“I was having a drink with the CEO of one of the
largest oil companies in the world and he admitted, 'Yes, I'm
concerned. You are absolutely right. This world is going to
pieces.' And then he said, 'But, hey, what can I do?' ”
Ichak Adizes, Author, Founder of the Adizes Institute
STEP BACK, WAY BACK. THINK OF THE MAJESTICALLY spinning globe we live on.
What comes to mind? The striated blue and white marble
that the astronauts first saw, vivid against the endless blackness of
space? Or the familiar shapes of the continents, with green
lowlands and the ridges of mountains like backbones pressing up
through the earth? Perhaps you see the play of primal
forces—water and wind—as they rapidly shift and move
in cloud patterns across the expanse of land and sea. Or take a
look at the lights that glitter on its darkened surfaces,
connected by currents of electricity that allow us to
communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. Sense the uneasy
alliances of democracies, socialisms, monarchies, and
dictatorships; the conflicts constantly flaring up, threatening
to ignite larger conflagrations, as the interests of cultures
and peoples chafe against each other around the
globe.
Only a few decades have passed since space travel opened
our eyes to the awesome sight of our shared home suspended in
the void. Since then, our world seems to have become more
fragmented than ever, even as we are bound together more tightly
than ever—beyond nation, religion, or
ideology—within the web of commerce. Networks of
reciprocity now connect the penthouses of Park Avenue with the
shantytowns outside Nairobi. Through the development of the
capitalist business corporation, we have taken an extraordinary
evolutionary step into a complex global interdependence. These
giant organizations—Mitsubishi, Nestlé, and
DaimlerChrysler, or some so familiar that they go by acronyms
such as IBM, GE, GM, HP—are liberated from the constraints
of location and national affiliation, extending their influence
from Boston to Bangkok. Operating within the stratosphere of
international capital markets, they have amassed resources and
power that rival those of many nations. In fact, of the one
hundred largest economies in the world, fifty-one are
multinational corporations and only forty-nine are actually
sovereign states. Between their economic clout and their
cross-cultural people power, business corporations represent a
leap in humanity's capacity to organize for a shared purpose.
Generating a constant demand for creativity and innovation,
businesses have literally driven the transformation of the
modern world. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone,
which became Bell Telephone, which gave birth to Bell Labs,
which created the transistor, which brought in the electronic
information age. The list of consumer goods that have appeared
in an evolutionary eye blink—from toothpaste to liquid
floor wax to aspirin to contact lenses—is virtually
endless. We've traveled from the horse and buggy to the SUV in
less than one hundred years because of the relentless demand
that business creates for the new. And it's only getting faster.
Disney is producing and launching a product every five minutes.
Sony launches three new products per hour. Seventy percent of
Hewlett-Packard's revenue comes from products that didn't exist
a year ago. This constant rush to market has dramatically
improved and transformed human life—doubling our life
expectancy, improving the quality of living, and expanding the
horizon of possibility into the stars.
At the same time, the rush to capture more market share,
propelled by the profit motive, has caused untold damage to this
planet and its people. Burmese villagers recently sued energy
giant Unocal for “encouraging” the Myanmar
military—hired to oversee the construction of a gas
pipeline through the country—to subject the villagers to
forced labor, murder, rape, and torture. Coca-Cola is under
scrutiny from watchdog organizations for water pollution and for
creating “opportunity” from water scarcity. It's
hardly refreshing to read in their 1993 annual report that
“all of us in the Coca-Cola family wake up each morning
knowing that every single one of the world's 5.6 billion people
will get thirsty that day. If we make it impossible for these
5.6 billion people to escape Coca-Cola, then we assure our
future success for many years to come. Doing anything less is
not an option.” The momentum of the corporate juggernaut
is so powerful—fueled by the most basic human survival and
status needs—that altering its course seems almost
impossible. “We are not just marching toward
disaster,” says noted business consultant and author Ichak
Adizes, “we are sprinting toward it.”
However, there is another powerful force working within
corporations—an unpredictable human force. The breadth
and diversity of people brought together within them, beyond
nation, beyond religion, race, or caste, is utterly new. Over
one million people work at Wal-Mart, the largest employer in the
world. McDonald's may be the largest employer of youth on the
planet because McDonald's is nearly everywhere. And as more and
more people engage with each other in a globalizing
workplace—the haves brushing shoulders with the have-nots,
one culture pollinating another—a pressure is building.
Inside and outside of these organizations, there is a growing
appreciation of the effects of corporate activity on the planet
and its people, a dawning recognition that we are one humanity
inhabiting one world.
What if these gargantuan entities, filled with the creative
potential of thousands of human beings, were to awaken to this
new global reality? I asked this question of some thirty
business leaders and consultants engaged in the nitty-gritty of
corporate change. They all agree that if business were
to awaken, and then to change, it would have an unprecedented
impact—transforming the world in ways we cannot even
imagine. In fact, some say that it would create the context for
a new level of global consciousness. But can the corporate
juggernaut—embedded as it is in all of the economic
systems on this planet—really transform itself
fundamentally? What would it take to free the creativity and
stop the destructiveness of these powerful engines of commerce?
Change at this level has never been consciously undertaken
before. Will it happen? That depends, these remarkable
individuals are saying: World-transforming change is
possible, but only if we are willing. And that big
“if” will determine what kind of future we will
have—or whether we will have any future at all.