Revisiting the Business Roundtable's Social Justice Manifesto

Turns out CEOs aren't really social justice warriors

Back in 2019 the Business Roundtable—a lobbying association of 200+ CEOs of large US corporations—issued a manifesto on corporate purpose that purported to embrace a stakeholder/ESG approach to corporate governance. The usual suspects seized on the announcement as a transformational moment in which capitalist lions were finally laying down with labor and environmental lambs. They foretold a social justice utopia in which business would be responsible to society and stakeholders rather than just to shareholders.

I was reminded of the BRT statement by an article in today’s WSJ, CEOs Are Shrinking Their Workforces—and They Couldn’t Be Prouder.