There is discussion going on in the business and political arena stating that in order for business to be successful and thrive we must eliminate regulations. As a person who has worked in business for many many years and who also has had the role of weaving regulatory requirements into the production system, I thought I might weigh into this discussion myself.
Let me start with my premise. I believe that businesses, especially those that operate in the free market, need a strong set of regulations. These regulations must define what society is willing to accept from the process of doing business. Why do I believe that? Why should there be constraints on a business that might cause a particular one not to be able to thrive? For one thing, just having to ask those questions shows a major deficiency of my generation of “baby boomers.” As the elders of all long lasting societies know, it is the job of the elders to pass on to the younger generation the lessons they learned, both good and bad, so that the next generation knows how to deal with certain conditions and situations.
Anyone who is of the age of 60 or above, and I fit into that category, remembers the almost daily smog in Los Angeles and many other cities, or the dirty debris strewn smelly rivers with fishing and swimming prohibitions, and the fact that large swaths of our major cities became baron wastelands fenced off from any beneficial use because of industrial ground contamination. We worried about what all this was doing to our health, and studies began to show just how bad it was. These conditions were real and pervasive and caused by the businesses who were trying to thrive. As I remember, it was when a river in Cleveland caught on fire that society finally said enough and the environmental health and safety regulatory era began. Somehow we baby boomers have not been able to pass this reality on to the next generation. Otherwise, why would so many current politicians and business leaders be seeking the repeal of those laws that reversed the trend?
Now, I am not saying that business is inherently bad – not by any means. It is working in business that has made life for me and my family as rewarding and comfortable as it is. Instead, what I am trying to point out is very basic. The most basic definition of a business is to make a profit for its owners. The measurement stick used for success is very short term. If a business doesn’t make a profit very quickly and then sustain those gains it will find itself out of business in short order. Conversely, what a business does to the environment or to the long term health of employees may not be known for many years. So there is a natural mismatch of measurement criteria. It is not nor should it be expected that any individual business will take a long term view that might, and I do mean might, affect short term business measurements. After all, what if a competitor doesn’t take that same approach – isn’t that putting the one who does at a disadvantage?
And thus the need to level the playing field on which all business needs to operate. I am not saying that all existing regulation is good. In my current assignment I get to at least scan many of the more than 50,000 pieces of regulation Citation Technologies follows for our clients. There are good laws and regulations aimed at protecting people and our environment, but there are many others that are promulgated to make money or protect industries or are just very confusing as to their intent.
In the last few days I have heard a business owner on a nationally televised news talk show vehemently state that the only way for business to survive, let alone thrive, in this country is to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. I have also recently read of an emerging political agenda that is aimed at repealing the basic laws that have allowed us to breathe clean air and once again use our waterways for sustenance and recreation. My plea is this – learn from the experience of your elders. Regulations are necessary. Instead of dumping them all, let’s clean them up. We need a clearly delineated set of EH&S regulations that society endorses and that defines the limits of the playing field business can operate and thrive within. I believe we can do this regulatory clean-up if we as a society better define the role of regulation. Having a healthy, clean and safe world AND business success are not mutually exclusive events in my estimation. After all there are many wildly successful companies that somehow have thrived through the regulatory error. Let us not return to the days of old, nostalgia aside, they weren’t that good! (A final point – without regulations I wouldn’t have a job and that definitely would not be good.)
