Jana Partners, the activist hedge fund, isn’t known as a tree-hugging hippie sort of firm. Yet, last month it joined with the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to send a letter to Apple’s board warning about the effects of the company’s devices on children. The same month, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink sent a letter telling companies that his firm would consider social responsibility when making investments. And Mark Zuckerberg told investors that Facebook would be making changes to its platform that would help users in the long-term, even though, he warned, in the short-term the result would be users spending less time on it.
More and More CEOs Are Taking Their Social Responsibility Seriously
Are we finally at a tipping point?
February 12, 2018
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Summary.
We are witnessing a big, transitional moment – akin to the transition from analog to digital, or the realization that globalization is a really big deal. Companies are beginning to realize that paying attention to the longer term, to the perceptions of their company, and to the social consequences of their products is good business. A few answers come to mind. The first is millennials’ growing role in the workforce. The second is a declining confidence on the part of executives that government will step in and fix some of our biggest problems – from climate change to inequality. And the third is the scale and power of big companies.