Transitioning Back to Basic Values
Fast paced politically-driven changes over several years created a new reality that has the attention of all business owners. ESG and DEI were part of the "flow or ideas" and "demands" that arrived in a wave that swamped some businesses while they drained quickly from others. What caused this difference? What principles were at work?
As my grandfather often said: “Integrity is doing the right things for the right reasons…every time!” He and most successful business owners live by this principle and operated their businesses with notable integrity.
It appears, as part of the ESG (Energy, Social, Governance) and the related DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives adopted in recent years , that Corporate America has begun to move in a new and potentially better direction in this area.
These "politically correct" impositions into corporate management suites popped up after decades of little effort to consider employees and social impacts. This top down approaches developed slowly behind the curtain of board level decisions when we should have been questionable outsourcing and other actions justified strictly by returns on investments. This modification in ESG and DEI may be a part of something more important for all Americans.
Hopefully, our larger US corporations will eventually replicate the type of considerations and decision-making found in smaller, privately-held businesses. Successful small or mid-sized business owners operate by the “golden run” (Do unto others…); most business owners, in my experience, regularly give proper balanced considerations to customers, vendors, employees and their local communities; and make difficult decisions with integrity…over and over and over again!
We all should honor and support the privately-held US based business that are managed in this way … and develop mechanisms to avoid doing business with those that are not! And ... to consistently encourage public companies to accelerate the changes that will make the ultimate difference for employees.