Читать книгу Stakeholder Capitalism - Klaus Schwab - Страница 13

But just then, in the beginning of the 1970s, it became clear the economic miracle wasn't to last. As we gathered in Davos, cracks in the system had already come to the surface. The post-war boom had plateaued, and social, economic, and environmental issues were emerging. My hope though, was that by more actively learning about successful American management practices, European businesspeople, politicians, and academics could continue to spur prosperity on the continent.

Many European companies did in fact make the step toward neighboring international markets. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which as the name implied focused on a common market for a few key resources, had in the preceding years evolved to become the more all-encompassing European Economic Community (EEC). It allowed for a freer trade of goods and services across the continent. Many Mittelstand companies used that opening to set up subsidiaries and start sales in neighboring EEC countries. It was thanks in part to this increase in intra-regional trade that growth could continue in the 1970s.

But some economic variables with a critical effect on growth, employment, and inflation, such as the price of energy, were not favorable. Oil, which alongside coal had fueled the post-war boom, brought a first shock to the system. The price of the world's most important energy source rose fourfold in 1973 and then doubled in 1979, as the major oil-producing and -exporting countries (OPEC)—many of them former Middle Eastern and Arabian colonies of the European powers—flexed their muscles. Controlling the vast majority of the global oil supply at the time, the OPEC countries decided to implement an oil embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War. During that war, many of OPEC's Arab members opposed Israel, which during and after the armed conflict expanded its territory in the region. The embargo, targeted mainly against Israel's western allies including the US and the UK, was very effective.

It was no wonder perhaps, that the OPEC countries used their newly gained market power. In the preceding two decades, many of its members—often former European colonies in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—had finally gained their independence. But unlike most Western countries in that era, these developing countries were often consumed by political and social turmoil. The economic boom in Europe and the United States remained out of reach for many newly independent countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The OPEC nations were among the few exceptions, as their most important resource, oil, fueled the world economy.

As economic and industrial progress had been so great in the West over the three previous decades, some people also warned that the expansion was unsustainable and that a new economic system would be needed that is more sustainable for the planet, its limited natural resources, and eventually, humans themselves. Among these voices were European scientists and industrialists of the Club of Rome, who had come to believe that the state of the world, and notably the environmental degradation of the planet, was a major problem for human society. Indeed there were great warning signs for anyone who would take heed, and at the Forum's meetings in Davos, we paid close attention. In 1973, Aurelio Peccei, the club's president, gave a keynote speech at Davos about his organization's findings, warning of an impending end to growth.

Still, after surviving multiple recessions and introducing some energy-saving measures such as daylight savings time and car-free Sundays, the world eventually returned to its familiar growth path in the 1980s. The days of 5 and 6 percent GDP growth were over (at least in the West), but growth levels of 3 to 4 percent there were not at all out of the ordinary. Other economies, including the Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) helped to make up for the shortfall.

But beginning in the 1980s, a fundamental change in perspective started to emerge about what had enabled post-war economic growth. During the immediate post-war years, it was believed that increased economic prosperity was something that everyone had contributed to, and so it had to be shared by all. It was an industrial model of progress built on partnership between company owners and their workforces. By contrast, the growth phase of the 1980s was based more on market fundamentalism and individualism and less on state intervention or the building of a social contract.

I think this was a mistake. The stakeholder model requires businesses to think beyond their direct, primary interests and to include the concerns of employees and their communities in their decision-making. In the early years of our Davos gathering, participants had even committed to this in a “Davos Manifesto”:¹⁹

THE 1973 DAVOS MANIFESTO

A. The purpose of professional management is to serve clients, shareholders, workers and employees, as well as societies, and to harmonize the different interests of the stakeholders.

B. 1. The management has to serve its clients. It has to satisfy its clients’ needs and give them the best value. Competition among companies is the usual and accepted way of ensuring that clients receive the best value choice. The management's aim is to translate new ideas and technological progress into commercial products and services.

2. The management has to serve its investors by providing a return on its investments, higher than the return on government bonds. This higher return is necessary to integrate a risk premium into capital costs. The management is the shareholders’ trustee.

3. The management has to serve its employees because in a free society leadership must integrate the interests of those who are led. In particular, the management has to ensure the continuity of employees, the improvement of real income and the humanization of the work place.

4. The management has to serve society. It must assume the role of a trustee of the material universe for future generations. It has to use the immaterial and material resources at its disposal in an optimal way. It has to continuously expand the frontiers of knowledge in management and technology. It has to guarantee that its enterprise pays appropriate taxes to the community in order to allow the community to fulfil its objectives. The management also has to make its own knowledge and experience available to the community.

C. The management can achieve the above objectives through the economic enterprise for which it is responsible. For this reason, it is important to ensure the long-term existence of the enterprise. The long-term existence cannot be ensured without sufficient profitability. Thus, profitability is the necessary means to enable the management to serve its clients, shareholders, employees and society.

But despite the initial enthusiasm for the Davos Manifesto and the stakeholder-centered approach it advocated, a narrower shareholder-centric paradigm prevailed, particularly in the United States. It was the one put forth by University of Chicago economist and Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman starting in 1970. He held that the “only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”²⁰ and that free markets are what matters above all else. (This is discussed further in Chapter 8.)

The result was unbalanced growth. Economic growth returned in the 1980s, but an ever smaller part of the population benefited from it, and even more harm was done to the planet to achieve it. Union membership started to decline, and collective bargaining became less common (though much of continental Europe, including Germany, France, and Italy clung to it until the 2000s, and some, like Belgium, still do today). Economic policies in two of the West's leading economies—the United Kingdom and the United States—were largely geared toward deregulation, liberalization, and privatization, and a belief that an invisible hand would lead markets to their optimal state. Many other Western economies later followed their path, in some cases after more left-leaning governments failed to jumpstart economic growth. On a more positive note, new technologies also made their contribution, leading to a Third Industrial Revolution. The personal computer was invented and would become one of the key components of every organization.