Duty Before Virtue – The Real Ethical Dilemma Facing Corporate Governance

For the invisible hand to work, corporations needed to be free to act in their own best interest too. In a free market system, the needs of the shareholder are satisfied out of the needs of the corporation. The shareholder’s share of wealth created by the corporation is commensurate to the needs of that corporation, not the needs of shareholder. More importantly, a corporation should be free to elevate the priority of any other stakeholder if that was in its interest.