When my children were young I used to read them a story written in verse about
\na bright yellow rope. It describes a young boy, Sylvester, who finds a yellow rope
\non the road and immediately comes across someone who’s wagon has fallen in a ditch.
\nThe boy then introduces the chorus:<\/p>\n
Hi there, friend, you sure have trouble. \nThe story goes on to describe how each person in turn helps another with the rope, \nI liked reading this story to my children. It’s a fun story and they liked hearing \nI know many of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances feel strongly along similar \nHowever, we seem to live in a world where it has become almost illegal to bring \nI fear for a society in which our largest and most powerful institutions are based \nCorporations are citizens just as much as you and me . We compete for resources, \nHowever, as individuals we learn social norms from an early age. In addition to \nThe principle of shareholder value, as it is often represented, appears to me When my children were young I used to read them a story written in verse about a bright yellow rope. It describes a young boy, Sylvester, who finds a yellow rope on the road and immediately comes across someone who’s wagon has fallen in a ditch. The boy then introduces the chorus: Hi there, friend, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI’ll help you, as quick as a bubble.
\nTake my rope.
\nYes, you can keep it.
\nPass it on when others need it.<\/em> (The Bright Yellow Rope, John Houston,
\n1973).<\/p>\n
\ngiving it to them with the same chorus. In the end, Sylvester himself finds himself
\nin trouble and, sure enough, the current owner of the rope helps him out and gives
\nthe rope back to him.<\/p>\n
\nit. But I also liked reading it because it was another way of instilling in them
\na value I hold dearly \u2013 you get more out of life by giving to others than
\nyou do by trying to keep everything to yourself.<\/p>\n
\nlines. Many of the people I know who hold senior positions in large corporations
\nor sit on the boards of those corporations live out similar values in their personal
\nlives.<\/p>\n
\na spirit of generosity into the management or direction of our public corporations
\nbecause doing so would violate what has become the most sacrosanct value in business
\ntoday \u2013 ‘corporations exist to increase shareholder value’. Donations to
\ncharity can only be given if the directors or managers can show a direct likely
\nreturn to the company, and through it, the shareholders. Loyalty to employees
\nis a cost to shareholders and can’t be tolerated. Employees are kept in the company
\nonly as long as no cheaper alternative is available. Finally, profit reigns supreme.
\nIf a company knows a way to increase profit, it has a responsibility to its shareholders
\nto do so without regard to any social consequences that may follow.<\/p>\n
\non such principles.<\/p>\n
\nour actions impact on each other and we both leave a material legacy for the generations
\nthat will follow us on this planet.<\/p>\n
\nhelping those in need, we are taught to tidy up after ourselves, not to take more
\nthan our fair share, to let the other person go first, to treat others with respect
\nand dignity and to stand for justice in the world.<\/p>\n
\nto be an attempt to exempt one class of citizens \u2013 namely corporate citizens
\n\u2013 from these norms and values. Values without which social organisation
\nwould not be possible. I would go further and argue that shareholder value at
\nits core is a veil behind which individuals seek to exempt themselves from the
\nnorms that society imposes on them and thus gain advantage over their peers. At
\nits worst, as we saw at Enron, this is just an adult version of
\nthe child who takes the whole cake for themselves at a birthday party and cares
\nnothing for the others who are left with none.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"