Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay.
How can all these big businesses (like Branson's Virgins), with their vast resources, crumble within weeks?
It is almost like they have been designed to be fragile. And operated on unrealistic assumptions.
Massive disruptions like the current pandemic are not unexpected. We've had SARS, the avian flu, the swine flu, and the global financial crisis in recent years alone.
Big corporations should have access to the best strategists who can design them for resilience against threats. Richard Branson is supposed to be a wealthy hotshot businessman. And yet, he is now holding his hand out for handouts from taxpayers around the world.
Why weren’t there contingency plans for large threats like the pandemic? Where are the reserves to keep these companies operating for more than a few weeks? Are these companies being run dangerously close to the edge with maximum debt and minimal reserves so as to maximise short term gains?
A small business owner is expected to put their own money into their business in difficult times. A small business is not supposed to trade with huge debts that it cannot reasonably service. And yet, this appears to be what some of these huge corporations are doing.
Why should taxpayers bail out huge corporations that are poorly designed for resilience (but great for short term profits)? Who are the geniuses behind the design and operation of these fragile big businesses? Maybe it's time we stop putting these supposedly great business people on pedestals?
We should rethink the design of organisations to move away from crazy short-term thinking, the unsustainable obsession with maximising profits at the cost of resilience, and the entitled expectation that the taxpayer will always be there for a bailout.
