the great post AIESEC sellout and cash-in
11 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Thursday, May 19 at Thursday, May 19, 2005.
Mazzy recently made a very interesting post about her experience so far working in the global head office of ABN-AMRO. It brings up a lot of the initial reservations I felt upon hearing that a brilliant, creative genius like Mazzy was planning on joining a large Dutch investment bank. Mazzy says:
A whole load of comments followed Mazzy's post, seemingly disagreeing with the idea that a business driven by the need to deliver financial profit to shareholders isnt the place for a person who wants to change the world. To be honest, I was quite surprised, and dissapointed, by this.
I have something to say on this issue:
If you are an ex-AIESEC'er, now comfortably employed in corporate life, enjoying the salary, benefits, travel and nice surrounds that accompany a good job, cool. Congratulations. Enjoy it. You probably do some very challenging work, with some very smart and talented people, and the reward and success that com with the work are tributes to your own intelligence and ability. Congratulations. Again.
But.
By trying to suggest that your work has any equivelance to people actually, you know, changing the world, improving peoples lives and driving organisations which make the world a better place, you are cheapening the work of these vision driven organisations, and cheapening your own understanding of change that you got from AIESEC.
It is easy to turn any normal business' core work into something vision'y sounding. Just apply the 30 second corporate whitewash. Your company produces consumer goods? Well, fear not, because you are "delivering products which improve the lives of your customers". Work in a bank? You are "helping people and businesses grow by becoming financially sustainable". Its easy to make up this corporate motivation talk, and its even easier to swallow it and believe in it, especially when a big pay cheque and worldly perks come with the territory.
So, keep enjoying smoking that big corporate dick. We all need to enjoy the fruits of our labours sometimes. Enjoy it. Love it. I'll probably join you sometime in the next couple of years. But dont equate yourself to anything more than a component of the great white collared mind-hive, achieving little more ijn your professional life than the slow demise and destruction of enlightened civilisation.
Back to regular programming, right after the break...........
"... after attending a whole day workshop on sustainability, the continual reference to the core business of the bank as 'making profit' was more than unrattling to me when the point was repeated over and over......Absolutely. I would have thought that sentiments like this would be fairly common for a passionate ex-AIESEC'er experiencing the vision-free zone that is corporate life. And before anyone chimes in with "but my company has a very relevant vision" - shut up. No it doesnt. Corporate visions are slickly produced branding statements made up to create a shiny, motivational sheen over the top of what is an otherwise soul-less and uninspiring organisation.
There is no way I am staying more than 6 months, but I am enjoying my time and the people. It would just be better if it was for an organisation that I actually believed in."
A whole load of comments followed Mazzy's post, seemingly disagreeing with the idea that a business driven by the need to deliver financial profit to shareholders isnt the place for a person who wants to change the world. To be honest, I was quite surprised, and dissapointed, by this.
I have something to say on this issue:
If you are an ex-AIESEC'er, now comfortably employed in corporate life, enjoying the salary, benefits, travel and nice surrounds that accompany a good job, cool. Congratulations. Enjoy it. You probably do some very challenging work, with some very smart and talented people, and the reward and success that com with the work are tributes to your own intelligence and ability. Congratulations. Again.
But.
By trying to suggest that your work has any equivelance to people actually, you know, changing the world, improving peoples lives and driving organisations which make the world a better place, you are cheapening the work of these vision driven organisations, and cheapening your own understanding of change that you got from AIESEC.
It is easy to turn any normal business' core work into something vision'y sounding. Just apply the 30 second corporate whitewash. Your company produces consumer goods? Well, fear not, because you are "delivering products which improve the lives of your customers". Work in a bank? You are "helping people and businesses grow by becoming financially sustainable". Its easy to make up this corporate motivation talk, and its even easier to swallow it and believe in it, especially when a big pay cheque and worldly perks come with the territory.
So, keep enjoying smoking that big corporate dick. We all need to enjoy the fruits of our labours sometimes. Enjoy it. Love it. I'll probably join you sometime in the next couple of years. But dont equate yourself to anything more than a component of the great white collared mind-hive, achieving little more ijn your professional life than the slow demise and destruction of enlightened civilisation.
Back to regular programming, right after the break...........
Here here. Bloody well said mate.
Except for the bit about "You probably do some very challenging work, with some very smart and talented people". Maybe, but not always. Generally I think AIESEC holds its own in this area better than a lot of companies do.
"By trying to suggest that your work has any equivelance to people actually, you know, changing the world, improving peoples lives and driving organisations which make the world a better place, you are cheapening the work of these vision driven organisations, and cheapening your own understanding of change that you got from AIESEC."
And yet never forget that most fundings for those "vision driven organizations" comes from those mundane dull corporations.
And? I need a point....
There is no need to justify the existance of a corporation beyond its dedication to bottom line.
Let the market and government to sort the rest out.
I agree with Dody, as usual: At least with corporations there are no misconceptions on the goal of the organization.
AIESEC is pretty unique in that it doesn't relie on grants to fullfill its mission and that it can adapt its mission to new realities.
I would say "most" non-profit "mission driven" organizations are just tax free grant writing corporations who do just enough to whip up a nice prospectus, but they stop before they extinguish their cause (this cyncism comes from working for/with many non-profits outside of AIESEC). Not to mention, with no reliance on the bottom line, efficency is highly compromised when there isnt a metric for which to accurately and objectively measure success. Its truly the land of mediocrity.
Hey, at least corporations are doing something, and benefitting somebody, unlike a lot of non-profits. You take away all the good non-profits in the world and it sucks; take away all the business in the world...I hope you like hunting and gathering.
AIESEC is different, very different, than almost all non-profits. Too bad you can't make a career out of it, or risk endangering what makes it so great.
I remember debates in school on whether Corporations should donate ANY funds to non-profit operations. Some argued that shareholders should be free to donate their earnings as they see fit, and the corporation should simply pay out those "donations" as dividends. (The really smart assholes would then drag Tax Act into the discussion and confuse everything, but this isn't my point.)
My thought from a business standpoint was always that: The corporations shouldn't waste time in philanthropic events and focus on the core mission of making money. Let the individual choose how to spend their earnings. This theory would likely greatly reduce the "grant writing corporations" and let money flow to more worth while causes as individuals would tend to spend more efficiently than corporations or governments.
BUT
I also stongly beleive that on a macro level (taxes aside for now) the amount of funds flowing to NPOs would be severely reduced if the big bad corporations didn't do the funding, but instead let their shareholders do it directly. I suspect that the populus as a whole is less inclided to fund NPOs at the same rate as the managers of their corporate holding presently do.
Thus I conclude: I agree with Dody.
I think Tom's original point has got a little lost. My understanding is that he's not trying to denounce capitalism or anything like that, he's just saying "let's call a spade a spade".
Shareholders, companies and individual employees all have the right to choose to be motivated primarily by financial self-interest if they so wish. If that's where their values lie than so be it. But in that case, they shouldn't beat around the bush and try to label this as anything more rosy than what it is - self centred greed.
What I intend to point out is this.
Corporation and NGOs are part of the same ecosystem in human civilization.
There is no need to elevate NGOs in the higher plane than corporation just because NGOs have specific direct mission to improve human lives.
Corporations (a.k.a private enterprises) play important role in that mission to, through its direct contribution to economy.
Yeah, and cows improve soil quality by shitting on the ground. Its all part of the same ecosystem, but my point is, a higher, more noble cause still exists in this world, and it isnt being served by the people in corporations.
Theres nothing wrong with corporations, or corporate work. But how about us enlightened souls leave that work to the brain dead masses, and we get on with the real business of making the world a better place - which you are NOT doing by devoting your energies to a corporation, except in a highly abstract way.
I know Tom: I can think of only a handful of individuals that actually did what you want to do, they were: Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Moses...to a lesser extent: Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi...
You are not going to find that higher cause in any currently functioning organization. The closest place I think you can do something like that is politics, and being sucked into politics and actually changing the world for the better takes an inhuman amount of discipline and balls and usually ends up getting you assinated (SEE ALSO: JFK, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, RFK, Abraham Lincoln, Malcolm X...).
But if you do find such an organization or have a model that should be successful, let me know, I'm interested.
I think it's a very dangerous thing to go around comparing Tom to Jesus. Comparing the most debaucherous man on Earth to the son of God is exactly the sort of sacrilege for which the Holy Trinity zaps you right in the face with a ten-thousand volt blast of lightning.
Not surprisingly, I agree with Tom. Any good a corporation does is incidental to pursuit of profit. If it happens that both is possible, then everybody's happy. If good aside from generating cash isn't possible/easy/profitable, then the corporation slings a couple of buzzwords together instead. For instance, I'm facilitating another person gaining an employment opportunity by slacking off on research and nosing around others' blogs. Oh wait, now I'm not.
Gilganixon