Acumen: FIRST PERSON
CARROT NOT
STICK IS KEY
TO GREENER HEARTS
AND MINDS
Taking on board environmental concerns and changing For businesses, the situation is a little more complex. Imagine
behaviour accordingly can be extremely taxing for you are an importer of television sets, one of only two. There’s
businesses, says entrepreneur Guy Kingston. But the recipe no domestic production in your country, import duties are set at
for success is all in the presentation of the package. 50 per cent but your competitor is bribing customs officials and
paying an effective rate of only 10 per cent. The cost of his goods
M
oscow: It’s the 15th October and windows are flung wide
is much cheaper than yours and you can’t compete if you continue
open. The heating was switched on, as it always is, two
to pay the official 50 per cent tariff. What are you to do?
weeks ago and nobody can turn it off. It’s a warmish day
for mid October, but then there’s usually a warm snap at this time An ethics course would tell you to stop importing TV sets. And,
of year in Moscow. morally this may be the superior thing to do. But reality is often
far more complex. You might stand to lose a very great deal if you
A legacy from the Soviet era, central heating is supplied by the
simply shut up shop – all your investment: capital, time, career,
State. Every apartment has warm water pipes running through it
reputation. Suddenly the decision isn’t quite so clear.
but the residents are powerless over when the heating comes on
and when it goes off. And, the only thing they can do to control the I said morally it might be the superior thing to do. What about
temperature is to open a window when it gets too hot or put on a the people who depend on you – your staff – and the people
heater when it gets too cold ... but the latter, more often than not, who depend on them – their families? Is it still morally superior to
blows a fuse. opt for these people losing their livelihoods? And, what about the
consumers? You stop trading and your competitor has a monopoly
This might be a particularly lucid example, but it serves to illustrate
position to exploit. Where’s the ethic now?
the complicated challenges, and the practical powerlessness,
most consumers and businesses face when wishing to be green. These are the sort of dilemmas business faces every day, though
invariably more complex and intricate than the simplistic illustration
In general people would like to be green – all other things being
I have presented here. And, they’re ethical dilemmas rarely
equal, there’s no point not to be. Most businesses would also like
understood by those who have never been business practitioners
to be green. But neither group wants to, or feels it should have to,
themselves – politicians and journalists for example.
wear a hair shirt.
The challenges faced by going green are just another area for the
As individuals, we’re happy to be green but only if it doesn’t involve
beleaguered business owner to negotiate. Most businesses find
much personal sacrifice.
themselves in one of three camps.
Acumen: FIRST PERSON
Guy Kingston is an entrepreneur who
presents the Mind Your Own Business
Podcast, a forum for real entrepreneurs
living in the real world.
wwwmyobpod.com
ecoexecutive | 12
Acumen Business.indd 12 18/4/08 15:20:30
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