A note on the news
I’ve struggled to write this week. On the one hand, I want to get on with explaining the motivations behind the creation of a new Institute to promote Stewardship in business. I’m particularly excited as things progress and come together. However, the news is awash with the collapse of Thomas Cook, a company within the sector I work.
When the Malvern Group collapsed in August, taking LateRooms and Superbreak with it, I was upset. The 250 employees that lost their jobs were people I knew. Some of them I count as friends. It felt wrong reducing their story to a morality tale to promote an agenda. I feel the same about Thomas Cook and its 21,000 employees. Their pain is genuine and incredibly fresh. What they need are jobs not platitudes, nor wagon hoppers keen to grab attention.
There are a lot of sensationalist articles out there, decrying the executive pay, the role of investors and shareholders. A sentiment to which I’m naturally inclined. However, I need to resist the temptation to pile on. I wasn’t in the room, and so I’m not going to pass judgement on anyone involved. The story of the collapse is unquestionably far more complex than the headlines. Their stories will come out in time, and there will be an opportunity for reflection and presumably condemnation. I hope that individuals will not be allowed to get rich off the pain caused by this failure. It seems a vain hope, a ship that has probably already sailed.
The unavoidable truth is that our world is becoming less fair. Greed and self-interest are on the rise, and that indulgence has an inescapable cost that is too often paid by the most vulnerable. We have become obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, rather than the enrichment of character. Instead, I encourage you to take 5 minutes to watch the incredible Greta Thunberg remind us of the real cost of chasing “money and the fairytales of eternal economic growth.”
At some point, as business leaders, we have to stop looking towards tomorrow to fix the problems of our making. Procrastination is not the painless solution it promises. We have to be willing to make tough decisions today and follow through with them. It is not enough to point at the greed of others and forgive our own with a Trumpesque Whataboutism.
As Greta says, so prophetically, if we don’t change, we won’t be forgiven.
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