The following is a summary of a rather heated discussion between James A. Meaney, Chairman of L&M Corporation (Lean and Mean Corp) and Samuel Goode, Chairman and CEO of GTS Corporation (Goody Two-Shoes Corp): Mr. Meaney: A business has one function and purpose -- to make money for its owners! Anything beyond that is fluff and waste! By definition, that is the nature and function of a business. We should not be spending company money on activities that do not have a positive impact on our bottom line. To do this will decrease our efficiency and make us less competitive in world markets. Certainly many of our foreign competitors are not faced with demands to commit resources to do good works in the community! What is worse, spending money on these kinds of activities will increase prices for our customers. Is that fair? What is more, we don't have the skills to address social issues. We have business committing company resources to solving social, environmental or political issues (ie. poverty, social justice, environmental pollution, etc). We don't know how to do this. It is the job of government to address these issues. That is why we pay taxes! You may say that "doing good" makes good business sense. That is, ultimately our stakeholders will see what we are doing and will be more disposed to buy our products, give us good publicity, etc.--thereby increasing our bottom line. There well may be instances where this is the case. However, it should be our company's call as to when this is indeed the case....and we should so it with the expectation of increased profits--nothing more! Doing otherwise would be a violation of our fiduciary responsibility to our owners! Mr. Goode: A business is about more than enriching its owners! Of course we need to be profitable to stay in business. But, we have a broader social purpose and responsibility-- to create value for society. We are part of society and have an obligation to address issues that may or may not directly impact our profitability. We have a moral obligation to give something back to society. The good news is that we strongly believe that profitability and "good works" are not incompatible. It is obvious that we will be more profitable if we treat our stakeholders in a fair and just manner. When our customers, creditors, suppliers, employees and stockholders see us behaving in a socially responsible way, guess what happens? They like what they see and want do to business with us! Sure, making a real commitment to social issues might cost us in the short run, but it is worth it in the long run! What if we are not sure that "doing good" will increase our profitability (or what if we think it might decrease it)? Should we still do it? YES! The social environment issues we face are too big and too important for government and/or non-profits to resolve. Moreover, if we let government do all, we will be faced with an even more powerful, bureaucratic, and intrusive government than we now have! Won't this simply lead to more government regulation? In the final analysis, we businesses are part of society and have a moral obligation to get involved and to address society's problems --increased profits or not! Please discuss these two positions on the social responsibility of business. With which position do you agree? Why? You do not have to agree! Your group can have a "majority" and a "minority" report in your summary. Think