Have we have regressed to the Age of Greed. In my book, The Age of Responsibility, I described 5 Ages and Stages of Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility (CSR):
- Defensive CSR in the Age of Greed
- Charitable CSR in the Age of Philanthropy
- Promotional CSR in the Age of Marketing
- Strategic CSR in the Age of Management
- Transformative CSR in the Age of Responsibility
I argued that we can find companies at all stages but business was evolving through these stages of maturity, and that we needed to move beyond stages 1-4 (CSR 1.0) to stage 5 (CSR 2.0).
Little did I imagine then that a leader and company that I once held out as a pioneer of responsible and regenerative business (Elon Musk and Tesla) would drag us back into stage 1: the Age of Greed.
Is there any other explanation? No one needs a trillion dollars to incentivise them. That’s just planet sized ego. No one is that valuable. Shareholders have voted purely to satisfy their own financial greed.
What a contrast to Mamdani’s victory as the new mayor of New York. We really are in a bifurcated world of the billionaire oligarchs and plutocrat politicians versus the rest of us.
For more information, see this BBC article: Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal approved by Tesla shareholders