It was just over a year ago that the Business Roundtable, a nonprofit association of chief executive officers of America’s largest companies, issued a bold statement that said a public company’s “sense of purpose” was now more important than traditional shareholder value metrics such as the price of its stock.

The statement was signed by 183 CEOs. And over the next 24 hours it became front page news in media across the country. While many viewed the development as a sudden change in corporate governance, the shift had been developing for a long time. Rather than a sudden change of heart in the c-suite, the statement reflected the social, purpose-driven values of a new generation of investors, consumers and employees.