An rambling, soul-searching letter by Siemens's CEO defending his decision to go through with an #Adani coal rail contract is almost more troubling than the decision itself:
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
You really should read the letter itself to get a full sense of how strange it is: press.siemens.com/global/en/news…
It's almost twice as long as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and almost as filled with stream-of-consciousness yearning, regret, assertion and indecision.
It's almost twice as long as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", and almost as filled with stream-of-consciousness yearning, regret, assertion and indecision.
What's so strange about this is that Siemens is one of a handful of companies that *built* the fossil-fired electricity industry.
Along with GE and Mitsubishi, its coal and gas turbines powered the 20th century.
Along with GE and Mitsubishi, its coal and gas turbines powered the 20th century.
It's now spinning off most of its fossil power business. Like GE, it disastrously underestimated how renewables would undercut thermal power, and ended up with a core turbines business where industry capacity was too high and prices too low.
As a company that's been quite vocal in going to zero emissions, it's quite surprising to me that they got tripped up on this Adani contract.
This was a fairly obvious business risk that they just blundered into. That doesn't say much for the quality of their decision-making.
This was a fairly obvious business risk that they just blundered into. That doesn't say much for the quality of their decision-making.
Kaeser's letter is fascinating to me because it's so lurid and raw.
And in the article I take a pretty sceptical view of that: Who cares about the state of corporate executives' souls? What matters is their actions.
And in the article I take a pretty sceptical view of that: Who cares about the state of corporate executives' souls? What matters is their actions.
But the letter itself keeps nagging at me. I think while it's right to take a cynical view of mere words -- Siemens is still going ahead with the contract, after all -- it's worth listening to the ... *anguish*, really, that comes across in the letter.
I've heard this talking to other corporate executives. Like the rest of us, many of them are becoming truly scared and alarmed by what is happening to the world.
Kaeser, for instance, keeps coming back to the Australian bushfires throughout the letter. As an editor, I'd have told him to group all the references in one place. The fact that he's not done that just underlines how much it's nagging at his mind.
Again, my tendency is to see this as mere words, when what matters is actions.
The entire letter is a powerful example of how institutions can cause leaders to pursue actions that trouble their consciences, while convincing themselves they're doing it for the greater good.
The entire letter is a powerful example of how institutions can cause leaders to pursue actions that trouble their consciences, while convincing themselves they're doing it for the greater good.
And yet, and yet ... I'm reminded of this account by @ramez of how he freaked out a major coal lender who'd just never thought through the implications of the changes underway in the energy industry:
From the outside it looks like political and corporate decision-making is the outcome of an ironclad process.
The way these institutions frame their decisions seems calculated to give them a feeling of reasoned inevitability.
I don't think that's how it really works.
The way these institutions frame their decisions seems calculated to give them a feeling of reasoned inevitability.
I don't think that's how it really works.
I think things like a CEO having a crisis of conscience actually matters.
More CEOs should be having such crises!
And then giving serious thought to what they can do to change outcomes.
If they don't have the crisis, they probably won't make the change.
More CEOs should be having such crises!
And then giving serious thought to what they can do to change outcomes.
If they don't have the crisis, they probably won't make the change.
Since the Paris Agreement we've seen a real shift in corporate thinking on these issues.
I'm very sceptical of Blackrock's latest announcement on climate, but it's hard to imagine anything of this sort happening five years ago: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
I'm very sceptical of Blackrock's latest announcement on climate, but it's hard to imagine anything of this sort happening five years ago: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
As @ramez says, things probably won't change at all unless the economics start to make sense. But we shouldn't dismiss signs that people are shaken up by what they're seeing in the world.
Attitudes change reality.
Not nearly fast enough, yet. But eventually? Sure.
(ends)
Attitudes change reality.
Not nearly fast enough, yet. But eventually? Sure.
(ends)
(Can't believe I started this thread with that "An rambling" typo...)
