For me this article highlights the tension between long term value creation and the short term quarterly profit perspective of Wall Street.
I think the creation of value comes before Return on Investment (RoI). Creating value is much harder than showing a RoI because value is somewhat intangible and is seen through people's personal values/beliefs. Also it may take time before the value you have created makes its way to the bottom line.
Arguably Apple's brand, and how stakeholders feel about it, increases Apple's ROI for its shareholders.
Do Apple's customers care about environmental issues? I'm sure they do. If Apple ignores this it will eventually hurt Apple's bottom line. Do Apple's employees care about worker safety? Again, I'm pretty sure they do and I'm pretty sure that if Apple's management doesn't pay attention it will eventually hurt the bottom line.
Personally I like the idea of a 'Triple Bottom Line'[1] which acknowledges that businesses can create negative value to parts of society when maximizing profit (negative externalities if you are an Economist).
It sounds to me like Tim Cook internalizes this world view and uses it to steer Apple's corporate decision making. I applaud this and hope that this inspires other big corporations but also the future entrepreneurs on Hacker News.
I think the creation of value comes before Return on Investment (RoI). Creating value is much harder than showing a RoI because value is somewhat intangible and is seen through people's personal values/beliefs. Also it may take time before the value you have created makes its way to the bottom line.
Arguably Apple's brand, and how stakeholders feel about it, increases Apple's ROI for its shareholders.
Do Apple's customers care about environmental issues? I'm sure they do. If Apple ignores this it will eventually hurt Apple's bottom line. Do Apple's employees care about worker safety? Again, I'm pretty sure they do and I'm pretty sure that if Apple's management doesn't pay attention it will eventually hurt the bottom line.
Personally I like the idea of a 'Triple Bottom Line'[1] which acknowledges that businesses can create negative value to parts of society when maximizing profit (negative externalities if you are an Economist).
It sounds to me like Tim Cook internalizes this world view and uses it to steer Apple's corporate decision making. I applaud this and hope that this inspires other big corporations but also the future entrepreneurs on Hacker News.
[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line]