Twitteretter

Humans have shown, over millennia, a pervasive instinct to build deities. Initially, from natural phenomena. The Sun, the stars, wind, thunder. They were all deified. They were followed by others, more powerful and abstractly complex, as cultures evolved. Some, punishing and unforgiving, the God of the Old Testament or those idolised by Aztecs or Mayans. Others, caring and loving. All, omnipresent and omnipotent. At some point in the second half of the XX century, as we became more sophisticated, we seemed to, finally, abandon our reliance on a superior being and started to see ourselves as possessing the ultimate agency in our environment. But old habits die hard. I see, in my interactions with some corporations, a god like cult of their CEO, feared and revered in equal measure. His or her subjects, sorry, employees, thirsty for any measure of interaction, for that occasional revelation or instant of attention from their CEO, all powerful, master of all things. Will we ever grow up? L...

This is at first sight completely obvious, but I still feel worth writing about. Companies have started developing, through their presence in social media, a personality, and building a relationship with their stakeholders. At first, their posts were restricted to information, such as a new product launch, a promotion or an update on a known service issue. This seems a sensible use of the immediacy of social media for communication. However, some are personalising their social media presence, engaging in conversation, expressing opinions. Users are now interacting with them in the second person, tagging them in posts, expecting a response. This may be convenient, but it is important that we realise that we are not interacting with the company, but just with one of its employees, a real person, who, best case, will be trying to act as they think their company’s philosophy would merit. But wait, companies don’t have a philosophy, they don’t have a mind. I feel another Twitteretter coming...

I have lately, through the vagaries of life, become regularly embroiled with corporate life, after a few years in the wild lands of early start up. Strikingly, corporations have become ridden, in my absence, with an extreme risk aversion culture. Dangers everywhere, every single action or interaction a risk of alienating shareholders, stakeholders or, if you push me, even cupholders, inert but I am sure easily upset. Risk management has thus occupied the centre of corporate thinking. How do we act amorally and maximise profit beyond equanimity without upsetting anybody? This is a tough trick to play. Most corporations view the World through the eyes of Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall in ‘As good as it gets’. As much effort is devoted to preventing risk, however unlikely, as to whatever it is that the corporation’s business is. I would love it if the question was: ‘How do we do good?’. But, unfortunately, it is: ‘How do we prevent being seen to be up to no good?’ A much tougher assignment...