Stakeholder Groups

If you talk to anyone involved in politics or senior leadership in companies, you will hear the term intervenors.  These are people or organizations whose role it is to be a public advocate for goodness by watching over businesses.  Perhaps you remember Ralph Nader who was a prominent advocate for consumer protections and environmental stewardship.

The energy utilities typically call these advocates stakeholders, which is a word with natural roots in the concept of “having a stake in the business or concept.”  The roots for this come from gambling jargon we all use like “they have skin in the game” or the ancient roots of owning a piece of property with others… from which we get the idea of claiming your stake.

This rightful balance in perspectives and dialogue in the game of business fairness and societal benefits has now devolved into a form of primitive warfare where each group holds sharp pointy sticks (stakes) and advocates goring the ox of their “adversaries” in life.  Compromise is not their intent, nor is a balanced discussion of any issue.

As proof of my point of view, take a gander at this article about “Big Oil” fighting electric vehicles.  This article is from a major engineering news source in March of 2019.  More recently, the boardrooms of these same big oil companies have been hijacked by environmental advocates in what I would describe as an abdication of leadership from within.  Everyone now is afraid of appearing out of date with this new woke, politically correct group of stakeholders.

This is an excellent article in that it points out how things start out with noble intents and are endorsed by all until someone’s ox gets gored.  We need to put down the stakes we are holding and discuss what is in the best interest of our nation and how we are going to pay for things.

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