Microsoft president discusses the good and bad of corporate activism
Whether we like it or not, the public is increasingly turning not to their elected officials, but to the heads of major corporations for leadership on important and difficult issues. Perhaps because of partisan gridlock, perhaps because politicians seem to pay more attention when Big Business talks, rightly or wrongly, people expect today’s CEOs to pick up the ball. That’s both good and bad for society, according to Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer. “I think it’s not only good, but fundamentally important that companies have a conscience,” he said during a talk with Harvard Business Review editor Adi Ignatius last Thursday about the rise in corporate activism. The discussion was part of HUBweek, the innovation and ideas festival launched in 2014 by Harvard University, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts General Hospital. People, especially younger workers, want to work for businesses that operate conscientiously, and as companies...