Posted on 09/22/2006 6:32:52 AM PDT by calcowgirl
Green CEOs and good business just don’t mix. Witness this past week’s embarrassing examples of Ford Motor Co.’s Bill Ford and BP’s Lord John Browne – with General Electric’s Jeff Immelt warming up in the bull pen.
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Ford always appeared more concerned about being green than being profitable. In May 2000, he declared that SUVs – his company’s most profitable product – harmed the environment. He lectured a Greenpeace audience that something needed to be done about global warming. Ford focused on turning the company’s massive Rouge plant into an “icon of lean, green manufacturing” and issued reports about vehicle exhaust contributing to global warming.
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BP CEO Lord John Browne also wants to be hailed as an “enlightened” CEO-environmentalist. BP spends more than $100 million annually on its “Beyond Petroleum” campaign – an effort to convince the public that BP is no more an oil company than Greenpeace.
BP not only advocates for global warming regulation – including announcing this week that it will help Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implement California’s new global warming law – but the company also calls its primary profit-producing product (gasoline) a “necessary evil” in television commercials. (Earth to Lord Browne: Gasoline is a miracle product upon which our civilization depends.)
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GE’s stock price has gone nowhere since Immelt took over ... he apparently sees being green as GE’s path forward. He’s re-branded GE’s products with the gimmicky name, “Ecomagination,” and is lobbying for greenhouse gas regulation...
Immelt announced an Ecomagination “advisory council” ... Immelt and his green friends may very well succeed in pressuring politicians to encumber the U.S. economy with greenhouse gas regulation – there is, after all, little if any debate that such regulation will increase the cost, and reduce the availability, of energy for consumers and businesses.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
When it comes to interpersonal dealings, is it better to be loved or to be feared?
Neither is really necessary. A strict business-like demeanor and treat other with respect and equality. Demand the same from your peers in business. Never mix love (or hate) and business.........
Disney went on a big 'liberal' push in the late 90s with affirmative action. diversity and tolerance
Their business tanked
There's nothing wrong with those sentiments, but they took away from the one goal of business: make money
Congratulations, Ford, you just lost the lawsuit against you by California for global warming damage cause by CO2 from your products. Ford is stupid.
The article wasn't talking about interpersonal dealings, just results.
As a CEO, if I was interested in keeping my job, I would want to be loved
by the Board of Directors and the shareholders.
It's a win/win for the Greens. Ford kowtows to the green agenda and elevates it above running the company to make money so the greens are happy to have the execs at Ford bow and scrape to them. When that policy derails the company and sends them on their way to bankruptcy it's an even better deal for the greens since they hate all industry anyway.
"Just this week, Immelt announced an Ecomagination “advisory council” that includes the likes of Eileen Claussen (whose Pew Center on Global Climate Change lobbies for global warming regulation), Dan Reicher (a former activist with the anti-nuclear, pro-Kyoto Protocol Natural Resources Defense Council)"
GE, a global multinational corp with a nuke energy business is climbing into bed with a bunch of anti-nuke, anti-capitalist eco-wackos? Excuse me while I sell my GE stock.
Excuse me while I try to regain my composure from nearly dying of laughter at the thought that Ford, BP, or GE really ran "green" companies.
Ford did little other than pay lip service to the green movement. Sure, there were green programs being run, such as e-coat paint, but those programs were all about cost savings (e-coat, for example, reduces overspray, which lessens the cost of environmental controls in the pain shop as well as dramatically reducing the amount of paint needed, all while providing a more uniform paint job).
BP? How many people here really think BP heavily invested into green programs? Come on, raise your hands! Wait - shouldn't proper maintenance be part of keeping things "green"?
GE? Ok, this may be closer to the point. Programs like their wind power may provide low rates of return, but do we really think they'd run money losing programs? They're not that dumb. Many of GE's products really do rely on efficiency as a selling point, though. Airlines will pay a pretty penny extra for a super efficient turbine. So what if it is "green"? That's where the money is in that market. Lighting? There's very little profit in incandescent bulbs, which are essentially commoditized at this point. CF bulbs? Much higher profit, and green as well. So what?
Paying lip service to the green movement and actually following through are two different things entirely. BP and Ford really have done little other than pay lip service. GE has followed through more, but much of their business is reliant upon efficiency claims...
"Disney went on a big 'liberal' push in the late 90s with affirmative action. diversity and tolerance
Their business tanked
There's nothing wrong with those sentiments, but they took away from the one goal of business: make money"
Yeah, and last week Disney and ABC stood firm (well, sort of firm) against the Clinton Shadow Presidency concerning "Path to 9/11". Disney has a new President.
Manufacturing stupidity rather than a good product doesn't pay in the long run. Unless you're the government. Then you can manufacture tons of stupidity paid by the taxpayer and forced on an unwilling and hostile citizenry.
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