DEI may not survive. But shareholder activism will

BUSINESS corporations are, simultaneously, the world’s most wonderful organisations and the most terrifying. Wonderful because they produce an unprecedented profusion of life’s necessities and luxuries. Terrifying because they are so powerful and relentless.

The 18th century British Lord Chancellor Edward Thurlow once remarked: “Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like.”

How can we bring out the best in these Janus-faced creatures? One answer is to create a responsible managerial cadre through a mixture of education and professional ethics. A second is to use the government to regulate companies, and otherwise to chivy them to do the right thing. A third is to empower all the “stakeholders” in the capitalist enterprise (workers, suppliers and shareholders) to ensure social balance.