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Off Brand
Why the Smartest Companies Are Shunning Neutrality, and Taking a Political Side
What Cloudfare, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Nike reveal about the future of brand survival
The fundamental task of a business is to generate profits for its owners, investors, or shareholders, right? “Make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society,” to borrow a phrase from Milton Friedman. That’s an appealing stance, precisely because its absolute clarity makes it easy to sidestep any number of tricky social, cultural, or political issues that might complicate a pure focus on the bottom line.
But lately, that proposition has gotten complicated. In fact, something like 200 CEOs of massive firms such as Apple, General Motors, and Bank of America, under the auspices of the Business Roundtable, recently tried to declare a new kind of era, in which business would serve not just shareholders but “stakeholders” — holding themselves responsible to employees, customers, and the environment. “We commit to deliver value to all of them,” the group’s statement read, “for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.”
For many business owners this sudden stroke of enlightenment was nothing new; stakeholder-driven B…
