“Of course, mobile operators and social network operators could support a non-profit that will claim that hours and hours spent with a smartphone are actually beneficial. Or bribe researchers and ask them for such results. But in the real world, no manager would dare take such a step,“ I wrote a few days ago.
Why is that? Well, imagine for a moment that you are sitting on a corporate board somewhere. What are your interests and what are your options?
The best thing would be, of course, if everything that prevents you from continually increasing profits disappeared. If all criticism of your practices – justified and unjustified – disappeared. That would make sense. So, as part of your “social responsibility”, you pay and pay and hope they don’t choose you.
But sometimes it doesn’t work out. Critics and enemies are too stubborn (and who knows, maybe someone from your competitors supports them). Then it’s better to curb some activity even at the cost of lower profits, explain to investors that you are a company with a strong sense of responsibility, that this move will definitely pay off, and perhaps push for changes in accounting methodology so that “diversity investments” are now counted. That way you can keep your job for a while, and if it doesn’t work out, you leave as a man of integrity.
Or you can go to war against the activists and risk being dragged through the media as a villain. You try to buy the media by advertising, only to end up with another scandal. Your corporation has a bad reputation, investors are nervous, and clouds are gathering over you as a pariah, an enemy of the planet, an enemy of the LGBT community, a Putin supporter, or the one who caused the deaths of thousands of children in the third world. Corporations will get rid of you as fast as they can, no golf club wants you as a member, and you are unemployable as a manager.
So, are you in?
Occasionally, there might be someone quite combative, but it’s hard to find such people in the corporate management layer.
In short, a power broker. Multinational nonprofits depend on corporate support, corporate managers fear nonprofits, and they all form a single layer with very similar interests and the same worldview. And everyone involved is much better off than if they had been kicked out of that environment.