A rchive Date
[ 31-05-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Why big biz can't get no respect
Most Canadians distrust the corporate world because they're not sharing in the good times
By HARTLEY STEWARD
Toronto Sun
April 9, 2000
Canada's top business leaders held a whine-in last week at Toronto's lavish Royal York Hotel during the course of which they blamed the country's woes on:
a) all levels of government in Canada and abroad for high taxes and lack of leadership;
b) the press for not lending a sympathetic ear;
c) greedy but skilled Canadian workers for abandoning ship and signing on south of the border;
d) their own companies for not paying them enough;
e) the Canadian educational system;
f) the shortage of "angel" investors to finance Internet startups;
g) the average Canadian for not getting the message that what's good for big business is good for everyone.
Having thus defined the reasons their stock options totalled only millions rather than billions, they adjourned to lunch on big, lusty oysters on the half shell, shrimp, smoked salmon, roast beef and fresh fruit chocolate fondue.
Except for Tom d'Aquino, who is the chief executive officer of the Business Council on National Issues, an organization which flacks for 150 of Canada's largest companies, they did not assume much responsibility themselves for their plight.
I'm not qualified to comment on the validity of points a) through f), except maybe to say, "Yeah, right. Cry me a river," but I would like to say something, I hope more substantial, about point g).
It's true that the average Canadian does not understand, nor do most believe, that what is good for big business is good for the nation.
Those of you of a certain age might remember a remarkable American comic strip called Li'l Abner, penned by Al Capp, in which the caricatured big businessman, president of a company called General Bullmoose Incorporated, repeatedly insisted with cynical bluster that "what's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA."
This is precisely the notion most of us have of our "big" businessmen.
I would like to believe our guys got that notion from Al Capp, but they don't strike me as the sort of people who read comic strips.
THE GUILTY PARTY
They got that notion because it is true. What they have wrong is who the guilty party is. It is not the fault of the average Canadian that he looks with suspicion on the average Canadian big businessman. He has every reason not to believe in the benevolence of big business.
What is good for big business, he suspects, is good for big business and when decisions are made in the boardrooms of the nation, he does not believe for a moment that his well-being is the factor which most sways the debate. I think the average Canadian mostly feels used by big business.
It is in this area that our illustrious captains of industry have failed dramatically. It is something for which they must take responsibility.
In this boom time, they have done nothing to make the average Canadian - the guy who comes to work each day and makes it happen - feel part of the process; to make him or her feel they are sharing in these good times. If there are actually those who have made progress in this direction, then their public relations people have let them down.
Even as the economy grows and spins off more and more money, creates more jobs and more goods, the average man does not feel his contribution to the good times is valued highly. Nothing, or very little, has been done by Canadian business to make him feel his contribution is vital, or even important.
The rewards go to the deal makers, the bankers, lawyers, the outside consultants and money men in expensive suits, not to the people who actually do the work of the company; the people who design, build, rebuild, write, catalogue, ship, repair and sell the product for which the company was started in the first place.
The enormous wealth generated from public offerings and other capitalization schemes disappears in bankers' fees, executive bonuses. What remains seldom finds its way down the food chain to the people who actually create something.
Has a Canadian business invited these average Canadians into the tent to sample the buffet? I don't think so.
Indeed, even as the economy grows richer, the workplace seems to become a more difficult place. The employee who asks to share in the new wealth is reminded he is lucky to have a job.
The executive who figures out how to reduce staff even further becomes the latest company genius and earns the big bonus and a promotion. All manner of "efficiencies" are effected and rationalized by the cry of shareholder value.
Only when our "big businessman" figures out how to make the average Canadian feel a part of this booming economy, will we begin to understand and believe that what's good for General Bullmoose is good for us all.
Steward appears Tuesdays and Sundays. E-mail: hartleysteward@canoemail.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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