Shareholders, consumers, and corporations

I've attended two of the Open Forum sessions, held in a local high school and open to all members of the public. The hall has been packed. In fact, I tried to attend another one about the U.S. role in the world, but it was so full by the time I got there they had stopped letting people in.

At this evening's session titled Shareholders and Consumers: What Power Do You Hold?, corporate executives and consumer activists on the panel agreed about one thing: the relentless pressure from the stockmarkets on corporations to meet quarterly earnings projections is a disincentive for environmentally and socially responsible corporate behavior. The executives pointed out that market pressures on listed companies can also discourage strategies that make a great deal of long-term business sense, but which are not great for earnings in the short term. All agreed that consumers and shareholders can do a lot to  change the situation if they get more organized. Interestingly, the executives - Orin Smith of Starbucks and Claude Hauser of Switzerland's Migros - both agreed this would be a good thing. Corporations would be happy to change if consumers would do more to reward good behavoir - even if it means paying slightly higher prices because the workers who made or harvested a product were paid a fair wage and worked under humane conditions.

A member of the audience proposed that the WEF should develop concrete proposals for alternative corporate practices and perhaps financial market reforms that would do more to reward long-term profits as opposed to short-term earnings.

Unfortunately, not many acutal WEF participants attended the Open Forum meetings I went to. That said, it does appear that many of the executives and entrepreneurs at Davos this year recognize that capitalism and globalization will come under increasing political attack unless  capitalism's fruits can be spread more equitably, responsibly, and sustainably. But it's also clear that the journey from recognition to realization is not easy.