In 2019, more than two years into Donald Trump’s polarizing presidency and just ahead of the pandemic, the Business Roundtable declared a commitment among its CEOs to focus on stakeholder capitalism. For generations, business leaders had put their shareholders’ interests first, but under stakeholder capitalism, those interests are only one priority among many: Employees, customers, and communities are given equal consideration.
What came next was a kind of Era of Good Feeling: We saw a huge uptick in pledges from global companies to leap forward in diversity and equity, treat their employees better, and make a positive impact on the planet.
