By David Gelles and David Yaffe-Bellany
Shareholder Value Is No Longer Everything, Top C.E.O.s Say
Chief executives from the Business Roundtable, including the leaders of Apple and JPMorgan Chase, argued that companies must also invest in employees and deliver value to customers.
来自苹果、摩根大通等公司的首席执行官们在商业圆桌会议上表示，公司必须将一部分投资用于员工，并为客户创造价值。
Nearly 200 chief executives, including the leaders of Apple, Pepsi and Walmart, tried on Monday to redefine the role of business in society — and how companies are perceived by an increasingly skeptical public.
近200名首席执行官，其中包括苹果，百事与沃尔玛的领导人，试图在周一重新定义企业在社会中的角色，以及日渐怀疑的公众是如何看待公司的。
Breaking with decades of long-held corporate orthodoxy, the Business Roundtable issued a statement on “the purpose of a corporation,” arguing that companies should no longer advance only the interests of shareholders. Instead, the group said, they must also invest in their employees, protect the environment and deal fairly and ethically with their suppliers.
商业圆桌会议对“企业的目的” 发表声明，认为企业应该不仅仅是促进股东的利益，这打破了企业界数十年来长期持有的正统思想。
相反，该组织表示，他们还必须投资员工，保护环境，并与供应商公平合理地进行交易。
“While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders,” the group, a lobbying organization that represents many of America’s largest companies, said in a statement. “We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.”
“虽然我们每个公司都有自己的企业宗旨，但我们对所有利益相关方都有着基本的承诺，”该组织是一个代表了美国许多大公司的游说组织，它在一份声明中表示。
“我们致力于为我们的公司，社区和国家的未来成功创造价值。
The shift comes at a moment of increasing distress in corporate America, as big companies face mounting global discontent over income inequality, harmful products and poor working conditions.
这一转变发生在美国企业日益窘迫的时刻。
大公司面临着越来越多的来自全球对收入不平等，有害产品和恶劣的工作环境的不满情绪。
On the Democratic presidential campaign trail, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been vocal about the role of big business in perpetuating problems with economic mobility and climate change. Lawmakers are looking into the dominance of technology companies like Amazon and Facebook.
在民主党总统候选人的竞选中，参议员伯尼·桑德斯和伊丽莎白·沃伦一直在谈论大企业在经济流动和气候变化这些顽疾上所扮演的角色。
议员们正在调查亚马逊和Facebook等科技公司的主导地位。
There was no mention at the Roundtable of curbing executive compensation, a lightning-rod topic when the highest-paid 100 chief executives make 254 times the salary of an employee receiving the median pay at their company. And hardly a week goes by without a major company getting drawn into a contentious political debate. As consumers and employees hold companies to higher ethical standards, big brands increasingly have to defend their positions on worker pay, guns, immigration, President Trump and more.
圆桌会议上没有提及遏制高管薪酬的问题。
如今，前100位收入最高的首席执行官的薪水是他们公司员工薪酬中位数的254倍，此时谈论这个问题容易引火上身。
几乎每周都有一家大公司被卷入有争议的政治辩论。
随着消费者和员工把公司提升到更高的道德标准，大品牌不得不捍卫自己在工人工资，枪支，移民，特朗普等方面的立场。
“They’re responding to something in the zeitgeist,” said Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School. “They perceive that business as usual is no longer acceptable. It’s an open question whether any of these companies will change the way they do business.”
“他们正在回应时代精神。
”哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）的历史学家南希·科恩（Nancy Koehn）说。
“他们认识到循旧的商业方式不再会被接受。
不过这些公司是否会改变他们做生意的方式，还是一个悬而未决的问题。
”
The Business Roundtable did not provide specifics on how it would carry out its newly stated ideals, offering more of a mission statement than a plan of action. But the companies pledged to compensate employees fairly and provide “important benefits,” as well as training and education. They also vowed to “protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses” and “foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect.”
商业圆桌会议没有提供有关如何实现其新的理想化宣言的具体细节，他们提供的更多的是一个使命宣言而不是行动计划。
但这些公司承诺要给员工公正地提供报酬和“重要的福利”，以及培训和教育。
他们还发誓要“通过在各项业务中采用可持续的做法来保护环境”和“促进多样性和包容，尊严和尊重。
”
It was an explicit rebuke of the notion that the role of the corporation is to maximize profits at all costs — the philosophy that has held sway on Wall Street and in the boardroom for 50 years. Milton Friedman, the University of Chicago economist who is the doctrine’s most revered figure, famously wrote in The New York Times in 1970 that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.”
以前人们认为公司的作用就是不惜一切代价实现利润最大化，二这份宣言是对老观念的一次直言不讳的谴责。
50年来这种理念一直支配着华尔街和董事会。
芝加哥大学经济学家米尔顿·弗里德曼（Milton Friedman ）是该信条中最受尊敬的人物，1970年他在“ 纽约时报”上写：
“企业的社会责任就是增加利润。
”
This mind-set informed the corporate raiders of the 1980s and contributed to an unswerving focus on quarterly earnings reports. It found its way into pop culture, when in the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko declared, Greed is good. More recently, it inspired a new generation of activist investors who pushed companies to slash jobs as a way to enrich themselves.
这种思维方式为20世纪80年代为大量购买股票以达到控制某一公司的企业狙击手提供了信息并导致了对季度收益报告的持续关注。
它进入了流行文化，在1987年的电影“华尔街”中，戈登·盖柯宣称，贪婪是好事。
最近，它激励了新一代的激进投资者，他们催促企业削减就业机会，以此敛财。
“The ideology of shareholder primacy has contributed to the economic inequality we see today in America,” Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation and a Pepsi board member, said in an interview. “The Chicago school of economics is so embedded in the psyche of investors and legal theory and the C.E.O. mind-set. Overcoming that won’t be easy.”
“股东本位的思想已经导致了我们今天在美国看到的经济不平等，” 福特基金会的总裁和百事董事会成员达伦·沃克在接受采访时说。
“芝加哥学派的经济学深深扎根于投资者和法律理论以及CEO的心中，要克服这一点并非易事。
”
The Business Roundtable included its own articulation of the theory in an official doctrine in 1997, writing that “the paramount duty of management and of boards of directors is to the corporation’s stockholders.” Each version of its principles published over the last 20 years has stated that corporations exist principally to serve their shareholders.
商业圆桌会议自己也曾在1997年的一份官方文件中表达了类似的观点，其中写到“管理层和董事会的最重要职责是对公司股东负责。
”过去20年来它发布的每一个原则都表明了这一点，公司主要是为股东服务。
But by last year, the Business Roundtable’s language was out of step with the times. Many chief executives, including BlackRock’s Larry Fink, had begun calling on companies to be more responsible. Businesses were pledging to fight climate change, reduce income inequality and improve public health. And at gatherings like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the discussions often centered on how businesses could help solve thorny global problems.
但到去年，商业圆桌会议的这些话跟不上时代了。
许多CEO，包括黑岩集团的拉里芬克，已经开始呼吁公司承担更多的责任。
企业承诺要应对气候变化，减少收入不平等并改善公共健康。
在瑞士达沃斯世界经济论坛等聚会上，讨论通常集中在企业如何帮助解决棘手的全球问题。
“The threshold has moved substantially for what people expect from a company,” Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the World Economic Forum, said in an interview. “It’s more than just producing profits for the shareholders.”
世界经济论坛主席克劳斯•施瓦布在接受采访时表示，“人们对公司的期待已经大大提升了。
”世界经济论坛主席克劳斯施瓦布在接受采访时表示， “人们期待公司不只是为股东创造利润。
”
Last year, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase and the chairman of the Business Roundtable, began an effort to update its principles. “We looked at this thing that was written in 1997 and we didn’t agree with it,” Mr. Dimon said in an interview. “It didn’t fairly describe what we think our jobs are.”
去年，摩根大通首席执行官兼商业圆桌会议主席杰米•戴蒙开始努力更新其原则。
戴蒙在接受采访时说：
“我们看了1997年写的这个，现在我们不认同了。
” “对于我们认为自己的工作是什么（对于我们如何看待自己的工作）这一点它没有公正地描述。
”
Mr. Dimon proposed making a formal revision to the annual statement at a Business Roundtable board meeting in Washington this spring. It then fell to Alex Gorsky, the chief executive of Johnson & Johnson, who runs the group’s governance committee, to create the language.
戴蒙提议今年春天在华盛顿举行的商业圆桌会议上对年度声明进行正式修订。
然后由运营该组织管理委员会的强生公司CEO亚历克斯·戈尔斯基（Alex Gorsky ）创建这份新声明。
“There were times when I felt like Thomas Jefferson,” Mr. Gorsky said in an interview.
“有时我感觉像是起草美国独立宣言的托马斯杰斐逊。
”戈尔斯基在接受采访时说。
While the group cast the change in language as an embrace of new corporate ideals, it was also a tacit acknowledgment of the heightened pressures facing companies across the country — including many that signed the document.
虽然该集团将声明的变化视为对新的企业理想的接受，但它也默认了全国各地公司面临的压力- 包括签署该文件的许多公司。
In 2017, after the president’s initially tepid response to the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va., the chief executives of several major companies disbanded White House business advisory groups in protest. Walmart, the nation’s largest gun seller, is under pressure after a series of mass shootings, including the recent massacre at its store in El Paso. Amazon, the giant online retailer, is facing scrutiny from lawmakers who say it avoids paying taxes and uses its dominance to hurt competitors.
And protesters have mobilized across the country to call for a higher minimum wage.
2017年，总统对弗吉尼亚州夏洛特维尔的白人至上主义者的暴力抗议活动最开始反应温吞，此后，几家大公司的首席执行官解散了白宫商业咨询小组以示抗议。
在遭遇一系列包括最近在埃尔帕索（El Paso）商店大屠杀在内的大规模枪击事件后，全美最大的枪支销售商沃尔玛正面临压力，亚马逊这家大型在线零售商，正面临着立法者的审查，立法者认为亚马逊避税并利用其主导地位来伤害竞争对手。
And protesters have mobilized across the country to call for a higher minimum wage.
抗议者已动员全国各地，呼吁提高最低工资标准。
For companies to truly make good on their lofty promises, they will need Wall Street to embrace their idealism, too. Until investors start measuring companies by their social impact instead of their quarterly returns, systemic change may prove elusive.
为了让公司真正兑现他们的崇高承诺，他们也需要华尔街接受他们的理想主义。
在投资者能开始以社会影响而不是季度回报来衡量公司之前，系统性变革可能难以实现。
Nowhere has the new scrutiny on corporations been more pronounced than on the presidential campaign trail. On Monday, Mr. Sanders said in an interview that the Business Roundtable was “feeling the pressure from working families all over the country.”
在总统竞选活动中，对公司的新审查是最为明显的。
周一，桑德斯先生在接受采访时表示，商业圆桌会议“感受到了来自全国各地工薪家庭的压力”。
“I don’t believe what they’re saying for a moment,” he said. “If they were sincere, they would talk about raising the minimum wage in this country to a living wage, the need for the rich and powerful to pay their fair share of taxes.”
我不相信他们现在说的话，”他说。
“如果他们真诚，他们会讨论将把这个国家的最低工资提高到生活工资水平，并让富人和权贵缴纳合理的税赋。
”
In a statement Monday, Ms. Warren called the announcement “a welcome change” but cautioned that “without real action, it’s meaningless.”
在周一的一份声明中，沃伦女士称该公告“是一个值得欢迎的变化”，但警告说“如果没有实际行动，那就毫无意义”。
“These big corporations can start following through on their words by paying workers more instead of spending billions on buybacks,” she said.
“这些大公司可以通过给工人更多工资而不是花费数十亿美元回购股票来践行诺言。
”她说。
While the new statement of purpose represents a sizable shift from the group’s longstanding principles, it was not the first time Business Roundtable had taken a position on a social issue. Last August, the group denounced President Trump’s immigration policies, describing family separations as “cruel and contrary to American values.”
虽然新的声明代表了该组织在长期以来所持原则上相当大的转变，但这并不是圆桌会议第一次在社会问题上表达立场。
去年8月，该组织曾谴责特朗普的移民政策，将家庭分离描述为“残忍且违背美国价值观”。
Monday’s statement represented an even broader shift, signaling companies’ willingness to engage on issues of pay, diversity and environmental protection. Several of the executives who signed the letter said the group would soon offer more detailed proposals on how corporations can live up to the ideals it outlined, rather than focusing purely on economic policies.
周一的声明则代表了更大的转变，表明公司愿意参与薪酬，多元化和环境保护等问题。
签署这封信的几位高管表示，该组织将很快提供更详细的建议，说明企业如何能够实现其概述的理想，而不是仅仅关注经济政策。
“It’s a real divergence considering everything we’ve done in the past has been around policy,” said Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of Cisco, who is on the group’s board, adding, “This is just the first piece.”
“考虑到我们过去所做的一切都是围绕着经济政策，这真的是一个分歧点。
” 思科的首席执行官查克罗宾斯表示，“这只是第一件事。
The executives quickly pointed out that they had not forgotten about investors.
高管们很快指出，他们并没有忘记投资者。
“You can provide great returns for your shareholders and great benefits for your employees and run your business in a responsible way,” said Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America.
“你可以为你的股东提供丰厚的回报，为你的员工带来巨大利益，并以负责任的方式经营你的业务，”美国银行首席执行官布赖恩 莫伊尼汉说。
But the statement’s lack of specific proposals also drew skepticism.
但缺乏具体的提案也让该声明引起了怀疑。
“If the Business Roundtable is serious, it should tomorrow throw its weight behind legislative proposals that would put the teeth of the law into these boardroom platitudes,” said Anand Giridharadas, the author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.” “Corporate magnanimity and voluntary virtue are not going to solve these problems.”
“如果商业圆桌会议是认真的，它就应该在立法提案上施加影响力，给这些空洞的口号赋予法律的力量。
” 《赢家通吃：
改变世界的精英骗局》一书的作者阿南德·格里哈拉达斯说，“公司的宽容和自发的美德是不会解决这些问题的。
”
Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation
关于公司宗旨的声明
Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity. We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.
美国人值得拥有一种经济，能让每个人通过自己的勤劳工作和创造力获得成功，并且过上有意义和有尊严的生活。
我们相信，自由市场体系是创造良好的就业机会，强大和可持续的经济，创新，健康环境和受惠于所有人的最佳手段。
Businesses play a vital role in the economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation and providing essential goods and services. Businesses make and sell consumer products; manufacture equipment and vehicles; support the national defense; grow and produce food; provide health care; generate and deliver energy; and offer financial, communications and other services that underpin economic growth.
通过创造就业机会，促进创新和提供必需品和服务，企业在经济中发挥着至关重要的作用。
企业制造和销售消费品，制造设备和汽车；
支持国防；
种植和生产食物；
提供医疗保健；
产生并提供能源；
并提供支持经济增长的金融，通讯和其他服务
While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders. We commit to:
虽然每个公司都有自
己的企业宗旨，但我们对所有的股东都有基本的承诺，我们承诺：
- Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
-
为我们的客户提供价值。
我们将进一步推动美国公司的传统——满足超越客户的期望。
-Investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits. It also includes supporting them through training and education that help develop new skills for a rapidly changing world. We foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect.
-
投资我们的员工。
首先是公正地提供薪酬和重要的福利。
还包括通过培训和教育给予他们支持，帮助他们发展新技能，来应对快速变化的世界。
我们促进多样性和包容，尊严和尊重。
-Dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers. We are dedicated to serving as good partners to the other companies, large and small, that help us meet our missions.
-
以公平、合乎道德的方式与我们的供应商交易。
我们致力于成为其他大小公司的良好合作伙伴，以此来帮助我们完成我们的使命
-Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.
-
支持我们工作的社区。
我们尊重社区中的人，通过在业务中采用可持续的做法来保护环境。
-Generating long-term value for shareholders, who provide the capital that allows companies to invest, grow and innovate. We are committed to transparency and effective engagement with shareholders.
-为股东创造长期价值，是他们提供了让公司能够投资，发展和创新的资金。
我们致力于让股东透明和有效的参与。
Each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.
我们的每个利益相关者都至关重要。
我们致力于为我们所有的利益相关者，为我们的公司，社区和国家的未来成功创造价值。
