Even though I disagree with the thesis of this article I find it quite interesting.

I think that the last sentence of the article is very telling:

there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception fraud

I think that there lies the issue with the point being made. Companies regularly employ deception to get more profit. If companies were honest, consumers, politicians and “the market” would be much more efficient to punish harmful behaviours from companies and make them pay for their externalities, via taxes or other means.

This documentary (available only in french and german sorry) describes really well how companies spread doubt in the scientific process to keep their business models and profit growing. The first historical example was the cigarette industry and the health issues caused by smoking, but it is now widespread in many industries (unhealthy foods, climate change, pesticides etc…). The way they generally do this is by funding a ton of studies on other causes for the harm they cause to make it as if the science hasn’t settled yet, even though all independent studies agree.

I also think that companies, except when they’re small are way too large to really be as unified as they present themselves. A company with tens of thousands of employee will always have many different opinions, and even if a company claims to be working “for the common good”, the only thing that unifies its workers is the desire to get paid at the end of the month.