With a luxury liner capsizing in the Mediterranean (of all places) this week nothing looks safe any more. Thus the 2012 World Economic Forum Global Risk Report is well timed. It does not, however, make for happy reading.
While you may not find this surprising in the current gloomy economic climate, you might be surprised to learn that the first risk case the report describes has the heading “Seeds of Dystopia.” However, I don’t think so. As Lee Howell, the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum says, “For the first time in generations many people no longer believe that their children will grow up to enjoy a higher standard of living than theirs."
It is particularly disturbing that this is in the industrialised countries that historically have been a source of great confidence and bold ideas. Of course you could take some comfort from the fact that this conclusion is from a survey of only 469 global experts. However, I am suspect you are more likely to agree because it probably mirrors your own feelings. Especially in light of the chronic problems with government finances they identify as a key risk.
Would you be surprised, however, to learn that the second prevalent risk leading to this conclusion is “severe income inequality”?
If you have been paying any attention to the “Occupy Wall Street” protests you shouldn’t be. While there appears to be a consensus amongst the press to give these as little publicity as is possible and to depict the protestors message as unclear and confused, these protests are a symptom of the malaise and the sense that things need to change. I have no doubt that this income disparity is one. That is why I love this Dilbert strip.
However, rather than focus on the problem, I have been working very hard to find a solution. And I am convinced that the new employee ownership model I propose, that makes all employees co-owners of the organisations where they work, provides the core of the remedy. Amongst other things it will:-
- Provide a mechanism to scale back this inequability of remuneration and the earnings gap that it creates;
- Engender greater employee engagement and thus enhance productivity;
- Ensure a greater emphasis on the long-term and thus enhance sustainability – for both the business and the environment.
This may not create Utopia but it will certainly go some way to stop sowing the seeds of Dystopia that these experts are predicting. So how about giving it a chance?