Business at All Cost - Has Become Too Expensive

Over the years I have found that one of the hidden treasures in life is having a connection to the communities you are a part of. Communities can provide a source of support and strength in times of challenge and difficulty. We all anticipate some of the common life events that many of us pass through: graduating from school, first “real” job, first dates, buying a car, buying a house.

Yet, these events come with others that are not anticipated and we find it comforting to be able to reach out and ask for some advice from those we know and trust.

I think that is why so many people were shocked to see the CEO of a large oil company out sailing his yacht when the Gulf of Mexico and countless communities were still facing life changing peril. I guess in times of stress people sometimes run to the things that help them cope and for this leader it was his yacht.

What seems so terribly sad to me is that the people of one common community are counting on the focused leadership of this man to lend support and his undivided attention to getting the matter resolved. Yet, he has run back to his community, which is far from the Gulf Coast, and just wants to get his life back. Sadly, so do countless others in the Gulf Coast area. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico and recall seeing the fishing boats head out at the start of the season so to me seeing the harm that has come their way is heartbreaking.

This whole tragic turn of events has reminded me of the Wall Street Meltdown. It is easy to see the similarities- top executives making decisions on events that happen in communities in which they don’t live or even plan to visit. Whether it was putting people in subprime loans (that everyone knew they could not afford) or sacrificing quality to make a faster profit (as is alleged in the Gulf Coast tragedy), the results are the same – people in a community suffering because of the actions of some distant executive. Sadly, it is so easy to see how someone in an office so far away fails to see anything other than the report that is right in front of them.

Yet, how do you describe a community on paper? How do you write about the people that come into the local breakfast dinner in the morning and all they have to talk about is bad news? How do convey to the corporate board room the challenge families, who work on the Gulf Coast, face as bills arrive with every trip to the post office. That sense of despair is not easily seen on a budget line item.

How do you teach community to a generation of business leaders? How do you get them to think beyond how they can make money off their efforts? Until we can get people to get out of their offices in some far away community and come see how people live in another community then we will always be waiting for the next disaster. How many collapsed mines, exploding oil wells, and Enron accounting scandals do we have to face before we demand more from the businesses that operate in our communities?

Business and making a dollar no matter the cost has become too expensive.