Social Measures and Innovation over profit
A couple of days ago a pretty awesome meeting happened between Apple shareholders and Apple’s board of directors. It was an annual shareholders meeting which is normally pretty routine- the CEO, Tim Cook, fills everyone in on the progress of the company and everyone talks about the general outlook for the foreseeable future.
This one, however, played out a little differently. This time, a representative from the National Center for Public Policy Research or NCPPR (a conservative think tank) asked the company to disclose the costs of its sustainability programs, such as solar energy facilities, and how they affected their profits. He then said that Apple should be cutting climate change programs in order to focus on profits above everything else.
Mr Cook did not like that, he didn’t like it one, itty, bit.
He said that there are many things Apple does because they are right and just, and that a return on investment (ROI) was not the primary consideration on such issues.
“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind,” he said, “I don’t consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.
Finally, Cook looked at the questioner and said “if you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.”
The shareholders, thank god, agreed with him. Apple is a company that rates social measures, innovation and advances in technology above all else, and that would be how it will remain.
Following the meeting, the NCPPR and the man behind the questions from them, a Justin Danhof, released an a press release that is heavily critical of Cook, saying that shareholder value is destroyed in favor of efforts to combat climate change in particular.
“Here’s the bottom line: Apple is as obsessed with the theory of so-called climate change as its board member Al Gore is,” Danhof said. “After today’s meeting, investors can be certain that Apple is wasting untold amounts of shareholder money to combat so-called climate change.”
Well, we wish we were shareholders in Apple, and we would be really proud of ourselves if we were. Well done, Mr Cook, Well done, Apple Shareholders. Proud ‘a you.
We’re not crying, it’s just been raining on our face.
Images courtesy of Businessinsider.com, Thehollywoodnews.com, macrage.com & Quickmeme.com