A recent report evaluating the Business Roundtable's ostensible shift to a kinder, gentler capitalism found that CEOs' efforts so far leave much to be desired, particularly where it concerns their handling of the pandemic, said the New York Times. The report accused the group, composed of the nation's top CEOs, such as Amazon's Jefff Bezos and Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, of essentially "purpose-washing" their activities, essentially burying decidedly unkind, ungentle capitalism beneath a pile of encouraging rhetoric.

The report was produced by the Test for Corporate Purpose initiative, in cooperation with KKS Advisors and the Ford Foundation. The authors declined to use (environmental, social and governance) ESG data in their analysis, given the lack of independent assurance, delays in company reporting, and the diverse sets of regulations that make comparisons difficult across jurisdictions.

Instead they used a data-analytics approach using data collected by Truvalue Labs, which uses machine learning to to sift through millions of data points from more than 115,000 sources in 13 language to determine how companies are managing intangible factors that have a material impact on value. Using this data, the authors constructed an "inequality score" and a "COVID-19 score" to capture public sentiment on issues like employee health and safety, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion and other issues. The goal is to evaluate companies' commitment to purpose, historical performance in addressing issues before and after a crisis, and speed of response.

Many of the signatories, the report said, have failed to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to accounting for stakeholders. Hertz, for example, paid executives millions in retention bonuses while, at the same time, laying off thousands of workers and declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Other measures made during the pandemic, while ostensibly stakeholder-focused in the short term, are unlikely to be so in the medium to long term. For example, Amazon created jobs, but these jobs were low quality with a reliance on zero-hour contracts. Some companies, meanwhile, made moves directly contradictory to their claims of supporting stakeholder capitalism, such as Wells Fargo, which quashed a shareholder resolution asking the company to consider becoming a B corporation (which would mean legal accountability for pledges to consider stakeholder impacts).

"The interests of stockholders and other stakeholders will not always align, at least along the narrow lens of profits," said the report. "Companies will have to reckon with this reality if this transition is to mean anything."