Shareholders and stakeholders

The Business Roundtable, representing CEO’s of America’s largest companies, recently issued a statement described as “reframing the purpose of business and corporations as stakeholder value, not solely shareholder value,” which listed customers, employees, suppliers, and communities as stakeholders, before mentioning shareholders. The statement received a raft of positive press.
However, the kudos were grounded in a false dichotomy. The issue is not shareholders’ in