Dear Fellow Supporters of Integrated Reporting,

In my May 14, 2020 newsletter I informed you about the Harvard Business Review article, “3 Ways to Put Your Corporate Purpose into Action” that I wrote with Leo Strine and Tim Youmans. We suggested that, in order to put corporate purpose into action required a three-step approach: 

The first step is for the board of directors to publish a stakeholder-inclusive “Statement of Purpose” that defines the positive contribution to society the company will make, and the steps it will take to eliminate its negative impact on society. 

On March 27, 2020  a Special Edition of my newsletter announced that Philip Morris International, Inc. (PMI) had published its first “Statement of Purpose,” in its 2020 Proxy Statement signed by every member of its board of directors  To the best of my knowledge, PMI is the first and only U.S. company to have published a “Statement of Purpose.”  Not a single one of the 181  companies whose CEOs signed the Business Roundtable’s “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” on August 29, 2019 have taken their commitment to the next level and have their Board of Directors issue a Statement of Purpose.

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Kind regards,

Bob