What is the company for? What is your goal? Whose king should it be? These three questions seem extremely absurd, and have sparked a great deal more debate, academic studies, and revolutions than philosophies about the meaning of existence. An advocate of brutal capitalism –Just look at some of the proposals put forward by Argentine President-elect, Javier Miley.– Even the communists who support the Spanish governmentThere have always been extremes. On September 13, 1970, economist Milton Friedman published a landmark article in the New York Times. It was entitled: A company’s social responsibility is to increase its profits.
He wrote: “Discussions about corporate responsibility are notable for their analytical brittleness and lack of rigor. What does it mean that corporations have responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities.” Friedman advocated that corporate shareholders would freely use the profits generated by dividends so that they could allocate them to whatever they wanted.. In short: A company must make money and enrich its shareholders so that they can then make the decisions they want. Here there are as many models and policies as there are patterns and models of ownership.
Even among those listed companies, which are defined as public in English because anyone can own a share of them, there are significant differences. A report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2019 indicated that private institutional investors together own the capital of 41% of listed companies in the world. These investors are divided into three categories: investment funds, pension funds, and insurance companies.. The capital of these managers consists of liquidity provided by themselves or by third parties, companies, departments or citizens.
The second large group of ownership is the funds that depend on the states. This includes everything from Spain’s Sebi, which is involved in listed companies such as Indra, Inagas, and Redia, among others, to Norway’s sovereign fund, the French state, and the Chinese Communist Party.. In an OECD study, these funds raised 14% of global capital, a percentage that has since risen thanks to the greater activity of new funds such as Arab funds.
The third and fourth group of owners are private companies and strategic individual investors. They are the rest. This includes shareholders representing the founding families of listed companies (from Fords and Waltons in the US to Entrecanales, del Pino and Ortega in Spain). And new entrants whose names and titles appear as contributors.
Provide a social strategy
Since the economic crisis that began in 2008, which was exacerbated by the pandemic, the academic discourse signed by major investment fund managers has swung like a pendulum. At least in words. It is no longer said that the value of a company is limited only to making money, but other actions that must be produced in parallel are also valued. Of corporate social responsibility To ESGAny company that wants to attract attention today must offer investors a defined social strategy, supported by its governance. You have to make money, but not in any way. It is no longer just about generating value for shareholders but for stakeholders (the name that includes all the social agents that surround a business). It would be interesting to know what today’s 1976 Nobel Prize winner in economics would say about this debate and whether he would consider it, as some argue, to be contrary to the theses he published. It is the job of academics to discern the ins and outs of a discussion in which something is as fundamental as that the end does not justify the means.
It is necessary to have economic profitability in order for there to be social profitability. Is there anyone who would deny such a self-evident truth? It is sufficient for the main CEO of the ONCE group of companies, Ilunion, to defend this hypothesis. Alejandro Añoro is this week’s cover ‘origins’ For one reason only: his example and the example of the company he runs. Thanks to its active policies in creating job opportunities for people with disabilities, it has also demonstrated something missing in today’s political language: “Everyone has the right to work and has the duty to work.” Giving value to work is not exactly one of the characteristics that characterizes the thinking of some members of the current government. Ilunion is not listed on the stock exchange and does not intend to do so; But it is a model that will continue to be studied by many companies, public or private.
