is all of this a sign that bossholes are
going out of style?
Well, maybe. In August 2019, five years
after Artie T. retook control of Market Bas-
ket, Business Roundtable, an association of
CEOs of major corporations, issued a new
version of its Statement on the Purpose of
a Corporation, a declaration of its values.
A press release from Business Roundtable
noted that “each version of the document
issued since 1997 has endorsed principles
of shareholder primacy—that corpora-
tions exist principally to serve sharehold-
ers.” But the new statement, signed by 181
CEOs, rejected that principle. “Each of our
stakeholders is essential,” it read. “We
commit to deliver value to all of them, for
the future success of our companies, our
communities and our country.”
Of course, there will always be oppres-
sive managers. But American business
culture needn’t provide such fertile soil
for them to grow. To be fair, some, such
as Jobs, have contributed much to civiliza-
tion; but there is no reason to believe they
needed to be ogres in order to do it.
One minor contribution bossholes may
make, and in some cases it may be some-
what intentional, is in strengthening the
spines of the people who have to put up
with them—many of whom vow to protect
decent people from the predators.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. was one of
those crusaders. After two years under the
thumb, and the lash, of Captain Thomp-
son, Dana returned to Harvard with his
eyes in good working order. In 1840, he
published a classic memoir of his experi-
ences at sea, Two Years Before the Mast. Not
long after, having earned a law degree, he
wrote The Seaman’s Friend, a manual for
sailors that apprised them of their rights
and told them how to seek redress from
unjust treatment. As an attorney, he took
great pleasure in representing aggrieved
sailors in court, but he was better known
for defending numerous fugitive slaves
whose former “masters” hoped to reclaim
them by legal means.
As for Captain Thompson, he died in
1837 and lies buried in Brunswick, Maine,
under a tombstone that is so covered with
moss that you can barely read his name.
But no matter; Dana has seen to it that he
shall live forever—in the Bosshole Hall
of Fame. •△
Longtime customers
Julie Handley
and Charles Hoar
offered support for
Arthur T. Demoulas
outside the
Market Basket in
Chelsea, Mass., on
July 26, 2014.