Trapped in a Toys-R-Us parking lot
Or
How I almost got beat up in a holiday parking lot for spreading FGS (Financial Good Sense)
As I approached my car I noticed somebody was peering in its
windows. Behind my car was a black Mercedes S600 stopped, engine running, with the
driver door open. Clearly it was the owner looking into my car’s windows. This was
curious. While my car is nice it’s not unusual for the local demographic. I noted
the guy’s sharply tailored Prada suit.
“Hi, can I help you?” I said walking up with a big holiday smile
(genuine at this point).
"Is this yours?” he said nodding sharply toward the car.
“Yes,” I answered, still holding my colorful and burgeoning shopping
bags.
He pointed at the license plate, “You put out this newsletter?”
I looked at the license plate which clearly references this blog.
Also the license plate frame spells out my company’s name. Obviously my cover was
blown! “Sure. Are you a reader?”
“Well I think your last issue about corporate responsibility
was full of sh*t!” (Referring to The Sullivan Principles.)
His comment surprised me because there were kids and parents
around. Then somebody tooted their horn as his stopped car was fouling up traffic
in the busy parking lot.
“Well, why don’t you park and we’ll talk about it.” I said this
knowing the next parking spot was probably in the next city, LOL.
“No, this’ll just take a second,” he snapped glancing at the
cars wisely backing up. “You guys say you’re all for maximizing equity holder value
but by advocating that companies I invest in spend money on social BS, well, that’s
basically like stealing from me. Really, that’s just liberal bullsh*t.” He started
moving back towards his car door to get in. “That’s all I wanted to say.”
As he was about to get in his car I said, “Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah. What?”
I smiled. “Would you like my parking place?”
He scowled, called me a nasty name (a body part), then climbed
into the $120,000 car and roared off. Still standing there with my packages I shook
my head as if to wake up. While it felt like an hour or so the whole scene had taken
only a few seconds. Traffic started moving again. The world seemed safer.
Now, it would be simple to just say that the fellow was having
a bad day (rare holiday parking spots being the supreme annoyance they are) and
I was an easy target. But the fact is at last count we’ve gotten over 100 e-mails
saying basically the same thing: ‘business is tough-it’s irresponsible to suggest
spending any corporate resources on non-essentials like a company’s social responsibility
programs.”
Ok, let’s think about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) this
way…
Had the gentlemen in the parking lot stuck around I would have
asked him some simple questions such as:
1. Do
you think it would be ok with equity holders for a company to reject the notion
that people of different races, gender, or sexual orientation can add value to a
company and therefore block them from working there?
2. Do
you think it would be ok with equity holders for a company to pay fines and huge
legal fees for polluting?
3. Do
you think it’s ok to attract the negative attention of the press and risk revenue
sucking boycotts?
4. Do
you think it would be ok with equity holders that a company turn its back on the
growing number of customers that prefer doing business with companies that try to
improve society and take care of the environment rather than simply exploiting them
for profit?
5. Etc.
Etc. Etc.
Frankly, it sounds to us like spending money on social
responsibility programs can be a good investment rather than just the reckless squandering
of corporate resources some seem to believe!
Think about it…
