Reflections on "World Inc.": Addressing Questions from Government, Corporate & Social Leaders

Since the release of Bruce Piasecki’s new book, World Inc.: When It Comes to Solutions - Both Local and Global - Businesses Are Now More Powerful Than Government, and the launch of our Blog World Inc. "For Better or For Worse?", we’ve received many insightful questions from government, corporate and social leaders. We have decided to use our next few blog entries as an opportunity to address a few of the questions we feel are important to our pursuit to have more dialog and interaction on how business going global is colliding with business going green.

Question: "Being from Washington D.C., and given the subtitle of the book, it is appropriate to ask whether you think government is part of the problem or partner in the transitions you identify?"
[Executive from an Environmental Non-Profit in D.C.]

The subtitle of World Inc. “When It Comes to Solutions — Both Local and Global — Businesses Are Now More Powerful Than Government”, is meant to be provocative and engage intelligent questions like yours. We believe the social-political-economic transformation that is upon us, and that has signaled a new form of capitalism we call social response capitalism, is like a tidal wave. The wave is being fed by the curiosity of consumers, the rules and regulations of government, the graciousness of philanthropists and foundations, the careful eye of non-governmental organizations and the competitive spirit of corporations. The subtitle for World Inc. suggests its just one element shaping this wave, when in fact the wave is being shaped by all of these forces working together.

The wave is now being mounted by a few choice social philanthropists, social capitalists and mega-corporations that have all been watching and waiting for the opportune time to get on and ride. As the wave builds in the next 5-to-10 years it will sweep along with it, many other firms that will announce, like Citigroup and Bank of America, their intentions to go global and go green. We don’t believe the wave will dissipate. Instead it will build with force as it finds a way to gracefully wash us all ashore in a few decades, on a more sustainable and carefully position beach front.

We’ve found that calling government part of the problem is unproductive. However, challenging government leaders to recognize the transition that’s upon is appropriate and necessary. It is the challenges of all those that feed the wave to monitor one another’s roles, responsibilities and actions. The gale force winds of government may be appropriate to push back the onslaught of corporate greed for green. In this sense we mean green both literally and figuratively. For example, as Western countries transition from a century of industrialization it will need to educate those countries just entering an era of industrialization. Policy has a role in shaping this new world just as much as better products do. And the thread weaving policy, products and people together is leaders – ones that we can trust – ones that see through the clutter and listen for opportunity and for what’s essential right for all of the forces upon the wave.

The power of government to influence social transformation is reenergized and will emerge (in our view) with more gusto in the energy and environmental space more rapidly across the next 60 months.

Mark C. Coleman
Senior Associate, AHC Group, Inc.
Mark@ahcgroup.com