Should Corporations Have Values?

Ever since he who must not be named won the US election, I've seen a host of business leaders and corporations doing things that I thought were, well, sad.

DEI is suddenly not something they care about. Thanks for all that bias training I guess, even though from biomes to biology labs to B2B sales teams, diverse systems produce better outputs.

We don't need to worry about climate pledges. Yeah those fires in LA are totally not related to climate change at all and the fact that 2024 was again the hotter than the previous year, which was the hottest year in the modern record as just a fluke right?

Remember all that talk about how we should be leaving our politics at home and keeping work as a safe space? Now those same companies are paying for the upcoming inauguration.

Lets see what else was there. There was the phase of "we want our employees to feel safe and to be productive and we recognize that in the office or not, it's the work getting done that matters, not the where". Now RTO is seems to be the rage, even though the data suggests WFH and Hybrid Models have been working great, people are happy, engaged, and thriving. Not to mention talent pools were no longer geographically restricted.

Now to be fair not every company has rolled back DEI, or removed themselves from climate pledges or called all their people back to the office. But a lot of companies have and a lot more are going to do it. They will try to keep it quiet. It will be like when the Bob's "fixed the glitch" with Milton.

All this to say that all of these ideas were presented to employees or applicants as proof of values. We believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We care about and value the environment. We believe that people are our most important asset and we should treat them like adults.

And you don't have to agree or disagree with any of these positions. Perhaps you are someone who thinks that corporate DEI programs got a little out of hand or that hey you like going into an office that is full and vibrant and fun. That's ok. What irks me is that values are not supposed to just shift with the wind. They are things that are foundational, they are like the hill that you are willing to defend because it means something to you.

One of my favorite lines from Hamilton comes in the very eary part of the first act. Aaron Burr is telling Alexander Hamilton that he needs to, "talk less, smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you are for." And the response form Hamilton comes back very sharply..."If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?"

I understand fiduciary responsibility and what companies, either public or private owe their ownership. But at the same time, if you sell yourself as a value based organization, then you should be able to stand up and live those values, both at times when it's advantageous as well as when it is not. Character is not made during hard times, it is revealed and the reality is that the masks are starting to come off.

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