The Irony of it all

All the talk about how the recent election outcome is going to be good for business (in addition to an article in the NY Post today by Charles Gasparino) got me thinking today about what's really happening here. Why people think republicans are pro-business when the stats always show that business prospers under democratic rule? Why republicans hold onto this disproved and antiquated notion that tax cuts are a silver bullet to job creation? (I've been a CEO for more than 20 years and I never hired a single person because tax policy was going to give me an extra $1000 in my next paycheck...so don't get me started on the Bush tax cuts..)

Anyway...here's something people don't understand about business: Everybody is saying business will now start investing because the republicans will curtail all of the liberal spending and anti-business policies, the "lurch left" on economic issues will come to an end. But here is a guarantee that I will make: In the next few months as "business" starts to invest again there will emerge some very clear winners; they will be the businesses who didn't buy into this idea that the President's policies were going to "ruin" the country, they will be the ones that were not focused on politics but focused on their customers. They will be the ones who have continued to invest in innovation, employee engagement, customer support, helping suppliers and bolstering their communities not despite or because of what the President did, but without regard to Washington. They have, as they always have done, focused on delivering value to their core stakeholders as a way of driving shareholder value. These companies will destroy their competition in the coming months, as they have been doing consistently even during the recession, because they weren't using politics and a temporary downturn in the economy (and it's ALWAYS temporary) as an excuse to horde cash for their executives, layoff workers or unnecessarily tighten loan standards. They were serving customers and preparing for the next business cycle...not screaming about how the sky is was falling because people who make $250,000 or more might have to pay a few percentage points more in taxes or because their hourly employees were now going to have better access to health care. The emperors that you see on CNBC-including the king himself, Jack Welch-have no clothes. The ironic thing is that all of these businessmen that have been spouting off against the "leftward lurch" have in my mind been blinded to the thing they always rail against: business as an un-impassioned and rationale pursuit. These titans of commerce who are the first to tell you "it's not personal, it's just business" (most stupid comment ever...but that's for another post) not only have let their politics get in the way of understanding what needed to happen with their businesses, they've done so to what will eventually be the detriment of their shareholders. As they were pushing their political agendas and cloaking it in the guise of "just what's good for business" some others were simply going about their business, tending to their relationships, spending on the things that matter and they are now poised to reap the benefits that will come as the economy expands. Mark my words on this, the spoils in this next cycle will clearly go to those companies who continued to invest, continued to train employees, not the ones who cut staff to the bone in order to bolster quarterly earnings or those who spent their time fighting with the White House instead of listening to their customers.

Politics and the Good Society

James O'toole of the Aspen Institute wrote a book called: "The Executives Compass: Business and the Good Society". In the book he lays out ideas about how we need to balance Liberty and Equality, Efficiency and Community in order to have a society that is both free and provides equality of opportunity, one in which take advantage of the benefits of efficient markets while also understanding and tending to the needs of community. The problem with republicans and conservatives is that given the choice they see the world as a zero sum game as as such always err on the side of Liberty and Efficiency to the detriment of Equality and Community. The world is not a zero sum world. The problems we face require more innovative thinking about how we manage the polarity of these ideals that are seemingly or some times actually at odds with each other. Republicans put forth that Liberty and Efficiency will always prevail because if you are freely unconstrained to pursue your own best interests we will all benefit. Of course we see by financial meltdowns and Bernie Madoff's and Enrons and Worldcoms and unjust wars and disparities in sentencing and gay bashing, etc, etc. that this is not always true. We must be ever vigilant about how our actions impact the broader community, especially those who have less of a voice in the system. We must be ever vigilant that Liberty is not purely the province of the wealthy and connected but that we provide equality of opportunity, through education, access to financing, pay and job equality, to everyone. This is how we get to the good society.