by Michael Thomas & Bill Veltrop
Our corporations are the proverbial children of the world, who have been allowed to create any amount of mess they choose, without consequence or comprehension of the true nature and effect of this mess on the world. It is time for companies to “grow up” in a sense and take responsibility for their actions. The time of ignorance has passed and it is a time for conscious actions.
Three reasons why the corporations have been unconscious capitalists:
Design Flaw #1 — Narrow and Limited Definition of Success
For the longest time, the success of a company has been measured based on the amount of money it has made. This has been a skewed perception of success, especially because the natural capital utilized in creating the wealth was never brought into consideration. The treatment of the work force of a company and the environment as something that is unidirectional in a sense that it’s only job is to “give” into the company and not expect anything much in return has essentially stripped corporations of their humanity. They most vital part of any organization is the people who work for it and the diversity of perceptions they bring with them. Looking at a person as a drone has lead to a level of unconscious capitalism.
Design Flaw #2 — Mechanistic, Control-Over-People Organizational Cultures
The top down, hierarchical approach which most companies followed, as a legacy from perhaps the dark ages, lead to the controllers of the company having maximum control and profit share. This approach also insulated the leaders from hearing anything they didn’t want to, or hearing any “bad news” on a daily basis. Thus, even if the leaders of corporation were trying to do the right thing, they were essentially “flying blind” assuming everything is okay in the world and that their companies were not responsible for and negativity—physical or spiritual, being sent out into the world.
Design Flaw #3 — No provision for Ongoing Generative Design
Companies are carrying a large burden which is following from the previous systems of functioning and working. This burden needs to be alleviated and companies should allow themselves to re-invent certain systems. Companies should allow themselves to become more adaptive and fluid, growing with the people who form them. Companies need to evolve into the new world and adapt to changing environments. It is imperative they take lessons from nature—the largest independent system on the planet and learn that only through evolution can any entity truly hope to survive.
That corporations need to evolve and adapt is an irrevocable truth, however, how to bring about this change in both attitude and functioning is a new problem entirely Although many companies like Whole Foods, P&G, Interface, etc have been setting examples, they have so far been the exceptions, not the rule. Corporations and corporate leaders need to understand that the old ways of functioning are not only unsustainable, but are actually eating into the company slowly. Internally, corporations need to transform from a place where a “drone” is told what to do, to a place where an individual is respected for his talents and thoughts and is allowed the freedom to work in an environment which is encouraging and enriching. Only then will the individual be able to give himself completely into the cause of the company in which he is involved.
Corporations require a catalyst for inducing change in their functioning. This catalyst needs to be external as well as internal, and it is the responsibility of the governing bodies of the world to ensure that there are external factors which not only encourage, but also aid corporations in this transformation.
Heavy policing is no way of getting long term results—a lesson the human race has learned time and time again, even in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, where the presence of the American military, once considered a boon, is now becoming a bane for the locals. Heavy policing in the form of sanctions, fines, the Sarbanes Oxley Act, are good for very short term order, but in time, lead to corporations finding way to go around the system. What the world needs is a system that corporations and people actually want to follow and add to, in a positive sense.
Institutes like the GPTW and Fortune magazines’ coverage of this concept have been galvanizing a change in the way companies—successful companies are viewed. The Stakeholders of all companies are connected with each other in a way they never were before and this has made it important for companies to not only be profitable, but inherently good, because good people will not work for “bad companies”. And “bad” companies’ only ember of hope, if they are to survive, is to become good. This will require a painful and probably seemingly slow transformation, but will be worth it in the end. The metamorphosis of corporations is keenly analogous to the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly. The caterpillar is the only organism that completely changes its genetic structure mid-life. But it needs to do so, to not only survive, but to transcend the boundaries which have been imposed on it. The caterpillar seems to remain dormant for a while and might even be in pain, but the results of the patient change are spectacular. Similarly, in order to bring about a decisive change, corporations will have to essentially change their “genetic structure” and might even have to appear dormant perhaps even endure some pain in the process, but the end results will be a brand new corporate entity, which is geared to the future and which will be far more successful.
Adityajit Tiwana
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