Do We Need a New Corporate Response to a Changing Social Environment?

Wall Street Journal, April 1, 1968, p. 6.

For example, George Champion, Chairman of the Board, Chase Manhattan Bank, addressing the Eleventh Annual Good Friday Breakfast for Business and Professional Men in Los Angeles on April 12, 1968, said: “Some businessmen seek endlessly for elaborate rationales to justify the social role of the corporation. Business, they say, should participate in the war on poverty because this will help build markets for the future; or because slums are siphoning off more and more business profits in the form of higher taxes; or because the alternative may be ruined cities. Isn't it time that somebody stood up and said, ‘Business should participate because it's the right thing to do.’” Characterizing the business community's response to the moral problem as “ambivalent”—sometimes willing to help and sometimes evasive in finding solutions—he said that either we must bear the costs of social projects or the consequences of evading them. New York Times, April 13, 1968, p. 10.

Another example is that of George S. Squibb, former Vice President of E. R. Squibb & Sons, and now a consultant to the company which was founded by his grandfather, testifying before Senate Subcommittee on Monopoly of the Select Committee on Small Business, who said: “Exploitation of medicines used in life preserving and life saving situations by selling prices far above the cost must be avoided no matter what justification or economic temptation is felt by the manufacturer. … Of course, prices have declined, but the drug industry must accept social responsibility for its operations and special burdens and limitations not assumed by other industries because of its place in the scheme of medical care, now an object of public concern.” New York Times, April 15, 1967, p. 24.

Quoted by William D. Patterson, in an article titled: “J. Irwin Miller: The Revolutionary Role of Business.” Saturday Review, Jan. 13, 1968, pp. 62–72.

Newsweek, April 22, 1968, p. 74.

Whyte William H. Jr. , Is Anybody Listening? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950).

San Francisco Chronicle, April 18, 1968, p. 53.

Daily Californian, April 18, 1968, p. 5. The student newspaper of the University of California, Berkeley. (Bracketed comments are ours.)

Whyte , op. cit., p. 14.

“Detroit Up From Ashes,” Newsweek, Jan. 1, 1968, pp. 48–50.

Wall Street Journal, March 26, 1968, p. 16; also see Business Week, Feb. 3, 1968, pp. 120–124.

Business Week, Feb. 3, 1968, p. 120.

“The Fight That Swirls Around Eastman Kodak,” Business Week, April 29, 1967, p. 40.

“Meet Ralph Nader, Everyman's Lobbyist and His Consumer Crusade,” Newsweek, Jan. 22, 1968, pp. 65–73.

“The Touch,” Newsweek, March 18, 1968, p. 93.

The one major exception to this generalization would be in the case of overseas marketing, where the decision maker is confronted with a quite different set of external variables.

March James G. Simon Herbert A. , Organizations (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1958), chaps. 6 and 7.

Marshall Charles , “Civil Rights: What Role for Business?” Saturday Review, Jan. 13, 1968, p. 54.

Langton James F. , “What Should the Business Response Be to the Negro Revolution?” Public Relations Journal, June 1965, pp. 12–17.

Wall Street Journal, March 26, 1968, p. 16.

Langton , op. cit., pp. 12–17. Also see “Target: Negro Jobs,” Newsweek, July 1, 1968, pp. 21–30.