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Corporate executives lived for years comfortable in the conventional wisdom that their role was simply to look after their enterprise. Issues of the larger world belonged to the realm of policy. Executives paid lobbyists to promote policies friendlier to their activities, but felt little professional responsibility for a greater good.
Milton
Friedman praised this approach, stating that for "businessmen
to preach the pure and unadulterated socialism" of corporate
social responsibility would be a "fundamentally subversive
doctrine in a free society in such a society, there is one
and only one social responsibility of businessto use its resources
and engage in activities designed to increase its profits."
Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch, echoed that business is socially
responsible only when it is creating jobs and shareholder
value.
Margaret
Mead said that the only person who likes change is a wet baby.
Thus, the growing group of executives believing that good
management demands they take responsibility for more than
next quarter's share price, or their own well-padded future,
appears uniquely courageous. These leaders, the vanguard of
the growing corporate social and environmental responsibility
movement, are demonstrating that this approach is, contrary
to Friedman's outmoded views, also the best way to achieve
their traditional goal: Enhancing shareholder value.
In
today's world, change is now more pervasive than stability.
Leaders, as opposed to managers, take personal responsibility
for doing whatever is needed to meet the challenges facing
them. They understand themselves well enough to take risks,
to confront change, and, well to lead. This quality is increasingly
what will distinguish the effective executive from those whose
companies, because they are more conventionally managed, are
actually at greater risk. |
