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Davos: Unilever chief in plea on climate change
29 January 2010:
He told a session at Davos that he did not mind if hedge funds sold Unilever’s shares because of worries over short-term profitability. “They would sell their grandmother if they could make money. They are not people who are there in the long-term interests of the company.”
Mr Polman, who joined Unilever a year ago, said he was brought in to ensure long-term success not to focus merely on shareholder value. This required him to take costly actions to ensure it had a sustainable business, for example in terms of palm oil supplies. “We want to be in business for the next 500 years.”
It was time to move beyond “shareholder value” as the guiding principle behind corporate leadership, he said. Chief executives needed courage to move out of their “comfort zone”.
Source: The Times Online