Independent UK: Behind corporate walls, the masters of the universe weep

[marmar]

Stefan Stern: Behind corporate walls, the masters of the universe weep
The stories I have been told are of secret grief and hidden angst bursting out in an extraordinary way. But the silence is at last being broken, the unsayable said

Thursday, 16 June 2011


Once he wanted his life back. But, having got it back, Tony Hayward, the former BP boss, is returning to the corporate fray. He has revealed his plans to launch a new energy company, called Vallares. He is going into business with the financier Nathaniel Rothschild to seek out investments in the oil and gas sector, mainly in the so-called emerging markets – Russia, the middle east, and Africa. Hayward will be a chief executive once again.

It is almost as though he is adopting the stance first advocated by the Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, a few months ago (and prior to the chancellor’s proposed banking reforms announced last night). Reflecting on the great financial crisis of the past three years Diamond observed: “There was a period of remorse and apology; that period needs to be over.” It was time, in other words, to get back to business as usual. Hayward seems to agree.

But wait a minute. Wasn’t one of the lessons of the crisis that we needed to stop and think a bit harder about our approach to business, and how companies were run? Ring-fencing retail banking is one step. But what happened to the fundamental reassessment of modern capitalism that so many called for and which some business leaders promised?

I must have missed it. Pick up the newspapers, read the business pages, and it is not obvious that a lot has changed. Pay for the most senior executives keeps rising, establishing an ever wider gap between those at the top and everybody else. Several European economies are hanging by an IMF-woven thread. Yes, some people march and protest, a few windows get broken, but almost everything else, at least in the Anglo-Saxon world, looks the same. That silence you can hear is the absence of debate, a lack of criticism? or perhaps merely the acquiescence of despair. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/stefan-stern-behind-corporate-walls-the-masters-of-the-universe-weep-2297910.html