“I care very deeply about Aurora and this Humanitarian Initiative, and to be part of this incredible cohort [of humanitarians] that has been so mistreated? This is my journey,” said David Goel, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Matrix Capital Management, at the “Role of Corporations in Advancing Humanitarian Efforts” panel held on May 9 during the Human Rights and Humanitarian Forum. In the course of the discussion, several leading entrepreneurs whose decisions are capable of impacting around half a million employees offered their insights on doing good for the planet, investing in social standing, and committing to communities.
The panel was moderated by Christine Heenan, Chief Communications Officer & Executive Partner of Flagship Pioneering, and featured Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, and Co-Founder and Chairman, of Moderna; David Goel, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Matrix Capital Management; Alex Gorsky, Former Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson and Board Member of Apple, IBM, and JPMorgan Chase; and Vincent Roche, CEO of Analog Devices.
Kicking off the session, Christine Heenan, Chief Communications Officer & Executive Partner of Flagship Pioneering, acknowledged the sheer power accumulated by the speakers. “I was doing some quick googling and math in the back row there, and between the corporations you've led and the Boards you've served on there, the ability to impact something like half a million employees around the world sits on this stage. So, [I’m] really eager for your perspectives on the question at hand, which is the role of corporations in advancing a humanitarian agenda.”
Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, and Co-Founder and Chairman, of Moderna, highlighted the importance of social responsibility and social standing for the big business, which is crucial to continuing its work yet often overlooked. “One of the reasons corporations have to care about these things is this general notion of a ‘license to operate.’ Corporations are risking other people’s capital to develop solutions that are net-positive, not just in terms of impact but also for profits, but they can only do that as long as they maintain the license to operate, said Dr. Afeyan. “Law gives you a license to operate, then your social standing in the community, in the world, does that. And I think many of the leaders actually invest a lot in that.”
Vincent Roche, CEO of Analog Devices, stated that responsible innovation for human and planetary health is something companies can no longer do without, since it’s becoming more and more essential for the workforce. “We have a very strong ethos in the company. We want to do good for humans, do good for the planet. The planetary piece is becoming, obviously, a more strident need, as time marches on here, but we also put our capital where our commitments are,” explained Mr. Roche. “In the company, we’ve built a unit of sustainability. It’s focused on one of the big and most pressing technological needs that’s got to be resolved – how do you provide electrical energy that fuels economic growth and is very important to our lives?”
David Goel, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Matrix Capital Management, pointed out that an entrepreneur’s professional responsibilities and personal interests are sometimes hard to align, saying: “My number one focus is to drive capitalism. That’s what I do for America. What I care about is the journey America has given me – an opportunity to be educated, an opportunity to learn the capacity to improve the quality of life for the people I love, my family here, my relatives in the Philippines, in India.”
Alex Gorsky, Former Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson and Board Member of Apple, IBM, and JPMorgan Chase, talked about working with an organization called The Business Roundtable in the United States, which is a committee that pulls together about 250 top companies in terms of market capitalization. “We had in fact been criticized by several NGOs, and rightfully so, that if you went to our website, it said that the purpose of a corporation was to maximize shareholder value. They said, “Well, all you CEOs go out there and talk about the great things you’re doing, but if we click on your website, this is what it says,” noted Mr. Gorsky who was asked to correct that. Eventually, after doing a lot of research and asking a lot of stakeholders in a much broader community, he managed to “reincapsulate the purpose of a corporation in very explicit terms around commitments to customers, commitments to your employees, commitments to communities, and yes, commitments to shareholders.”