VW lost the plot. But that’s the danger when business lacks social moorings | Will Hutton
by Will Hutton from on (#NNR7)
VW's existential crisis has revealed the weaknesses inherent in western economies. Change must now happen
A well-functioning capitalism has, and will always need, multiple and powerfully embedded checks and balances - not just on its conduct but on how it defines its purpose. Sometimes those checks are strong, uncompromised unions; sometimes tough regulation; sometimes rigorous external shareholders; sometimes independent non-executive directors and sometimes demanding, empowered consumers. Or a combination of all of the above.
CEOs, company boards and their cheerleaders in a culture which so uncritically wants to be pro-business do not welcome any of this: checks and balances get in the way of "wealth generation". They are dismissed as the work of liberal interferers and apostles of the nanny state.
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