Introduction

The responsibility of companies, corporations and institutions to their stakeholders is more important today than ever before. This is because the lack of responsibility in so many of our largest companies in recent years has thrown the whole issue of market freedom into question.

Even the limited version of responsibility, beloved by Milton Friedman, where the only responsibility of companies is to their shareholders, has been undermined by the crash of shares, bonds, titles and, in some cases, the total loss of pension funds and savings from Wall Street to Iceland, and from Antigua to the City of London.

Some commentators are trying to return us to the hopelessly out-of-date Milton Friedman view of business but the conclusion remains, that social responsibility has been, is and will continue to be crucial to the future prosperity and integrity of our businesses.

Prof. Michael HOPKINS, The Dearth of CSR, April 2009

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