Developing a more holistic capital markets ecosystem that embraces a thorough inclusion of material non-financial metrics is essential to the future capitalism and its constituent businesses. Business Roundtable’s recent declaration is a major statement and step forward in this journey. Our former client and the former CEO of Vanguard, Bill McNabb, makes the case convincingly. “I welcome this thoughtful statement by Business Roundtable CEOs on the Purpose of a Corporation. By taking a broader, more complete view of corporate purpose, boards can focus on creating long-term value, better serving everyone – investors, employees, communities, suppliers and customers.”
“While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders. We commit to delivering value to our customers, investing in our employees, dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers, supporting the communities in which we work and generating long-term value for shareholders.”
Our earlier work on the steering committee of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board with former CEO Jean Rogers, including recruiting several Board Members, was an important statement of our initiatives and conviction in this effort.