Name: Insights: Today's Business Leaders Redefine Corporate Purpose
Uploaded: 2020-01-14
Duration: 3 min 32 s
Description: The Business Roundtable, which includes Jamie Dimon, Ginni Rometty, Alex Gorsky and other powerful business leaders, is redefining corporate purpose. (August 2019)

[MUSIC PLAYING] So the Business Roundtable was an organization that was started originally to lobby for business in Washington. They were there to look after business interests. And for years, they focused on things like tax policy, or spending policies, or things that affected businesses interest. I think what you've seen in the last couple of years is a recognition on the part of the Business Roundtable. And I credit a lot of this to the leadership of Jamie Dimon-- the CEO of JP Morgan, who now heads the Business Roundtable-- that they have to take a broader role. I've always looked at anything you do in corporate social responsibility-- and I've never had this conflict between shareholders and corporate responsibility-- I look at business very personally. If I have a store in a town-- it could be a corner bakery store-- you participate in the neighborhood. You help the homeless. You might help the local church or synagogue or a Little League team. Might give some summer jobs. That's what you do. That is called humanity. I've never been conflicted in that. So 20 years ago, the Business Roundtable adopted a statement of corporate purpose that, pretty much, mirrored what Milton Friedman had said, the goal of a corporation is to serve its shareholders, period. Obey the law, of course, but its principal responsibility was to shareholders. What you're seeing now is a restatement of that corporate purpose. It's not enough just to serve shareholders. They need to be focused on a broader array of stakeholders-- their employees, their customers, but also the communities in which those people operate. Because if you don't have healthy communities for your employees and your customers, you're not going to have a healthy company. The ones who have taken a leadership role in this statement of purpose, the new statement of purpose for the corporation are Mary Barra from General Motors, Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson, Ginni Rometty from IBM, and, of course, Jamie Dimon. What can they do to help fix some of the problems that our society is showing right now? So, for instance, they've taken a much broader role in developing training programs and platforms for training programs to help people make the transition to new technologies. Think of a six-year high school, be an easy way to think about it, with a community college. A community college and the high school together and there is a very distinct formula. The formula is-- because I'll come back to the most important skill is human-centered, actually, not the hard technology skills-- and align them with a curriculum. Not vocational, a, kind of, how do you learn curriculum. Give them internships, mentors-- your employees-- and a chance at a job. I think the new statement of corporate purpose is important. It reflects, to some degree, reflects a change that's already happened in the business community. People are thinking differently about their role in society. But I have to tell you, I talked to a lot of CEOs who feel the change is not happening fast enough. That there's a real trust gap that's developed in society. And we see it in political results. We see it in polling. There's a feeling that the statement needs to be backed up by action. That business has to make a concerted effort to show it can do a better job of addressing the most pressing needs of society. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Insights: Today's Business Leaders Redefine Corporate Purpose

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The Business Roundtable, which includes Jamie Dimon, Ginni Rometty, Alex Gorsky and other powerful business leaders, is redefining corporate purpose. (August 2019)

The Business Roundtable was an organization that was started originally to lobby for business in Washington. They were there to look after business interests, and for years they focused on things like tax policy or spending policies or things that affected businesses interest. I think what you've seen in the last couple of years is recognition on the part of the business. Roundtable on Dai credits a lot of this to the leadership of Jamie Diamond, the CEO of J. P. Morgan, who now heads the Business Roundtable, that they have to take a broader role. I've always looked at anything you do in corporate social responsibility, and I've never had this conflict between Charles and responsibility. I look good business kind, very personally. If I have a store in a town, it could be a corner bakery store. You participate in neighborhood, you help the homeless. You might help the local church synagogue. A Little League team might give some summer jobs. That's what you do that is called humanity. I've never been conflicted in that. So 20 years ago, the Business Roundtable adopted a statement of corporate purpose. The pretty much mirrored what Milton Friedman had said the goal of a corporation is to serve its shareholders period. You know, obey the law, of course, but it's principal responsibility was to shareholders. What you're seeing now is a restatement of that corporate purpose. It's not enough just to serve shareholders. They need to be focused on a broader array of stakeholders, their employees, their customers but also the communities in which those people operate. Because if you don't have healthy communities for your employees and your customers, they're not gonna have a healthy company. The ones who have taken a leadership role in the statement of purpose. The new statement of purpose for the corporation or Mary Barra from General Motors. Alex Gorsky of Johnson and Johnson, Ginny Rometty from IBM and, of course, Jamie Diamond. What can they do to help fix some of the problems that our society is is showing right now, for instance, they taken a much broader role in developing training programs and platforms for training programs to help people make the transition to new technologies. Think of a six year high school. Be an easy way to think about it with a community college, community, college in the high school together and there is a very distinct formula. The formula is I'll come back to the most important skill of human centered, actually not the hard technology skills, and aligned them with a curriculum and at vocational kind of. How do you learn curriculum? Give them internship, mentors, your employees and a chance at the job. I think the new statement of corporate purpose is important. It reflects to some degree reflects a change that's already happened in the business community. People are thinking differently about their role in society. But I have to tell you, I talked to a lot of CEOs who feel the change is not happening fast enough that there's a riel trust gap that's developed in society on and, you know, we see it in in political results. We see it in polling that there's a feeling that that statement needs to be backed up by actions that business has to make a concerted effort to show it can. You can do a better job of addressing the most pressing needs of society