The Corporation

Watched the documentary, The Corporation(http://www.thecorporation.com/), last night. Despite a number of corny scenes and slightly overdone dramatics, I thought it was an interesting movie. I think the two most important things I took out of it were:

1) The argument that business faces the judgement of society through the purchasing choices does not create a democratic environment. It creates an environment where your financial situation designates you power. If I have more money then you then I have more of a voice, I can tell a company to do something with more power than you can.

2) I have always believed that the greatest means for achieving something significant, along the lines of saving the environment, is to become the CEO of a major corporation. The movie was quite effective at showing the difficulty that even the CEO of a corporation has in trying to push forward any agenda that is not inline with increasing the bottom line.

Does this mean that business is not an extremely effective means of affecting change? No, I don't think so, but it certainly brings to the forefront the differences between a privately run corporation and a publicly run one. I think I would strive to keep a company private as long as possible, and, even if I did go public with it, maybe use the same route that Google did for their IPO.

I know these are lofty words and I certainly have a ways to go before I have my Google-like IPO :), but you've got to start somewhere. And personally I think it is best to start with a foundation of principles that can help guide your decisions.