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Business Roundtable Ranked How Well Apple, IBM, and Amazon Actually Serve Stakeholders

Fortune: “In August, almost 200 leading business executives—including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty—made news headlines by offering a new definition for the purpose of a corporation that challenged long-held corporate orthodoxy. These chief executives, collectively known as the Business Roundtable, argued that the modern corporation should no longer exist only to deliver value to stockholders, as it plainly stated in 1997—rather, it should serve stakeholders including customers, employees, partners, communities, and yes, shareholders. “Each of our stakeholders is essential,” reads a rather concise statement signed by 181 of the Business Roundtable’s 193 members. “We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.” It didn’t take long for questions to emerge: Were the CEOs violating their fiduciary duty by embracing a broader mandate? And just how the hell were they going to measure their success, anyway?…”

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