Sep 06
I’ve always felt that “big problems” like climate change, poverty, biodiversity and sustainability need a “big business” approach. The kind of change that’s needed, the money it would take to do it, and the coordination and drive needed to achieve meaningful results are not possible at the consumer level.
Following the same logic, governments are not enough either. While they command impressive budgets, they are short-sighted as a matter of survival — because they must answer to an electorate which can kick them out within a few years. That’s not long enough to see projects like these to completion. Governments are also distracted by too many issues. You can’t keep everyone happy. They are not as bad as us consumers, but ultimately they answer to us so they are just as ineffective.
Corporations, on the other hand, have true long-term vision. As Jason Clay says, they want to be in business forever. Even more amazing is how few of them control so much. Mega-corporations are essentially governments. And although their board members are also subject to election, there are much fewer people on the board, power changes hands much less frequently, and the electorate is a limited group of highly interested people focussed on a very specific set of issues. More importantly, governments are limited by their country’s borders, while many corporations are truly global. Whether you think that is good or bad, it is difficult to deny that we live in a world where large corporations have more power to effect change than governments.
Consumers are rational, meaning we will do what we think maximises what we think are our goals. Governments are also rational, meaning they will do what they think maximises their chances of re-election. And corporations are rational, meaning they will do what they think maximises their short-term profits, their long-term business viability, and their future opportunities for growth. It would seem that the world is structured in such a way that our rational behaviour leads us invevitably toward the abyss.
The trick then, is to restructure the world so that the opposite is true. But the world is very big, so changing the structure of the biggest players is the only thing that makes sense. Mr Clay’s approach is to rely on the corporations’ rational motivation of staying in business to drive meaningful change.
I hope it works. Because if it doesn’t, we’re all fucked.
