Addressing the needs of a range of stakeholders has long been a part of managing a company, though explicit “stakeholder capitalism” has grown in influence in recent years following Business Roundtable’s updates to “The Purpose of the Corporation” in 2019. While the broader stakeholder focus is growing, shareholder value creation is still the primary company objective, implying that financial and shareholder value metrics should remain the most prominent incentive tools for executive pay programs. With the ongoing market evolution, many companies are more actively contemplating broader stakeholders and considering direct adoption of ESG metrics in pay programs. In these cases, many enduring principles of executive compensation should be applied to ESG metrics, including considering the alignment to company strategy and values and the incentive value that a broader view of performance can provide. READ MORE