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Why America’s CEOs have turned against their shareholders

America's largest companies recently came out against a model of governance that has for decades prized shareholder value over all else

By

Katharina Pistor

The lion's share: If CEOs are worried that shareholders are taking too much of the cake, they only have themselves to blame
The lion's share: If CEOs are worried that shareholders are taking too much of the cake, they only have themselves to blame Photo: Getty Images

The Business Roundtable, an association of the most powerful chief executive officers in the US, announced this month that the era of shareholder primacy is over.

Predictably, this lofty proclamation has met with both elation and scepticism. But the statement is notable not so much for its content as for what it reveals about how US CEOs think.

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