Business and politics part three: Being personally involved.
By Isaiah O’Connor
Business and Politics part 1:
Taking Action
This is part three of my series on business and politics. In my post on Taking Action, I wrote about how it is my belief that a business that falls outside of the political sphere should refrain from operating in an openly political way.
The example I gave was that of Gillette. They decided to go from simply being a company that produced razors, into taking sides in the political realm. This backfired and caused them a huge loss. They took the emotional reason to buy their products and added a political reason into that mix. You really do not want people to be thinking about something so potentially upsetting as politics when it comes to a buying decision.
Business and Politics Part 2:
Being Aware
Now, this does not mean that you should ignore politics altogether, as I explain in my second post on the subject about being aware, I came to the conclusion that while you should not make politics a central part of your business, you should be at least aware of the political climate and how things can affect your business for better or as is more often the case for the worst. My example then was the political activists trying to shut down my entire industry.
This leads us up to this post. If you are aware of the politics that affect your business the question then becomes one of involvement. As far as I can tell, there are two directions you can head with different levels of each direction.
One direction is the “completely passive” direction. That is to be completely passive as the political changes come. When they do come you will deal with them as they hit. While this may feel more comfortable, and be less stressful on the surface I do not suggest this way. Doing this makes it harder to take advantage of opportunities while leaving you wide open to disasters.
If politics makes you uncomfortable, which is a perfectly reasonable feeling, then I would suggest at least a bit more proactive approach. Watch what is coming down the pipeline and prepare ahead of time for any changes that occur. Perhaps that means adding more to your retained earnings, (more on this soon) so you have the funds available to move on opportunities or a cushion to brace for a loss of income. Or you can start to streamline your operations if costs are going to go up etc. There is a lot that you can do to prepare for changes.
Then there is a very simple way you can be involved. Vote. I would still, of course, be proactive and prepare for any votes to go against you, but at least you are taking steps. This is the least amount of action I suggest taking.You can also support movements and people by providing donations, or even campaign for or against issues that come up.
In the balloon world, we have seen some success with attending town hall meetings, directly contacting politicians and presenting our side. This has been very useful because the politicians often are only getting one side of the story.
Now a word of caution, even if you do things privately, your actions may become known. If they are known you may get hit with controversy from one political side or the other. However, the good news is that when this happens, it rarely harms the company. That is if the companies’ policies are not political in
nature. Some may be offended and boycott and protest, but the average person
will mostly ignore it, as they figure it is your personal choice.
I have seen this time and time again, hugely successful companies expand and grow even under protest about their personal politics. The attacks on their personal political views, since they are disconnected from the day to day operations, does not slow down the companies. Rather it seems to do the opposite and help them, as they get free press from the controversy.
It is my opinion, that as a businessman, you should pay attention to politics, get involved when necessary while avoiding making your business policy political in nature.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur
Isaiah O’Connor.
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