Evil Corporations, Or Corporate Evil?

The Root Of All Evil
An acquaintance of mine believes that the corporation is the root of all that is evil in this world.  Personally, I don't believe corporations are any more evil than nuclear power is.  By that, I mean to say that nuclear weapons are a misuse of nuclear power.  Nuclear power, like the corporation, is not bad in itself.  Whether corporations are good or bad for society depends on the people within those companies.  To say that corporations have no conscience, is to see them only as legal entities.

Life and Death?
Despite all of the hype and war-related allegories, business is not war.  It can be a struggle, but very seldom is somebody literally holding a gun to one's head.  Terrible things happen in war because of the fierce struggle between life and death.  The death of a company is the death of a legal entity.  Sure, real people lose their jobs when a company ceases to exist, but to compare that to people being killed, is, at the very least, an extreme comparison.

Profits
To say the profit motive is the reason "companies" misbehave, is to excuse the behaviour of the people running the company.  Why not just assess a fine to the company for wrong-doing?  Again, to hold the company accountable for the actions of people within it, only shields those people and allows for such bad behaviour in the future.  Worse yet, it passes the real costs onto shareholders (which is why we don't want to invest in such organizations).  Yet, time and time again, I hear the talking heads in the media recommending an investment in so-called sin stocks, for example.  Take the profits and give some to charity, they say.

Trust
I believe in the saying, "If they will do it with you, they will do it to you!"  Apart from the fact nobody is holding the bad guys accountable, these days, I don't understand why companies fail to see the benefit of acting in an ethical manner, and why the media and analysts excuse any such bad behaviour.  Stephen Covey Jr. wrote a whole book on the concept of how much easier (and less expensive) it is to transact business in an atmosphere of trust.  When people don't trust you to do things in their best interest, they tend to need more convincing, and bigger guarantees (and more lawyers).  If people representing a company have no difficulty selling a product which is dangerous to its clients, how much more regard do you think they will have for outside investors?

By The Numbers
Just for giggles, I checked out the curriculum of a popular MBA (Masters in Business Administration) program.  While it talks about learning how to maximize or minimize everything and anything business related, it failed to mention a single topic which might be seen as ethics related.  This further contributes to my belief that business, these days, is thought to be about the numbers, and nothing to do with ensuring an atmosphere of trust within which all acts of commerce would benefit.

Those Days Are Numbered
Again, I just don't understand what they are thinking.  Any entrepreneur will tell us we can only ever expect to do business with the people who actually trust us.  Have corporate business people never heard of word-of-mouth, and social media (which I have heard described as word-of-mouth on steroids)!  The idea that there is a sucker born every minute may even be true, but no company can afford to be seen acting on such a belief in today's world.  How long or well would Toyota have survived the recent bashing they received had it not been for the integrity of senior management, and their putting customers first?  The "old boy" network is dying out.  As long as there are other companies willing to remain loyal to the old way of doing things, they will be able to find buyers for whatever they are selling, but those days are going to end soon enough.

Return On Investment
As for the banksters?  They will continue to hide out within and behind their organizations until regulators and customers hold them accountable.  Yet, that day, too, will come.  I suppose they think, until then, who cares?  I say, use and invest in the companies run by people that aren't just trying to stuff their own pockets.  As in the case of Toyota it is clear that integrity is, in fact, economical in ways that can't be achieved by adopting less than ethical approaches.  While I think of it, maybe somebody should let the MBA students in on that well kept secret!  

Do you have an opinion as to whether or not you think corporations are evil?

     

    

Toyota. Buy, Buy, Buy!

Tuesday was a very sad day for me.  I have to admit I had started to believe that Toyota was just like any other huge corporation that had lost its way.   The lure to become, and remain number one in the auto industry was too much for them.  They had lost touch with customers, and worse still, they had put profits ahead of the safety, and lives of customers.

While I was suspicious of the media, and the agendas of the U.S. politicians, not to mention those of the U.S. auto industry, I never, for a moment believed that such unprecedented numbers of every-day people would misrepresent the difficulties they were having with their family automobile.  Now, I understood many, many people were walking away from home mortgages, but that seemed to me like a case of, "I can't pay what I don't have."  In the case of Toyota, they were actually blaming the car maker.  In addition, they were, and are, demanding compensation for problems which were, largely, not the fault of Toyota.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has studied the problem and in every case, any difficulty caused by sudden acceleration would have caused the engine light to come on.  Only a handful of such cases exist according to the NASA studies.

Once again, we have to wonder what role the media has played in all of this.  As for our own media, the CBC in particular, I was sickened, when on that very same Tuesday, they chose to show the execution of one of the Egyptian protesters by, what appeared to be, the Egyptian police.  Is there not enough violence in this world already?  Is it any less violent to show such an act on national television than to commit the crime in the first place?  Are they trying to incite even more violence?  Do they feel they must go to these lengths to gain viewers?  Personally, in future, I will get my news from the internet, thankyou, CBC.  Just when I think people can't act any dumber...  Perhaps they have been watching their own newscasts for too long.

Having said all that, the thing that sticks in my memory about Toyota's difficulties is the chairperson of Toyota offering his sincere personal apology for not having listened to customers better!  Now this is the type of company I would be interested in.  Management plays a huge role in successful companies.  I can only contrast this with the likes of Firestone.  Firestone knew their tires were defective and that tire failures would result in people dying, but deemed it more cost effective to continue with production.  There were also other tire companies whose products I will never in my life-time buy again.  How's that for cost effective?  And, if I wouldn't buy their products, I'm not about to buy their stock.

The same goes for the likes of cigarette companies, or asbestos companies.  I know there are people in the media (and outside, for that matter), who believe the ends justify the means.  How can we invest in cigarette companies without condoning the sale of poison to people under the guise of free choice?  What type of greedy, mostly self-centred people should we think run those companies?  Do we really think they care about treating employees and shareholders fairly when they are prepared to poison their very own customers?  What about what it is costing you and I in health care expenses?  Should we feel that we can trust these people on any level?

For the free, capitalist system to work, we should reward the best companies that are able to achieve their greatness while upholding their ethical standards.  The only result of rewarding those who cheat and lie is more cheaters and more liers, especially when they are granted special status like "too big to fail".  I would rather make less money investing in honest and trustworthy companies and maintain my own integrity.  It isn't like I can buy it back again with the extra money I might otherwise make.  I say fire the politicians and bankers who created our current financial crisis, and stick with companies who have proven they can be trusted to be profitable while remaining fair, ethical and uncompromising - companies, as it turns out, like Toyota.

Do you believe the end justifies any means of obtaining it?  Why?