Stakeholder Capitalism: ‘The Fierce Urgency of Now’
2020 was a year none of us will ever forget.
It brought a global pandemic and an economic recession, a national reckoning with racial inequity and a violent attack on democracy itself – each historic and distinct, yet caused by and compounding the others. It brought out the best in business behavior, and showed us what was possible when we put people first. It was a year that also exposed a simple truth, which is that society’s shift to stakeholder capitalism is now an urgent necessity.
For JUST Capital, like so many others, 2020 presented enormous organizational challenges. Yet I am proud to say that our team rose to the occasion. We set ourselves big goals and surpassed them. As you’ll see in this report, we took our research, corporate engagement, programs, investor, donor, and editorial work to new levels, and expanded our audience by orders of magnitude. We grew our team, our board and advisor collective, and more than doubled our donor community. Our COVID-19 Tracker, JUST 100, and ongoing program work on racial equity and worker financial wellness began to drive real, tangible change on the issues that our surveys confirmed Americans value most. As S&P Global CEO Doug Peterson said, we have become “a driving force behind the stakeholder capitalism movement.”
Looking ahead, we feel that the reality of a more just economy is within our grasp. Stakeholder capitalism has gone beyond being merely an idea. It has shown us its human face. This is about lives, and livelihoods. It’s about rethinking the role of business in society. It’s about the future health of our communities and our planet, and the creation of long-term value and prosperity, in the broadest sense of the word. It’s about creating an economy that works for all Americans.
I have never been prouder to be part of any organization, and never been more excited about our future – I hope you’ll join us on this journey and become a member of our JUST network today.
