Many large corporations are hierarchical, conservative organisations run by men of middle age who have lost touch with the rest of society.
Some people only pay lip service to the millennial sensibilities. Some, such as an embarrassed Dad at a disco join in too enthusiastically. It is tempting to mock the corporate vanity that may ensue, even though the cause may be a noble one.
Unilever’s claim that it is “reinventing food to feed humanity” with Knorr stock cubes makes it impossible not to giggle. Beyond the vanity and sillyness, serious issues are at stake.
A sign of the times: Businesses face new ethical challenges that require finely balanced decisions
Larry Fink, while not a non-serious activist, is one of today’s most accomplished asset managers. As the boss of Blackrock, he is the custodian of £7.5billion of savers’ cash. In his annual letter to CEOs, he states that being green and giving staff flexibility is not just a matter of wakefulness. This is dynamic capitalism.
Businesses must re-invent themselves in line with the times or risk losing customers and be starved of the finance to grow.
Fink’s lecture on social responsibility at firms is seen as a bit of hypocrisy by some. However, he suggests that certain causes today considered woke will in the future be righteous and just.
The notion of more women in boards used to be seen as militant feminism. Everyone realized that the lack of female talent was affecting business performance only after Lord Mervyn Davies (a prominent male banker) took the reins. Students agitated to have Barclays pull out from apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 80s. Although it took sixteen years for the boycotts to end, those who protested were right on the right side.
Although it is not difficult to believe that Robertson’s jam featured a golliwog-mascot, few people today would dispute its authenticity as a racist stereotype. It was shocking, however, that it didn’t disappear as recently as 2001.
Perhaps 20 years hence, it won’t seem as amazing to find sweets called Midget Gems in shops. Marks & Spencer and other chains are renaming the pastilles after protests about hate speech to those with dwarfism.
Companies are much quicker than they were to respond to protests partly because of social media and partly because ESG – environmental, social and governance – has become de rigueur in the City.
Business leaders sometimes act like activists. Paul Polman was the ex-Unilever boss. He has been protesting loudly over the Government’s new policing law, describing the bill as anti-democratic. He doesn’t have shareholders and can do what he wants.
This is a backdrop that has been highly politicized. This pandemic has been exacerbated by the loss of trust in governments and businesses due to the financial crisis. Society is becoming increasingly polarised, and there are new fault lines emerging. This includes the denigration of Big Pharma by anti-vaxxers.
New ethical issues confront businesses that demand balanced decision-making.
The new ethical frontier is also in the tech sector. It is well-adept at keeping one step ahead regulation.
Already, social media has raised many questions about privacy, child protection and fraud.
Metaverse is next in a line of action. A virtual, immersive world populated by avatars that will pose more problems, it’s the next great thing.
Small cameras and sensors could be used by companies to collect data on our eye and facial movements and then use this information to target us with hyper-targeted advertising.
There’s also a moral minefield.