I’m broadly supportive of this type of initiative, and it seems like it’s definitely worth a try (the downsides seem low compared to the upsides). However I suspect that, like most apparently good ideas, scrutiny will yield problems.
One issue I can think of: in this analysis, a lot of the competitive advantage for the company arises from the good reputation of the charitable foundation running it. However, running a large company competitively sometimes involves making tough, unpopular decisions, like laying off portions of your workforce. So I don’t think your assumption that the charity-owned company can act exactly like a regular company holds up necessarily: doing so risks eliminating the reputational advantage that is needed for the competitive edge.
Yeah, there’s the possibility of a double-standard. Essentially the PFG is reputationally penalized for competitive choices in ways their normal competitors are not.
It seems the short term solution to this is selecting contexts that aren’t fraught with ethical issues.
And if you succeed in the short term, the long term solution would be a messaging campaign that tried to get at this irrational double-standard where competitive business choices are not popular.
I’m broadly supportive of this type of initiative, and it seems like it’s definitely worth a try (the downsides seem low compared to the upsides). However I suspect that, like most apparently good ideas, scrutiny will yield problems.
One issue I can think of: in this analysis, a lot of the competitive advantage for the company arises from the good reputation of the charitable foundation running it. However, running a large company competitively sometimes involves making tough, unpopular decisions, like laying off portions of your workforce. So I don’t think your assumption that the charity-owned company can act exactly like a regular company holds up necessarily: doing so risks eliminating the reputational advantage that is needed for the competitive edge.
Yeah, there’s the possibility of a double-standard. Essentially the PFG is reputationally penalized for competitive choices in ways their normal competitors are not.
It seems the short term solution to this is selecting contexts that aren’t fraught with ethical issues.
And if you succeed in the short term, the long term solution would be a messaging campaign that tried to get at this irrational double-standard where competitive business choices are not popular.