About four years ago, Yan Simard posted a novel idea on his blog
(http://yanknowwhat.blogspot.com/2004/05/end-of-corporations.html). He
predicted that in the near future we would see the end of corporations
as we know them today.
Of course, it's now 2008, and many corporations are still going strong today, and with the partnership they have with
our governments, it's very difficult to envision such a day in our
near future. Even many small mom and pop grocery stores are
incorporated in the USA. Are we predicting that even small corporations
may someday become simply a memory?
I think that Simard when he
predicted the end of corporations was thinking of our multi-national
corporations that are elephants in our societies in comparison to mom
and pop stores, who are more like amoebas.
Why would our multi-nationals fade away?
I compare them to governments and our oldest and biggest institutions, the church.
Of
course, governments are always in a constant state of flux. Even
empires like Rome and Great Britain have seen their powers ebb and flow
through history. One year an empire, the next decade a "has-been" power.
What
is the fastest growing churches these days? In my opinion, they are
inter and non-denominational churches. People don't like the idea of
hierarchy of any type in their lives. A gifted preacher can feel led to
preach the gospel, open a storefront church, get the word out there by
word of mouth of his magnificent sermons, and soon he's moving into a
brand new mega-church. He (or she) has started a new movement, an
exciting new movement, one that makes his (or her) members feel that
they are in the middle of something that will move the world. In the
institutional church, change and excitement comes very slowly, and
members will often find themselves sleeping through services, services
that are dictated by a hierarchy half way around the world. People just
don't respond to big and distant as they once did.
Where I live
now, smaller grocery stores that cater to customers who prefer organic
food, are experiencing busy cash registers. Their customers are looking
for food and services that are on the cusp of change. Many cater to
customers who are wanting to eat foods like their grandparents did.
They are abandoning prepared, pre-packaged food. They want their food
straight from the local farm, and are even leaving the stores described
above for the local farmers market. Of course, many farmers have yet to
incorporate.
Corporations as we know them are like the churches
and fat governments many of us have learned to abhor. Change filters
through departments, through CEOs, through a board of directors, and
through stockholders before it can become reality.
Conversely,
your small businessman or woman may only have a partner to consult with
before he or she dives into a new idea, a process or product. Your
small business person if he or she has ready funding, can react as
societal turns this way or that way. Turn around is quick and often
successful.
Corporations were first created to be like
individual persons when their assets were in tangible products. Today
it has been estimated that in some corporations, up to 85 percent of
their worth is tied up in intellectual property rather than washing
machines or automobiles.
Individuals are not owned by
corporations. They may own the intellectual property of their key
employees, but they can't force those employees to stay in their
employment. Thus, intellectual property is fluid, possibly moving from
corporation to corporation, or even stepping outside of the corporate
structure all together, and becoming independent.
Lastly, as
overhead continues to get more expensive, especially in transportation
and related costs, the power of big could become inefficient. Small
businesses, with local customers and neighbors as employees, or better
yet, as cooperatives, can fulfill their customers' needs faster and
more personally than corporations ever could.
We citizens of the
USA discovered long ago that our educational successes went down as we
consolidated school systems, when students were bussed long distances
before dawn and after dark, where parents no longer felt they were
partners with the local schools. Now many of our students are prevented
from participating in extracurricular activities because their schools
are so far from home, and working parents can't transport them here to
there all day and night? Teachers are not members of the same community
as the students and their parents. Consequently when our students leave
their schools, they are less prepared to go into successful careers in
corporate America. As a matter of fact, many corporations are really
sweating the lack of potential and quality intellectual property in the
years ahead.
Those who are leaving our schools well prepared to
meet the challenges of a complicated world out there have been raised
to be independent in their aspirations. They don't chomp at the bit to
move into the corporate world. Many are ready to go it alone, or with
some friends, through whom they can network.
Corporations,
churches and governments are unyielding and inflexible. They are
looking for profits only. Often they make more money by merging and
buying other companies as investments. They get away from their
original mission, such as providing quality radios for customers at
their doorsteps.
If my country ever initiates a single payer
national health care program, fellow citizens will have lost all
incentives to work in a corporation here. You will see thousands
leaving corporations to start their own small businesses for fellow
Americans who also like small rather than big, local instead of global,
near rather than far, quick to respond rather than slow, accessible
rather than distant.
So, good-bye (someday) to corporations as
we now know them! The older I get the more I see that pendulums do
swing both ways. In time for our grandchildren, I see the pendulum now
swinging from big to small, from impersonal to personal, from global to
local. And I think this is good and about time!
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