, while failing to distinguish themselves in pursuit of racial and gender equality according to the study.

Financed by the Ford Foundation, the study is the work of KKS Advisors, a consultancy that counsels companies on environmental policy and The Test of Corporate Purpose, a group of researchers conversed to assess low corporations have responded to the pandemic , and the movement against racial injustice.

Its advisory boards includes a professor of management at the University of Oxford and senior executives from financial firms including Morgan Stanley and Liberty Mutual.

''Since the pandemic inception,'' the study concludes, the Business Roundtable statement ''has failed to deliver fundamental shifts in corporate purpose in a moment of grave crisis when enlightened purposes should be paramount.''

The study enhances doubts that corporations can be depended upon to moderate their quest for profits to pursue solutions to challenges like climate change, racial injustice and economic inequality. Skeptics argue that single stakeholder will always retain primary : the shareholder.

The Business Roundtable presents its mission statement as a reflection of the belief that chief executives face extraordinary pressures to protect workers, the environment and community interests or suffer punishment in the marketplace. 

''It was not a demotion of the long-term shareholders, because, in our view, the interests of all stakeholders align in the long-run success of the enterprise,'' said the president of the Business Rountable, Joshua Bolten. ''But it is a rejection of short-term share-holders interests.''

Companies can cause immediate gains in their stock prices by cutting costs through layoffs or slashing benefits.

''But in the long term, that's not going to serve the enterprise well if you haven't properly taken of all of your other stakeholders,'' Mr. Bolten added. ''You cannot take care of any of them without taking care of all of them.''

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Thinking on Share-Holders all, continues. The World Students Society thanks author, Peter S. Goodman.

With respectful dedication to all Shareholders, and every type of company in the world, and then Students, Professors and Teachers. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

''' Profits - Prime '''

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