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By Richard Neville
The belated recognition by business of its social responsibility
is a hot trend. It is fuelled by corporate visionaries, ethical
investment funds, a range of web 'zines, cheer-leading commentators
and a network of xxxxhigh minded associations.
A new role not yet
understood...
"It's a task of historic proportions", says compassionate capitalist,
Willis Harman, founder of the World Business Academy, "We're
on the threshold of an extraordinary transformation, full of
opportunity and risk". Now that the corporate sector has become
"the most powerful institution on the planet", it needs to take
responsibility for the whole - "a new role for business, not
yet well understood and accepted." But becoming more so each
day. With increasing frequency, I've been asked to present a
keynote address on this issue - Beyond the Bottom Line - at
conferences and business forums. Whether on the podium for IBM,
Telstra or the Investment Funds Association of Australia, I
find the corporate world surprisingly sympathetic to the plea
that its mission be re-defined. Weary of being dismissed as
"the problem", it relishes the spotlight of ... "the solution".
An ecology of commerce.
Another passing fad?
It took me a while to get used to the idea. In the old days,
the guys in the suits were the ones mixing vats of napalm for
Vietnam, the uptight execs with Stepford wives who hated dissenters
and dreamed of turning the world into a brick veneer housing
estate. Okay - so they succeeded - but only in pockets.
Then along came the new age entrepreneur. Silent at first,
determined, subverting the notion of profit as ethics-free.
An idealism ignited in the heat of the protest movement was
insinuated into the shopfront. Community service, recycling,
no advertising or animal testing, sustainable resources, etc
- you've heard it all before. Capitalism with a conscience,
management with heart, an ecology of commerce. Another passing
fad?
Maybe. But if so, then you can say the same for Western
civilisation. In my generation, the future was something taken
for granted. Now it has to be rescued.
Consumers can punish
with boycotts
This is recognised by the new entrepreneurs, who are stretching
the concerns of business beyond the bottom line. It's an awareness
driven by the rise of the adversarial consumer. No longer
the meek fodder of mass marketeers, today's consumers are
alert to a broad range of social and environmental issues,
whether it's the exploitation of child labour in Asia to make
cheap tennis shoes, or a firm's lack of top jobs for minorities.
Consumers can punish with boycotts or reward by channelling
their savings into a growing number of socially screened unit
trusts. The Australian Ethical Investment Trust, which focuses
on small businesses with a benign social impact, recently
paid out its one millionth dollar to unit holders.
Canon is obsessive
about recycling toner cartridges
Ryuzaburo Kaku, 68 year old chairman of Canon Inc, who witnessed
the blast of the atomic bomb at Nagasaki, now presides over
one of the world's most innovative multinationals. Ozone-wrecking
gases are banned in the factory, solar energy is utilised
and a committee of 300 is devoted to enhancing the environment.
Canon is obsessive about recycling toner cartridges. Kaku's
philosophy is known as "kyosei", living and working together
for the common good.
When the founder of Patagonia outdoor wear, Yvon Chouinard,
got "sick and tired" of fancy plastic packaging, his firm
just rolled up their long underwear with rubber bands, dumped
them on the shelves and prepared for a 30% sales drop. Instead,
they sold more than ever. "In almost every case where we've
decided to do the right thing", he says, "Its turned out to
make us more money". An analyis of "super achieving" companies
by Stanford University showed that the 18 superstars paid
less attention to the bottom line than smaller fry. Instead,
they focussed on inner values.
The great dinosaurs
of business still slug it out...
Meanwhile, on our front pages, the great dinosaurs of business
still slug it out in a Darwinian swamp , about as sensitive
to the shifts of public awareness as the French military.
Whether its Shell Oil, Coles Myer or BHP, the old style robber-baron
capitalism is out of place in the nineties.
It has even dawned on the editors of the Economist, in the
wake of the Brent oil spar fiasco, that business has reached
the crossroads.
"Tomorrow's successful com-pany can no longer afford to be
a faceless institution that does nothing more than sell the
right product at the right price", concludes this weary warhorse
of the old order, "It will have to present itself as an intelligent
actor of upright character, that brings explicit moral judgement
to bear on its dealings with its own employees and the wider
world."
The up-yours ethics of
a bye-gone age
In Australia, too many corporate honchos and media commentators
are stuck in the up-yours ethics of a bye-gone age. Their
credo is red in tooth and claw; competitors are the enemy,
the game is to win, it's a jungle out there. This can now
be updated; competitors are my benchmark, the game is perpetual
development, I am part of the community.
Ethical and spiritual issues will surge to the fore as we
approach the year 2000. This is a chance for business to seize
the moment and expand its consciousness. To make a buck, sure,
but also to buck the system.
Richard
Neville
Richard Neville has been a perceptive
commentator of our rainbow region since the Aquarius Festival
days. His latest book, Hippy Hippy Shake, cited as "a comic
master-piece" by London's Literary Review, is published by
Reed Books
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