Chapter 14 Charity with shareholders' money is not a corporate responsibility

A company's goal should be very single, that is to create value for society.Only by creating value for the society can it be possible to tax the society more.For a business, performance is profit.If you add too much to a company, I think there will be problems.For so many years, we seem to have been talking about corporate social responsibility.As an enterprise, its task is to pursue the maximization of value and profit, and at the same time comply with industry standards.For example, whether it is environmentally friendly, of course it depends on the standard: if it is in China, you must follow the Chinese standard; if you export the product to the United States, you must follow the American standard.Therefore, a company's compliance with laws and regulations should be the first priority.As for doing charity and welfare work, these things should not be the responsibility of a company.Enterprises are not qualified to do these things, because the money that belongs to them belongs to shareholders. You cannot use shareholders’ money to do your own charity, and you must respect shareholders’ opinions.To protect the interests of shareholders, enterprises must reduce costs and create value.

The so-called corporate social responsibility does not mean that companies leave their own scope to do another thing.The enterprise itself is a part of the social structure, and its existence and development are social responsibilities.Just like we say that a person who is naturally healthy and lives with love has social value.But it is absurd to have to alienate society, put the whole in front of the part and ask the part to think of other ways to become part of the whole.It's like letting one hand be responsible for the body.In fact, if a hand can move and be used, it is already responsible for the body.

In my opinion, the first thing is to establish order, not to talk about morality.It is the right way to establish a good political and economic order so that every enterprise in it can grow healthily.For example, we should pay special attention to environmental protection now, so we should formulate comprehensive environmental protection laws.When an enterprise talks about environmental protection, it does not mean that it has assumed any social responsibility in a particularly high-profile manner, but that it abides by environmental protection laws. The responsibility of an enterprise is actually to abide by the law and create profits.If I use the company's money to do charity now, this is the most taboo thing for shareholders, and it is also the most taboo thing for shareholders.If, after the dividends are distributed, they use their own money to pay attention to education, poverty alleviation or AIDS prevention, and entrepreneurs do it themselves, I think there will be real happiness in doing charity.The same goes for non-listed private companies.You want to do charity and welfare work, this is a problem for entrepreneurs, not for enterprises.In fact, doing charity is everyone's own wish, and should be done with their own money.We often confuse the social responsibility of entrepreneurs with the social responsibility of enterprises.