Will you step into the moral vacuum?

Post #55

April 6, 2022

Claire Bodanis

Claire ponders the lack of political leadership to solve many of the problems facing the world, and reflects on how business might step in.

Do you cycle in London? Or does one of your loved ones? If so, you might want to raise a glass to my fellow Dark Angel, business writer par excellence and dear friend, Chris Davenport – and most definitely not to the then Mayor of London, and now Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Intrigued? Let me explain. Back in 2009, Chris, who can often be seen adorning the busy streets of London in helmet and reflectors, was cycling along the Embankment up near Southwark Bridge. A particularly dangerous stretch for cyclists, it has no pavement and no cycle lane. As he was approaching a traffic light on the inside of a lorry, he saw a ‘ghost bike’ – where friends or family of a cyclist who’s been killed paint a bike white and lock it near the site of the accident. Being knocked off by a lorry turning left is well known to cyclists as one of the biggest risks, because, when paused at a traffic light, you are often in a lorry driver’s blind spot. As Chris was waiting, he thought – why don’t they put mirrors up on the traffic lights, then drivers could see us? And Chris, being proactive as well as thoughtful, wrote to our then Mayor and to Transport for London to suggest it.

Boris ‘The Cyclists’ Champion’ did not reply, nor did TfL. But not long afterwards, our Mayor proposed this very idea himself! To give Chris his due, he did say that he probably wasn’t the first to come up with the idea – after all, there have long been many dedicated campaigners in London for cyclists’ safety. And, no doubt, TfL and our Mayor had groaning inboxes. And, perhaps, the timing was just a coincidence. But, given what we’ve seen in the intervening years of our now PM’s predilection for vote-catching ideas, especially if they involve self-promotion, such a coincidence does cause one to stop and think.

Especially when the story comes hard on the heels of a discussion I had about the ability of our political leaders to tackle the incredibly pressing environmental and social issues facing the world today. The day before my chat with Chris, I was interviewed by the geopolitical risk analysis consultancy Oxford Analytica. They were seeking expert (thank you!) views for a report they are preparing on the ‘global sustainability information ecosystem’, its challenges, opportunities and so on. (To be published in June – I’ll blog on it in due course.)

At the end of our (very lively) discussion, the researcher asked her most important question: ‘Does the world have the necessary skills and expertise to achieve meaningful change on sustainability issues?’ To which I replied that the problem we have, as I see it here in the UK, is not a lack of skills or expertise – there are plenty of those around. Rather, meaningful change needs moral leadership. It needs people in positions of power who are motivated by the common good, who have the courage, the decency and the moral authority to make the difficult decisions that will ultimately benefit us all. And right now, in this country, our government is led by a bunch of kleptocrats, dazzled with the trappings of power, who are motivated simply by lining their own and their mates’ pockets. We have a moral vacuum in government, and, although the awful invasion of Ukraine may have ignited a tiny spark of moral duty in our political leaders, I don’t see a second Clement Attlee or Harold Macmillan appearing any time soon.

Which all sounds a bit depressing, doesn’t it? However, I don’t believe we should give up hope. If we cannot look to our political leaders to make the right moral decisions for society, the vacuum must be filled from elsewhere. And the only part of society with the economic heft to do that in any meaningful way is, in my view, the corporate world. In the absence of moral leadership from our politicians, it’s even more important that business steps in and uses its power and influence individually and collectively to change the world for the better – and investors must support corporates in that endeavour. I do not buy the argument that we in business need the government to make the necessary policy changes and then we’ll act – after all, governments will listen to business, if its voice is powerful enough; particularly when those in government appear more interested in getting a lucrative corporate job after their period in office, than benefiting society during it.

What does that mean in practice? For a business, it’s fundamentally about the strategic choices we make – will they be driven by what’s best for society as a whole, or will they be driven by benefiting one group over another? Beyond that, it’s about taking part and making our company’s voice heard, in consultations from regulators and governments on the issues that matter. And, if you’re a really big hitter in the corporate space, using your direct influence in the corridors of power. It’s also about using our voice in our own industry to influence the social and environmental agenda positively. And finally, as individuals, it’s about what so many corporate codes of conduct ask us to do anyway: to reflect on the things we all do each day and ask ourselves, am I living up to my values?

Companies have tremendous power to change the world for the better: we need it now more than ever.