From the madness of George Polisner, Founder, alonovo.com -
The emergence of Social Values driven commerce through
entities such as alonovo.com, coopamerica.org, and other
aggregators and communities harbors the potential for profound
impact upon quality of life factors for the entire world
community. Corporations and the 1% of the individuals that
control major multi-national interests have become too
powerful through accumulation of wealth, government
deregulation, a series of tax cuts and through using their
vast influence to undermine a democratic process. While many
corporations act in an egregious manner with consideration
only to deriving higher profit, a handful of courageous,
visionary CEO’s are looking beyond quarterly results to a
balance between people, planet and profitability. The social
values driven commerce model gives them the ammunition they
need.
Cost and Quality
Consumers have long considered the cost of goods in their
purchase decisions. Over time, people learned that often the
cheapest good was not necessarily the best. People began to
consider product quality (and safety) and a noble effort was
led by Ralph Nader to educate consumers about important safety
issues. Now we have Consumer Reports, JD Power certifications,
informal community-based product reviews and other compelling
sources of information such that cost is not the only factor
in a purchase transaction decision.
Foods, Beverages and Labeling –Social Values as a Natural
Evolution
Consumers became concerned as to the safety or health impact
of food and beverage product. In 1962 President Kennedy
proclaimed the “Consumer Bill of Rights”, which set forth a
consumers’ right to be informed. In 1966, the Food and Drug
Administration required all consumer products in interstate
commerce to be honestly and informatively labeled, with FDA
enforcing provisions on foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical
devices. Society is now ready to be informed beyond product
components or ingredients and wants assurances that products
are manufactured and processed through the supply and
distribution chain in such a manner that embodies fair labor,
mitigates harmful environmental impact, uses
alternative/renewable energy sources and are handled by
ethical, politically neutral businesses.
Political Disenfranchisement and Apathy
Many people today, regardless of political ideology feel
distrust, frustration and in many cases have been
disenfranchised from the political process. There is good
cause. Corporations through accumulation of wealth have become
far too powerful. Industries through their respective
lobbyists are able to apply undue pressure to the political
system and manipulate results that are counter to the needs
and protections that would otherwise be afforded society.
Every day we hear of a new betrayal of trust, whether it is
Tom Delay, Randy Cunningham, allegations about Cheney, and the
energy task force and Halliburton, allegations about Bush and
Enron, there is corruption or the perception of corruption at
the highest level of the American government. Regardless of
the political ‘side’ one is on, what is the underlying example
we are providing our next generation of leadership? When
people are apathetic and disconnected from the civic process,
the undermining of a representative government accelerates. I
don’t recall if it was Al Franken or Michael Moore who
theorized cynically –Why not just eliminate Congress and the
Executive Branch and let the lobbyists run the government
–since they already are? They went on to say it would save
society millions of dollars. When mining and timber interests
are authoring legislation passed along as “environmental
protection” why are we not alarmed?
Societal Empowerment through Information
Society can become powerful in a sustained manner through
acting upon trusted information. Just as the evolutionary
charges that were fought for many years ago leading to
consumer protections in product quality and food labeling, the
time is now to apply the thought of labeling to include how
the product was manufactured. This will allow society to be
well-informed and decide to reward companies that produce the
most cost-effective, safe, high-quality products that embody
the principals of sustainability and a balance between people,
resources and growth. When you think of social responsibility
(SR) data as the antithesis of credit agencies –instead of
businesses determining if they want to transact with consumers
based upon credit worthiness, now society can make direct
purchase decisions while considering the interaction of the
supply chain with society. This powerful expression will
redirect indiscriminate consumer spend via an intelligent
marketplace demand that will cause the supply chain to evolve
and have strategic societal consideration beyond pure profit.
The Promise of Social Values Driven Commerce --Political
benefit
A wave of consumers redirecting their purchases to
corporations that place a high regard on the fundamentals of
democracy and a representative government will, over time,
diminish the influence of business and business leadership
that continue to undermine, manipulate and corrupt the
democratic process. This is different than related efforts to
encourage ‘Buy Red or Buy Blue’, in that it works to
completely disengage business from the political process and
restores government to the people.
Forming an Active Partnership Between Society and Business
The emerging social values driven model is not a negative or
boycott model. It provides trusted information and
alternatives and fosters an inclusive relationship between
supply and demand.
Social Values as a Competitive Factor and the Fiduciary
Implication
The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) advocates have
achieved a degree of success in reducing capital supply to
corporations that do not properly consider a sustainable
operating model. By driving social values into the product
selection process social values emerges as a competitive
factor. This provides the leverage a CEO or executive team
requires when proactively allocating capital resources toward
better labor practices, Socially Responsible supply chain and
distribution compliance, reduction of environmental footprint
and use of renewable energy. Such an allocation, without
corresponding competitive factor, (and in the absence of
government regulation and enforcement) carries the potential
to subject the executive team to shareholder actions for
breach of fiduciary responsibility to corporate profit.
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