Might I suggest an alternate to the “corporate responsibility” mantra (this always seemed a very ‘squishy’ concept to me)? Steve Denning (a Drucker supporter) repackages Drucker’s ideas into ‘Radical Management’ posts, drawing particular emphasis to Drucker’s idea that the purpose of the firm to be “to create a customer” rather than to maximize return. The focus on the customer, which can be a consumer, a stakeholder and/or a community, invariably leads the firm to develop and deliver and innovate to maintain a positive and growing relationship with said customers (profits and shareholder value become the outcome of this, not the objective).
Steve’s series of articles on Radical Management on Forbes.com are really good. Ironically though, they use Jack Welch, one of the high priests that led us to the current hell of Business Metric Manipulation, Short-Termism and Financialization, as an example of leaders that have become woke to the misguided pursuit of single minded profitability (even the criminal can / will repent, LOL). If you haven’t read Denning before take a look, really interesting. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2017/07/17/making-sense-of-shareholder-value-the-worlds-dumbest-idea/#d2a56dd2a7ed
