The Profit Motive As Chief Purpose and Highest Terminal Value For Business: It’s Time We Discuss The Elephant In The Classroom

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Abstract: In August 2019, the Business Roundtable group—an association of America’s leading CEOs—issued a provocative statement asserting that the purpose of a corporation must be redefined to promote “an economy that serves [everyone]” (Business Roundtable, 2019). We heartily agree with this critically needed change of thinking, and wish to explore how we might move beyond mere rhetoric in our teaching and business practices. In this session, we are proposing a facilitated and collaborative exploration that will invite participants to help identify ways in which our current assumptions about the presumed end goal (or chief purpose and highest terminal value) of modern business should be identified and examined—like the “elephant in the classroom” that we must openly examine and challenge if we wish to empower all business stakeholders to collectively “live our best lives.”