The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Fri, 01 May 2026 11:32:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png On the Purpose and Objective of the Corporation – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 On the Purpose and Objective of the Corporation https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/08/05/on-the-purpose-and-objective-of-the-corporation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=on-the-purpose-and-objective-of-the-corporation https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/08/05/on-the-purpose-and-objective-of-the-corporation/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2020 12:59:42 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=131937?d=20200805085942EDT Posted by Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, and William Savitt, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Editor's Note:

Martin Lipton is a founding partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions and matters affecting corporate policy and strategy, and Steven A. Rosenblum and William Savitt are partners Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton memorandum by Mr. Lipton, Mr. Rosenblum, Mr. Savitt, Karessa L. Cain, Hannah Clark, and Bita Assad. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); and Toward Fair and Sustainable Capitalism by Leo E. Strine, Jr. (discussed on the Forum here).

As we approach the first anniversary of the Business Roundtable’s abandonment of shareholder primacy and embrace of stakeholder governance, and the fourth anniversary of our development for the World Economic Forum of The New Paradigm: A Roadmap for an Implicit Corporate Governance Partnership Between Corporations and Investors to Achieve Sustainable Long-Term Investment and Growth, we thought it useful to consider in broader context the key issues of corporate governance and investor stewardship today. While there is no universal consensus, the question underlying these issues can be expressed as: What is the corporation trying to achieve? What is its objective?

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