In 1970, Milton Friedman argued that a corporation's primary goal and responsibility should be to maximize profits for its shareholders.As such, social responsibility should not be of concern to a corporation, Nor should money or other resources be allocated toCSR initiatives. However, John Elkington who founded a British consultancy called SustainAbility disagreed.He first coined the phrase, triple bottom line (TBL), in 1994.Elkington thought companies should focus on three different bottom lines, the three Ps, which represent a company's profit, planet, and people accounts.The first, profit, is the traditional measure of a company's financial profit.The second is the company's planet account, which indicates how environmentally responsible the company has been.The third is the measure of a company's people account, which is a measure of how socially responsible an organization has been with people both inside the organization (employees) and outside the organization (community).Elkington believed the only way a company could account for the full cost of doing business would be to consider all three.

Do you think a company should be concerned with social responsibility initiatives?Consider both the pros and cons.