INTERVIEW - ROBERT THEOBALD - The Diigo Meta page

• 12 Jun 06
  

  Yule Heibel

  ideas socialtheory theobald

  • Q. The MAI seems to be based on the assumption that increasing
    and institutionalising deregulation will make the world more predictable and
    better for business.

    
    

    I believe that those who accept this conclusion are deluding themselves.
    I do not believe that a world run entirely on economic priorities can be stable
    or serve the interests of business. In Reworking Success I state that there are
    three requirements for a viable twenty-first century:

    
    
    • ecological integrity,
    • effective decision-making, and
    • social cohesion.
    
    

    These preconditions will not be achieved on the basis of economic
    dynamics alone.

  • focus on social responsibility
    and business ethics and to mobilise the groundswell of support which already
    exists. This latter route is quite possible and is where long-term profits will
    be found. Cultural directions are constantly challenging negative behaviours.
  • 6 more annotations...
  • • Business and the financial sector need to understand that they are
      necessarily involved in a massive choice process. Tom Atlee, a close colleague,
      argues that "the world is getting better and better and worse and worse faster
      and faster." There are two mutually exclusive futures. Continued exclusive
      concentration on purely economic issues will lead to a "race to the bottom."
    • so long as the stock market rewards
      short-term financial profits corporations will be driven in perverse
      directions. Given that we are indeed moving into a knowledge economy, it is the
      people that corporations can attract and hold which are their most important
      product. Accounting practices must change to reflect this new reality.

    • Recent developments in such corporations as Shell show
      that they now recognise that they have been blind-sided by failing to look at
      human rights questions.

      
      

      
      

      Q. Do you then see corporations as part of the societal learning
      process which is currently taking place?

      
      

      I continue to be surprised by the failure of those in the social change
      movement to recognise that corporations have moved further in shifting their
      organisational styles than academia, media, non-profits and political systems.
      I believe that business has many lessons to teach the rest of society.

    • MAI dramatically limits the opportunity for
      communities and nation-states to preserve their own priorities and places
      commercial interests above community and cultural desires.

    • Ever since Adam Smith we have known that business requires:

      
      
      • social cohesion,
      • predictability, often premised on law but really based on the
        prevalence of a set of cultural norms,
      • a basically level playing field without excessive bribery or
        bureaucratic interference.
      
      

      Up to the present time business has assumed that these are basically
      "free goods." Trends throughout the world suggest that they are all under
      challenge. It is in the narrow self-interest of business to become involved in
      maintaining the cultural and political pre-conditions for its activities.

    • The main message appears to
      be that maximum economic growth coupled with all the steps necessary to achieve
      international competitiveness provides a desirable route into the future. The
      problem is that this strategy has either resulted in a huge increase in
      inequality or unemployment throughout the developed world.

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