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O P I N I O N
G reed is not “good.” It never was, and it never will be. For almost 50 years, this false equivalency has eroded trust and loyalty, and seeded much of the disengagement and unfulfillment we see throughout the workplace today. Winning today is about serving others and providing value. Both are good. They always were, and always will be. Reaching our personal peak (Part 4)
The good news is that an “official” shift has already occurred. This shift, however, is not incremental – it’s transformational. It changes the way business is thought of and executed. And only those leaders and organizations that transform along with it will win. THE NEW CHAPTER. The Business Roundtable, a group of 181 CEOs from top companies nationwide, recently released a statement that redefined the purpose of the corporation. In the statement, leaders committed to serving all of their stakeholders in terms of delivering value to customers, investing in employees, dealing fairly and ethically with suppliers, supporting communities, protecting the environment, and generating long-term shareholder value. This, of course, is a major departure from the
group that, in 1997, long after the now outdated “profit-centric” shift, professed that “the paramount duty of management and of boards of directors is to the corporation’s stockholders.” Whether considered forward thinking or a self- preserving realignment in response to the new era that has already taken hold, this new official statement marks a great opportunity. From this point forward, this new commitment by top leaders to serve more than just short-term “Most of us have been ‘raised’ to believe in projects and profits, but do we also believe in people and purpose?”
Peter Atherton
See PETER ATHERTON, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER December 2, 2019, ISSUE 1322
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