How to make life that bit harder

[king1]

What I felt to be the general consensus back then was the only real responsibility of the business is to the shareholder/owners.  The rest of it (Environmental, reputation, being a good corporate citizen etc) was considered discretionary and only if in the best interests of the shareholders, unless required by law...

That sounds like a very narrow view. All of the things you list relate to the overall success of the business and therefore are part of the responsibility to the shareholders/owners. I think part of the slippery downward slide for a lot of companies is the fact that they have lost sight of those things so it's interesting that it's a perspective you were taught and no wonder that so many fail.

I think the idea was just to get everyone thinking about it and the implications, and whether it was acceptable. It was 15-20 years back so a little less concern about environmental, mental health and other similar issues back then...

Thankfully there has been some progress since then