taxes – The Burble

The business of trust.

Companies and businesses have a problem – Trust. Put simply there is a decline in how much trust is being placed in business by customers and society in general. And a business that isn’t trusted isn’t going to survive for long. But is trust that important?

I think so. Customers are spending more time researching the companies they buy from, and the fact that so much information is available on line, opens up a business to a lot more scrutiny than previously possible. As customers are subject to exponential levels of change they will look to anchor themselves through relationships based on trust.

Would you go to a Doctor you didn’t trust?

And businesses play a huge role in society, providing income and rewarding places to work, generating wealth and making tax payments to help governments support their chosen areas of investment. The problem is partly guilt by association. As Edelman reported there is a collapse in trust in 4 of the major institutions (Business, Government, NGOs and Media) in many countries around the world.

At the same time however, businesses face some challenges that while not specific to industry will have a large and potentially dramatic impact. The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is beginning to reshape what business is and what it does and how it does it.

And trust is going to be come one of the most important topics businesses will have to deal with.

These CEOs make more than their companies pay in corporate taxes – maybe its time for a vote?

The corporate tax rate in the US legally ranges from 15 to 35%. Many companies end up paying far, far less. In a report released today, the Institute for Policy Studies found (pdf) that seven of the country’s 30 largest companies by revenue paid out more to their chief executives than they did in corporate taxes in 2013, despite the […] http://qz.com/298543/these-ceos-make-more-than-their-companies-pay-in-corporate-taxes/ I repost this article with one intention in mind – to get people talking and discussing the issues raised. Whatever the situation, and companies pay taxes in a myriad of ways that are often overlooked in articles such as this it, the headline alone should be enough to prompt questions on why this should ever get published. Why should a CEO be accused of being paid more than the tax bill of the company. What’s it to you and me? I’m sure the CEO works very hard for their money (I almost wrote his money but that would been unfair – pretty accurate but unfair) . So what is it to you and me? Well actually its a lot and it highlights the growing disconnect between those with an appearance of being ‘At the Top’ and the rest. And unless that gap is narrowed or some sense of fairness rebuilt the inevitable will happen. People will vote for change or simply no longer support companies who do not appear to be being fair. And this pressure for change is growing. Back in 1993 the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA) ‘initiated a business-led inquiry into ‘the role of business in a changing world’. The objective was to develop a shared vision of the company of tomorrow. The findings of the Inquiry, published in 1995, introduce the concept of an inclusive approach to business success in which a company:

defines and communicates its purpose and values
develops a unique success model
places a positive value on each of its relationships
works in partnership with stakeholders
maintains a healthy reputation.’

For many of us in business today the idea of values and purpose, stakeholder relationships and maintaining a healthy reputation are all concepts we would understand. But so many of our companies today have clearly turned these into a set of words on the wall. Ignored by most people except in the corridors of the CEO where it makes sense to be an acolyte if you want to keep your job, but in most cases meaningless; possibly as witnessed by the fact that CEO’s allow their companies to be in a position where they pay themselves more than they apparently pay in tax. The Tomorrows Company research, based on the above findings advised companies that they would need a license to operate – that license being ‘granted’ by the buyers of goods and services from he company. It seems to me that, unless some businesses begin to change how they go about doing things, they will find their license to operate being taken away. People will begin to vote with their wallets – the ultimate weapon of mass destruction for any business. And quite frankly many of these businesses will deserve it. People have seen the global financial crises impacts on their daily lives and have aright to question whether it could happen again. And at the same time they see articles published like the one above that might suggest nothing, at least in the corporate world has changed much. People will vote – the question is only, when