Who is a company really responsible to?
About Adi
- Served 16 years as Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review (2009-2025).
- Spearheaded HBR Executive, a new C-suite offering launched in 2025.
- Former No. 2 editor at TIME, leading global & business coverage, including TIME 100.
- Edited two NYT bestselling books, including on President Obama and Zhao Ziyang.
- Held bureau chief roles for WSJ in Beijing and Moscow; 20 years overseas experience.
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On Rapid Response, Bob Safian talks with Adi Ignatius, Editor at Large at Harvard Business Review, about the shifting purpose of business. From shareholder primacy to stakeholder capitalism, Ignatius asks whether the time has come for a new consensus on what CEOs actually owe society.
Transcript
Note: Transcripts may be automatically generated and are not fully corrected for spelling, grammar, and formatting.
The search for the kind of purpose of business, let's say there was 50 years of shareholders are what matter. And then, you know, 10 years ago, whatever, suddenly people got more serious talking about stakeholders more broadly. You have to think about your employees and your customers, sustainability, the planet. That's what they were teaching at Harvard Business School. And then Trump got elected. I think we need a new consensus of the new paradigm. And is there a theory of the case that we can all agree on that what is the responsibility of a company of a CEO?
