The Workplace You Need Now

5The New Corporate Responsibility

“If our quest for greater profits leaves our world worse off than before, all we will have taught our children is the power of greed.”

Marc Benioff, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Salesforce

With stakeholder capitalism rapidly taking hold, enterprises are focused on multiple dimensions of the corporate responsibility concept. Stakeholder capitalism is rapidly taking hold and enterprises are focused on multiple dimensions as they strive to become more responsible. Over the past several years, environmental sustainability has moved from a peripheral consideration to a mainstream imperative. As more investors apply an ESG (environmental, social, and governance) lens to their strategies,ⁱ organizational leaders are challenged to move beyond high-level vision to articulate measurable goals and how they will achieve them. While some political leanings in various parts of the world remain tied to divergent perceptions of environmental sustainability, the move toward a green world has very much progressed.

This acceleration of true commitments to and investments in this dimension of responsibility was evident at the last World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2020.ⁱⁱ To further the march to a net zero economy, CEOs of companies across the world responded to the call for ambition, action, and alignment with a commitment to disclose and set ambitious targets for their organizations. Various ecosystems of like-minded leaders and organizations were simultaneously ...