Wishing a “good year” to workers, suppliers and customers

When we wish a ¨good year¨ to workers, suppliers and customers it would be best if we referred that desire to concrete circumstances. This way we would avoid hypocrisies or reproducing a ritual that is empty in content. We exemplify the latter using the case of market-makers.

When we wish people a ¨good year¨ we can do so as an empty ritual or as a heartfelt, affective desire to ease injustices and pain. We are a diversity of peoples and individuals in terms of stories, beliefs, perspectives, needs, emotions and, however, coming from that diversity the vast majority wishes to live in peace, eliminate what hurts and strengthen feelings that will help keep building a better world for everyone. We hope those longings of peace and good will can emerge without hypocrisies, cynicism, and masked second intentions. A way to ensure this is specifying the good wishes by referring them to the concrete circumstances we live in.

Greetings without hypocrisy

Expressing with frankness good year wishes to workers, suppliers, customers, the community as a whole, is a gesture of warm communal living. I join that traditional gesture making vows for those who are usually ignored and go through difficult circumstances to see their situation improve this year; for good wishes not to fade away with the passing days and remain alive within us.

In every society there are despicable people that hurt others knowing what they are doing and do not care. Other people hurt others with a certain sense of guilt and look the other way trying to ignore the consequences of their behaviors. But many more of us hurt others without realizing it, probably because of having been raised in a society we assume to be the only one possible; a society that accepts as normal and legitimate ways to proceed that, although within current regulations, ends up hurting lives. This happens because those regulations accept or tolerate spaces in which greed, selfishness, neglecting others, condoning abusive behaviors grow. In this context, a sincere corporate greeting when receiving the New Year would do better by clearing any suspicion of hypocrisy stating its contribution to the good year that is being wished to workers, suppliers and customers.

The case of market-makers

An example is more powerful than a thousand words. We choose the case of market-makers where, same as in other spheres of life, coexist those who hurt others being fully aware of what they do, those who seek not to know the impact of their actions and those who, blinded by the prevailing practices or values, by disinformation, ignorance or negligence, cannot realize the highly different effects that various ways to behave generate.

Market-makers are corporations, legal entities that lead productive chains. However, those who run them and make decisions are people, managers, directors and shareholders that also get together with their families and make vows hoping for a good 2014. They are perfectly aware that the market power they hold enables them to fix prices that then serve as reference to other medium and small-scale actors; prices that can correspond with their real cost structure plus a certain profit margin that is added. Since it is usual to operate in imperfect markets, leading companies have the capacity, if they wanted to exercise it, to obtain extraordinary profits by considerably increasing their profit margin. Extraordinary profits do not come from outer space; they are extracted from other social actors with lesser capacity to defend themselves who are forced to give up part of their own incomes or assets. In these cases, the price mechanism enables market-makers to appropriate a value they did not generate but that belongs to their clients, consumers or users, their suppliers and, through these last ones, to the entire value chain they lead.

A good 2014 for consumers, users and suppliers will therefore be closely linked to that companies leading productive chains decide not to apply –or are forced to do so- the criteria of maximizing profits at any cost; criteria with which their managers and owners were educated in Business Schools and in the tough corporate practice. Instead of extracting value they would help themselves and others more if in turn they explored how to generate value with new investments and innovations in organization and processes. It is doable and it is time to look for good results without abusing others, fairly compensating the productive factors being used, maximizing reinvestments, assuming full tax responsibility, improving productivities not by holding wages back or letting workers go but with good management and a more appropriate access to information on markets and distribution channels that will allow to expand sales. It is worth mentioning that, instead of freezing their production capacity and speculating with prices’ adjustments that do nothing but appropriate value they did not generate and promote inflationary tensions, leading companies could explore better productive and commercial strategies, like some do, so that their actions become development engines and contribute to establishing permanent bases for a constructive social harmony.

It is part of the leading companies’ meso-economic responsibility to make the multiplying effects generated by their activity something that benefit the localities and country where they operate favoring, especially, small and medium scale ventures.

This non stingy way to act would in addition be acknowledging and appreciating what leading companies receive from society in terms of financing, productive infrastructure, work force training, public and private services. Corporate behaviors that integrate economic and social effectiveness stir up synergies, mutual supports, which contribute to establishing inclusive and not concentrated development paths. While public policies and regulations are necessary, it is also crucial to transform values, motivations and behaviors of corporate functioning.

Every economic system requires efficient companies and entrepreneurs capable of organizing production and generating value responding to opportunities to satisfy people’s needs. What are not needed are speculators devoted to extracting the value that others generated with so much effort. Activities that are in essence parasitic reinforce economic concentration and social inequality prevailing in the world; they are responsible for generating systemic instability and weakening democratic functioning.
Bearing all this in mind and beyond the example that was considered, if each New Year we honestly express the changes we are willing to make in order to better guide our actions towards common wellbeing and environmental care, then yes we would have actually added content and meaning to the wishes of a ¨good year¨ for everyone.

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