35. I agree with the speaker that decisions and actions of businesses are too often
infected by short sighted motives. Admittedly, attention to immediate results and
short-term goals may be critical, and healthy, for survival of a fledgling company.
However, for most established businesses, especially large corporations, failure to
adequately envision the long-term implications of their actions for themselves and for
others is all-too common and appropriately characterized as a disease.
The business world is replete with evidence that companies often fail to envision
the long-term implications of their actions for themselves. Businesses assume excessive
debt to keep up with booming business, ignoring the possibility of a future slowdown
and resulting forfeiture or bankruptcy. Software companies hastily develop new
products to cash in on this years fad, ignoring bugs and glitches in their programs that
ultimately drive customers away. And manufacturers of inherently dangerous products
cut safety corners to enhance short-term profits, failing to see the future implications:
class action liability suits, criminal sanctions, and shareholder revolts.
Similarly, businesses fail to see implications of their actions for others. Motivated
only by the immediate bottom line, movie studios ignore the deleterious effects that
movie violence and obscenity may have on their patrons and on the society at large.
Captains of the energy industry pay lip service to environmental ramifications of
unbridled energy use for future generations, while their real concern is with ensuring
near-term dependence on the industrys products or services. And manufacturers of
dangerous products do a long-term disservice to others, of course, by cutting corners in
safety and health.
In sum, I think the criticism that businesses are too concerned with immediate
results and not concerned enough with the long-term effects of their actions and
decisions is for the most part a fair assessment of modern-day business.
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