FT Series

The responsible capitalists

From paternity leave to ESG and the biggest US business lobby jettisoning shareholder primacy, was 2019 the year the corporate world started to think seriously about prioritising values over value?

Warren Buffett on why companies cannot be moral arbiters

Sage of Omaha says it is wrong for business to impose views on society

What it feels like to be a worker in the ‘woke’ world

How deep does a new-found corporate benevolence towards employees run?

Facebook joins Silicon Valley’s rush to appear responsible

The social media group took steps in 2019 to address concern over its impact but critics called its reforms cosmetic

Fire and flood focus minds of bosses and investors

Quantifying the weather-related costs from climate change is still a difficult job

How asset managers turned into business agitators

A change of heart about investing that looks beyond profits seems to have taken hold

The year capitalism went cuddly

Business world keen to recast itself as a constructive social actor

German bosses question US pledges on corporate reform

Executives sceptical over commitment to ditching ‘shareholder-first’ creed