By stepping into the furore over Indiana’s religious freedom law, in defence of gay rights, Tim Cook is boldly taking Apple where companies have been wary of going before. But he is not the only US business leader advocating for a deeply-held personal belief — so have Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com on the same issue, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks on racial discrimination and violence.

In addition to chief executives speaking out about social matters on which they might have remained silent a few years ago, they are adopting liberal stances that often clash with political and religious conservatives. On gay marriage in particular, companies are ignoring the traditional advice that they should stick to maximising profits within what Milton Friedman, the economist, called “the rules of the game”.

“Discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business,” Mr Cook declared in an article in the Washington Post this week. Having nodded to the shareholder value caucus, he then made very clear where his heart lies. “It isn’t a religious issue. This is about how we treat each other as human beings,” wrote Mr Cook, who is himself gay, in his effort to change the rules in Indiana and conservative states such as Arkansas.