Ed Bastion, Delta CEO, Recognized as Golden Rule Leader
To help people visualize what stakeholder leadership looks like, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance has begun an effort to highlight examples of leaders, companies, and other organizations who are promoting or practicing its principles.Click here to subscribe to the ESM weekly e-newsletter.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, is the fifth leader selected by the Enterprise Engagement Alliance to illustrate the principles of stakeholder capitalism.
He joins JUST Capital, a leading advocacy group for stakeholder capital; Costco, the retailer, which embodies its principles; R. Edward Freeman, Professor at the Darden School at the University of Virginia, considered the “father” of stakeholder capitalism; and Joe Hinrichs, President and CEO of CSX railroad, who demonstrates the principles almost every day in his Linkedin posts.
These organizations, leaders, or academics are chosen based on their work or actions advocating for or demonstrating the value of harmonizing the interests of all shareholders and stakeholders toward a common purpose, goals, objectives, and values. One a week is selected and posted on Linkedin on Mondays and added to this list on the EEA web site until the Golden Rule Alliance site is launched in summer 2025.
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Pursuing the practice of the Golden Rule in stakeholder capitalism, CEO Ed Bastian explains the model in his bio on the Delta web site:
“When asked to sum up his job in five words, Ed's response is: ‘Taking care of our people.’ The answer reflects his leadership philosophy, which is based on the ‘virtuous circle’ – if you take care of your people, they take care of your customers, whose business and loyalty allow you to reward your investors.” Click here for a recent YouTube show on employee wellness and related subjects hosted by Bastian.
The company has received almost every award possible for employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
Employees enjoy relatively good pay, benefits, profit sharing, and robust recognition for performance. The company even has a financial wellness program to help employees better manage their money. Here is a link to the company’s employee benefits.
On Glassdoor, 85% give Bastian high marks; the company gets a 4.2 employee rating. It rates among the highest of US airlines in customer service.
Here is a link to its 2023 sustainability report.
Shareholders have done okay as well. Over the last five years, Delta’s stock has risen almost 100%, not quite even with the S&P 500 over that time, but much better than that of American Airlines, Southwest, or JetBlue. (Only United bested Delta’s stock performance over that time—up 193%.)
Here are links to a library of information on the principles of stakeholder capitalism upon which this growing selection of leaders is based. Here is a library of research on the financial impact of stakeholder capitalism. Here is a series of free articles on stakeholder engagement implementation and measurement. This article explains the roadmap for The Golden Rule Alliance.
Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services
Celebrating our 15th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:
- ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards since 2020
Management Academy to enhance future equity value for your organization.3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.
4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.
5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.
Contact: Bruce Bolger at TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230.
