Common misconception. Fiduciary Duty means the Board of Directors has to act in a company’s best interest. It does not mean they legally have to maximize every single profit possibility, short and long-term. Some people feel that improving a company’s reputation or outreach is in its best interest, even if it doesn’t increase profits.
It’s also important to know that no one has ever been found guilty of failing to fulfill fiduciary duty, and it’s pretty vague. Companies can still do what they want, don’t let them tell you their hands were tied and they had to do [awful, greedy thing that everyone hates]…
no one has ever been found guilty of failing to fulfill fiduciary duty
For as big a deal as is made of this by investment advisors and similar roles, this is shocking to read.
A quick search suggests Enron and Bernie Madoff are a couple of examples of conviction, but maybe there are nuances I’m not familiar with.
Tim Cook even famously responded to a right-wing troll during a shareholder meeting asking Apple to commit to only doing profitable things and dropping stuff like making their production climate neutral with "When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.” and somehow he’s still around
edit: it really pissed them off too haha https://nationalcenter.org/ncppr/2014/02/28/tim-cook-to-apple-investors-drop-dead/
