There's a fascinating article in McKinsey Quarterly this month by Paul Polman CEO of Unilever entitled "Business, society and the future of capitalism".
Here's some excerpts from it with no apologies for quoting directly from him. It's worth a full read.
"Business is here to serve society......thinking in the long term has removed enormous shackles from our organisation....better decisions are being made....we have moved to a more mature dialogue with our investor base about strategic actions which serve Unilever's best interests in the long- term versus explaining short-term movements....This is very motivational for our employees to hear....people are proud to work on something where they actually make a difference in life, and that is obviously the hallmark of a purpose-driven business model".
"We spent time identifying investors who would be comfortable with the longer-term growth model instead of focusing on shorter-term interests and have seen our shareholder base shift. We're starting to attract more longer-term thinkers".
"Corporate social responsibility and philanthropy are very important, and I certainly don't want to belittle them. But if you want to exist as a company in the future, you have to go beyond that. You actually have to make a positive contribution. Business needs to step up to the plate."
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