U.S. Business Leaders Ditch Shareholder-First Mantra

The Business Roundtable has dropped the “shareholder primacy” creed that has driven U.S. capitalism for decades, urging companies to consider the environment and workers’ wellbeing alongside their pursuit of profits, the Financial Times reports.

It is a significant departure from the bedrock belief that businesses serve the owners of their capital — a philosophy championed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and which has driven corporate America for decades.