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March 16, 2006
No You Di-unt!!
I have to admit it: I miss school. At least, the part of it that involved heated debate of items of seemingly world-shaking importance. Outside of an academic setting, it's hard to get a rousing conversation about "how to save the world" off the ground.
So although I now officially have two master's degrees under my belt and am firmly ensconced in my professional career, I still like to keep a foot in the academic door. One of the ways I've been doing that is by submitting a public feedback document to the organization upon which my thesis was based. This organization is releasing a new set of guidelines and has asked interested parties to comment. Since I wrote my thesis on the topic, I thought it would be worthwhile to jot a little something down. Once I got it on paper, I thought it would be nice to ask if others from my graduate program would be interested in adding their names. So far, so good. I thought the thesis was pretty damn good, and why not?
With my consent, the feedback document was sent to some other professionals for comment--to see if they'd like to sign on as well. Just a few minutes ago I got a very thoughtful reply to that request from a professor in another country who works on the same topic, politely noting that he completely disagreed with the premise of my comment (and thus, my thesis).
He attached some documents to provide more background on his own research on the subject. I took a peek, and on the first page, I found that it's a lot more provocative than I thought. He basically sums up the foundation of my thesis (the notion that corporate sustainability leads to improved financial performance) and calls it:
"...perniciously, outrageously and blatantly untrue...The statements seem to be accepted when, at best, there is no evidence to support them and, at worst, they are breathtakingly untrue."
Them's fightin' words.
Comments
Take him, J-Wo!
Posted by: Mr. Bad Apologies at March 16, 2006 09:40 AM
seems to my unejukated mind that "corporate sustainability" is a result of "improved financial performance" -or at least non-declining financial performance. The only way for a corporation to sustain itself is to have improved or non-declining financial performance.
But I guess you were talking about corporations striving to be part of a socially and ecologically sustainable society.
I have to say, I took a breath when I read it.
Not that I have any scientific data, but I have never seen a company by profitable by being "sustainable". There are a lot of companies that are noteworthy for their social and environmental policies, but in order to make profit they all have to comprimise their "sustainability" to some degree.
That is not to say that the more "unsustainalbe" the corporation is the more profitable they will be. Obviously there is (sometimes) a point where consumers will say "that's too evil" and the company will suffer a loss, but it seems like there is a point in-between. If the company is too unsustainable, they loose profit, and if they are too "sustainable" (in terms of TNS definition) they also loose profit. So they have to be 50/50 or something.
So instead of saying that corporate sustianability leads to improved financial performance, maybe we should look for the optimal, or "most profitable" level of corporate sustainability.
Posted by: Bastish at March 16, 2006 10:13 AM
while our colleague, bastish, raises valid questions (as always) - and no doubt has a solid foundation in his understanding of sustainability - i find myself leaning towards Mr. BA's (aka Mr Crips) statement on the matter - "take him, J.Wo!"
Posted by: amy at March 16, 2006 06:36 PM
This is some advice from my dad on inevitable academic disagreement. He was thrilled when, after he published an article, someone wrote a detailed comment in the next issue basically calling his argument, well, "breathtakingly untrue." I thought this was nuts. He then pointed out that if someone calls him stupid, he gets another column the next month to rebut the charges. Hence more publicity for his original point. So, starting an academic brawl could be good for your career.
Posted by: Anonymous at March 20, 2006 06:24 PM
