This week 35 Chief Executives and Chairman of some the laergest companies in the UK issued a statement in the form of a letter to the Daily Telegraph supporting the British Government's plans to institute widespread cuts in public services and state benefits.
See http://boycottbigbusinesssociety.blogspot.com/2010/10/offending-letter.html for details.
Given that such cuts will hurt their customers and ultimately their shareholders I have to assume that the motivations behind this action are party political rather than business-focussed and can no longer support the businesses of these individuals.
It is hard to see how business can continue to grow and develop when customers have no money to purchase goods and services.
The signatories to the letter are listed below and a number of their businesses, such as Mothercare and Carphone Warehouse run affiliate programs which have been supported by Global Affiliate Programs for many years. I have not yet identified all the brands of these companies; those I have identified will be removed over the next few days and others will be removed as their ownership becomes apparent.
Will Adderley, CEO, Dunelm Group
Robert Bensoussan, Chairman, L.K. Bennett
Andy Bond, Chairman, Asda
Ian Cheshire, Chief Executive, Kingfisher
Gerald Corbett, Chairman, SSL International, moneysupermarket.com, Britvic
Peter Cullum, Executive Chairman, Towergate
Tej Dhillon, Chairman and CEO, Dhillon Group
Philip Dilley, Chairman, Arup
Charles Dunstone, Chairman, Carphone Warehouse Group, TalkTalk Telecom Group
Warren East, CEO, ARM Holdings
Gordon Frazer, Managing Director, Microsoft UK
Sir Christopher Gent, Non-Executive Chairman, GlaxoSmithKline
Ben Gordon, Chief Executive, Mothercare
Anthony Habgood, Chairman, Whitbread, Chairman, Reed Elsevier
Aidan Heavey, Chief Executive, Tullow Oil
Neil Johnson, Chairman, UMECO
Nick Leslau, Chairman, Prestbury Group
Ian Livingston, CEO, BT Group
Ruby McGregor-Smith, CEO, MITIE Group
Rick Medlock, CFO, Inmarsat; Non-Executive Director lovefilms.com, The Betting Group
John Nelson, Chairman, Hammerson
Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman, Alliance Boots
Nick Prest, Chairman, AVEVA
Nick Robertson, CEO, ASOS
Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman, Marks & Spencer
Tim Steiner, CEO, Ocado
Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO, Inmarsat
Michael Turner, Executive Chairman, Fuller, Smith and Turner
Moni Varma, Chairman, Veetee
Paul Walker, Chief Executive, Sage
Paul Walsh, Chief Executive, Diageo
Robert Walters, CEO, Robert Walters
Joseph Wan, Chief Executive, Harvey Nichols
Bob Wigley, Chairman, Expansys, Stonehaven Associates, Yell Group
Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive, Next
The action of the 35 super-rich business people has also been criticised by the Federation of Small Businesses, who are clearly more in touch with their customers than the super-rich are. See this report.
The spending cuts supported by these people have been attacked by senior economists.
David Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, said of the letter: "It's a terrible, terrible mistake. The sensible thing to do is to spread [the cuts] over a long time. Clearly you have to deal with the deficit, but there is no economics that says you have to deal with it in a week or a month."
Big business seems to think it can dictate public policy to the rest of us. It has to be told it cannot.
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