Page 30 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL10

Competition for scarce natural resources at local, national, regional and global levels has created violent conflicts, colonization, neo-coloniza- tion and wars for hundreds of years, all still ongoing in similar and different forms.In terms of the environment, natural catastrophes are happening at an unprecedented rate. We are heating up the planet with modern business practices and consumer lifestyles at speeds that are endangering our species. Many of the key raw materials needed for present lifestyles and production are peaking. Many species are extinct or growing endangered. The rate of extinction is at unheard of levels in modern history.Hence it would be dangerous to fail to take the health of the planet and our fellow human beings seriously, and to keep on doing business as usual. Businesspeople need to beginanew. We can no longer rely on governments to lay down regulations first. Considering the urgency, business needs to lead the way out of crisis. Most governments are too bureaucratic to work with the requisite haste.We need a new vision and a new paradigm.People who work for companies should no longer be only workers and employees; they should be brothers and sisters in partnership with the management and shareholders. They deserve a fair share of the surplus they help to create. Through this new approach, their basic needs would be met: healthy food, basic health care, proper housing and education for their children. This is attained not through charity but through a holistic, sustainable development scheme where they actively participate in designing and setting priorities for the common good. So wealth can beshared as well as power.“Forging a culture at work thatencourages creativity, employee empowerment and problem solving – and hopefully keeps the profits rolling in – is one of the great challenges facing today’s corporate leaders,” wrote David Benady in the Guardian recently.In the three Ps approach, “people” is a concrete rather than abstract term. People means those who work in and with the company, their families and those living in their communities. We won’t expect our brothers and sisters only to survive on basic needs but to prosper and flourish with dignity and quality of life. Employees will look after their own spiritual well-being alongside their economic well-being. They will become more active citizens in their communities, nations and the world. They will develop a more critical understanding of the society28 Elite+