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Pope Francis, who passed away on Monday, once compared Roman reforms to the toothbrushing of the Egyptian sphinx. For those with the unfallenness of the Pope, it is perhaps a candid recognition that the power of a God-supported leader has its limits. That’s something that large corporate leaders sometimes have a hard time grasping.
Certainly, being the head of the Catholic Church is not a role he once had. At the turn of the 13th century, Pope Innocent III was considered the most important figure in Europe. Still, even Francis enjoyed an enthusiastic audience of around 1.4 billion people, more than the constituency of, for example, European Commission Principal Ursula von der Reyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
But for that reason, Pope Francis has been able to push his influence so far only. He was a reformer in many ways, cleaning up some of the Vatican finances and softening some of his more conservative positions on gender. But his ability to change his organization, and the wider world, came with limitations. On all calls for a more compassionate financial sector, US companies are now rushing to tear off the wealth gap and pledges to fill the right social mistakes following Donald Trump’s reelection as president.
The leader of the company has more practical power than Francis’ successors inherit. And it allows for some restrictions on that. Sundar Pichai in Alphabet, or Mark Zuckerberg in Meta Platforms, can rely on follow, which is a multiple of that in the Catholic Church. The Facebook app claims 300 million users. Google’s search engine could double again.
And in signs of their shaking against the board and shareholders, the boss of a company has never received a reward. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs received $39 million for labor last year. Blackstone boss Steve Schwartzman received a billion-dollar $10. Global donations from followers to support Francis’ work, known as Peter’s Pence, raised approximately $55 million in 2023. This is more than most Wall Street bosses receive, but the gap is closed.
For all their strength, the business chiefs still want more. Zuckerberg represents those who own super voting stocks that grant a version of non-fall. Dimon and Solomon, like almost half of the S&P 500 companies’ leaders, combine CEO and chair roles, with employers resistant to separating those powers.
Still, there are two important things that the Pope understands, perhaps better than the corporate pope. First, their power depends on others – in Francis’s case, about a billion followers of the Catholic faith. Second, institutions must live longer than individuals. That seems clear to the church two thousand years ago. For companies that have only started in the first century, it is a lesson worth remembering.
john.foley@ft.com
