What does it mean to be a responsible business in a time of crisis? We’ve seen some incredible responses to COVID-19. Unilever is donating €100 million of soap, sanitiser, bleach and food; providing €500 million of liquidity by paying suppliers …
What to trust: COVID-19 and the virus of misinformation
One of the themes of the book is the criticality of being discerning with evidence, and not believing common myths about business, even if they confirm what we’d like to be true. It shows how the evidence paints a quite …
Financing Drug Development for Diseases in Developing Nations
While the coronavirus has hit all countries, some of the world’s other serious diseases disproportionately afflict the poorest nations. And here lies the big challenge with finding a cure. The vast majority of ideas for new drugs fail, and even …
“Grow the Pie” in 28 Tweets
On 6 April, I did a Twitter discussion on my book, hosted by Blackwell’s Bookshop. They asked me to start by providing 25-30 Tweets summarising the book, before opening it up to questions. I reproduce them below to provide the …
Measuring Social Impact
A major barrier to putting responsibility into practice is that it’s unclear how to make decisions – in particular, which investments to take and which to turn down. Some pundits argue that companies should do all they can to serve …
The Inconsistency of ESG Ratings: Implications for Investors
Investors are increasingly scrutinizing the ESG performance of companies. This is a positive development – if CEOs know that investors evaluate them on ESG factors, not just short-term earnings, they’ll prioritise these factors over quarterly profit. Indeed, research shows that …
Smith & Nephew CEO Quits Over Low Pay; Shares Fall 9%
On 21 October 2019, Namal Nawana, the CEO of UK medical devices firm Smith & Nephew, resigned after 18 months at the helm because he wasn’t being paid enough. The stock price fell by 9% on the announcement, translating to …
Business Roundtable Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation
In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, an organisation comprising the CEOs of major US companies, released a new statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. The statement stressed a company’s responsibility to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. In contrast, the prior statement, …