BlackRock CEO Larry Fink suggests that corporations should make a positive contribution to society apart from boosting the bottomline.

Olivia London

2018-01-09 08:33:00 Tue ET

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink emphasizes his key conviction that public corporations should make a positive contribution to society apart from boosting the bottomline. Society now demands that each public or private company serves a social purpose. To prosper over time, each company must not only deliver financial performance, but each company must also demonstrate how it makes a positive contribution to society. This kind reminder is a major watershed moment on Wall Street and raises questions about the unique nature of capitalism.

The Fink letter serves as a key lightning rod of stakeholder-value maximization for institutional investors such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Vanguard, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Allianz, State Street, PIMCO, PGIM, and so on. Key stakeholders include not only shareholders but also employees, customers, creditors, suppliers, regulators, and intellectual property assignees.

The government may fail to prepare for the future generations on socioeconomic issues such as retirement, infrastructure, automation, and education. As a result, society has to increasingly rely on the private sector in order to better respond to broader societal challenges. If a company cannot engage with the community with a crystal-clear sense of social purpose, the company ultimately loses its license to operate for better stakeholder value. For instance, some institutional investors and activist shareholders require Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to consider the detrimental effects of mobile devices on children. Mutual funds and insurance firms such as AIG and Berkshire Hathaway can monitor whether energy companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, Phillips 66, and Saudi Aramco help mitigate environmental degradation. Also, key billionaires join the Giving Pledge campaign to curb global economic inequality. For instance, the Gates Foundation continues to help eradicate preventable diseases due to malaria, polio, Guinea worm, and smallpox in Africa and the Middle East. Nowadays, each company has to serve a social purpose in order to attract capital flows from asset management firms.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Management consultants can build sustainable trust-driven client relations through the accelerant curve of business value creation.

Monica McNeil

2020-11-17 08:27:00 Tuesday ET

Management consultants can build sustainable trust-driven client relations through the accelerant curve of business value creation.

Management consultants can build sustainable trust-driven client relations through the accelerant curve of business value creation. Alan Weiss (2016)

+See More

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times.

Amy Hamilton

2018-06-05 07:36:00 Tuesday ET

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times.

Just Capital issues a new report in support of the stakeholder value proposition in recent times. U.S. corporations that perform best on key priorities such

+See More

The Chinese new star board launches for tech firms to list at home.

Daphne Basel

2019-07-09 15:14:00 Tuesday ET

The Chinese new star board launches for tech firms to list at home.

The Chinese new star board launches for tech firms to list at home. The Nasdaq-equivalent new star board serves as a key avenue for Chinese tech companies t

+See More

President Trump approves a phase one trade agreement with China.

Joseph Corr

2020-01-01 13:39:00 Wednesday ET

President Trump approves a phase one trade agreement with China.

President Trump approves a phase one trade agreement with China. This approval averts the introduction of new tariffs on Chinese imports. In return, China s

+See More

Berkeley tax economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez find fresh insights into wealth inequality in America.

Jacob Miramar

2019-06-27 10:39:00 Thursday ET

Berkeley tax economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez find fresh insights into wealth inequality in America.

Berkeley tax economists Gabriel Zucman and Emmanuel Saez find fresh insights into wealth inequality in America. Their latest estimates show that the top 0.1

+See More

A 7-year $1.3 billion hedge fund manager Chelsea Brennan shares her investment advice.

Laura Hermes

2018-10-05 10:38:00 Friday ET

A 7-year $1.3 billion hedge fund manager Chelsea Brennan shares her investment advice.

A 7-year $1.3 billion hedge fund manager Chelsea Brennan shares her investment advice. Her advice encompasses several steps toward better financial literacy

+See More