By: New York Times
January 17, 2019
Larry Fink, the investment manager who oversees nearly $6 trillion at BlackRock, set off a yearlong conversation among business leaders and policymakers last January when he wrote a letter to chief executives declaring that companies needed to do more than make profits.
Mr. Fink wrote that it was crucial that businesses also made “a positive contribution to society” — and that he planned to hold them to account.
Coming from the world’s largest investor, the letter was seen as an inflection point in the long-simmering argument over the state of global capitalism. Chief executives began explicitly talking about their companies’ “purpose” — not just in high-minded mission statements but in government filings and investor reports. Others bristled at Mr. Fink’s challenge.
Late Wednesday, chief executives received a new missive from Mr. Fink that will almost certainly stir up an even louder debate. Businesses, he wrote, cannot merely have a purpose. They must be leaders in a divided world.