I am encouraged to see the widespread news bulletins about company after company resenting the focus on quarterly stockholder reports. These tend to become episodic statements emphasizing or even bragging about corporate direction that follow trends and recent hype about this or that. This drug of stockholder acceptance seems to be pervasive and addicting.
It is also so uplifting to see other professionals who have echoed my concern. I especially like this one posted on linkedin.com: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/playing-long-game-david-timis/
Whether it is DEI, ESG, EV, PV, AI or some other three or four letter trend summary, it seems almost everyone is more interested in painting the trending scoreboard target around where their arrows landed rather than carefully deciding which targets of opportunity they should consider shooting their limited arrows toward in the first place.
Anyone who is in touch with reality realizes quick fixes are simply not real, long-term strategic answers. That is, if your strategy is to truly lead your organization and not just be a puppet to the whims of the trends and your stockholders.
After all, it took us over 100 years to get here and it is going to take about that long to get us where we need to be on our energy portfolios. That is an indeterminably long period of time and very few business or spiritual leaders will stake their career on leadership challenge like that. It is instructive to see why previous leadership got us here, and their complete failure to look at the long game in life rather than follow short term wins.
They are like cats in a barn overrun with rats chasing this or that one as it crosses their path … grabbing a tasty meal along the way but missing the mark about how you get rid of rats in the first place. We are facing the cumulative effects of over 100 years of self-inflicted opportunistic answers to questions we shouldn’t have been asking in the first place.
Watch closely how executives respond to near term stockholder-driven desires for growth. Rarely do I see anyone working to educate their stockholders to understand the long haul strategic questions and decisions. This is why the Japanese eliminated quarterly stockholder reports. Growth for growth sake is at the root of just about everything that is wrong. Otherwise why would all the soda companies have half of their product as bottled water with its health hazards that we know now in microparticles.
Corporate America when confronted with the truth blows smoke, hires lobbyists, and funds research to at least delay the inevitable, except when their exclusive patents run out … which makes them hire researchers to prove their existing products need to be abandoned. See refrigerants, sugar substitutes, and a host of other food products.
Simple, sustainable, minimally processed foods are not what our public wants. They are addicted to salty snacks, zero calorie drinks, and convenience. Responsible citizenship requires training and this time a tearful Indian will not turn the tide like it did on polluting our rivers.
We have come a long way on cleaning up our atmosphere and with it we have witnessed an increase in the average earth’s temperature … after all, those particles and chemicals in the air were blocking sunlight. All the scientists know that, but you haven’t heard that have you? Why not? Could it be that showing the world that cleaning up the air has a consequence on the earth’s temperatures? It makes me a bit crazy that these same scientists are proposing putting seemingly harmless particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet. Funny on one level.
The movie Planet of the Humans makes this all clear. The facts are all there. We must change public opinion and first we must change political opinion. We need leadership here of a different sort. We need individuals who will stand up to the group think and chart a course to a truly sustainable future. It is encouraging to see that some at least are realizing this and trying to begin this transition.
One can only hope.