I can’t agree with this post more. I raised concerns about the number of times I heard those placed into leadership positions of new EA spin-offs/projects relaying that they felt they didn’t have sufficient oversight/ reporting mechanisms in place to get the best out of these programmes or even their talents. Idealistic as we all are, big bucks need big governance—it’s as simple as that.
So let’s get scientific about all this. It is now absolutely essential that EA makes the a-priori publication of impact metrics, programmatic design and oversight mechanisms with absolutely all affiliated activities business as usual. It is too easy to get creative with this accounting if done retrospectively—reach gets inflated and declared financial waste gets minimised/ swept under rugs. If we want the public to ever trust us with their funds again, we have to show all our workings and we have to be open about our failings. The only way of cleaning up the reputational damage of our FTX affiliation is concerted effort around external and objective oversight/audit (annual charity commission reporting is not sufficient) and layered internal governance via boards and committees and, yes, I’m afraid a metric tonne of bureaucratic paperwork.
EA now has brand-value and must act accordingly: it cannot shirk responsibility as ‘an ideology’ or even as an accelerator perhaps can. Any negative association is now our liability and our responsibility. A single bad apple ruins the brand equity barrel—not least when the public bloodlust for all things EA is considered. Do we really want to be the makings of just another bad Netflix documentary?
I have worked in and alongside global programs via corporate philanthropy, international relations and political parties. I have helped to manage the oversight of programmes ranging from £50k to £50mil in valuation and have seen how paperwork and wraparound scrutiny mechanisms are supposed to increase exponentially with each added zero. This is the only way of safeguarding beneficiaries, of behaving ethically: failing to step up to this bureaucratic burden risks the poor programmatic design or fiscal mismanagement that does unthinkable harm to those who come to depend upon the hope and means to social mobility that these interventions purport to providing.
I would be delighted to leverage this experience and help EA in its current crisis and—it must be stated—was glad to see that when I did raise these initial concerns with EA leadership, they were responded to positively and I was immediately invited to meet with the governance team. That said, my concerns still stand so the offer does too :)
I can’t agree with this post more. I raised concerns about the number of times I heard those placed into leadership positions of new EA spin-offs/projects relaying that they felt they didn’t have sufficient oversight/ reporting mechanisms in place to get the best out of these programmes or even their talents. Idealistic as we all are, big bucks need big governance—it’s as simple as that.
So let’s get scientific about all this. It is now absolutely essential that EA makes the a-priori publication of impact metrics, programmatic design and oversight mechanisms with absolutely all affiliated activities business as usual. It is too easy to get creative with this accounting if done retrospectively—reach gets inflated and declared financial waste gets minimised/ swept under rugs. If we want the public to ever trust us with their funds again, we have to show all our workings and we have to be open about our failings. The only way of cleaning up the reputational damage of our FTX affiliation is concerted effort around external and objective oversight/audit (annual charity commission reporting is not sufficient) and layered internal governance via boards and committees and, yes, I’m afraid a metric tonne of bureaucratic paperwork.
EA now has brand-value and must act accordingly: it cannot shirk responsibility as ‘an ideology’ or even as an accelerator perhaps can. Any negative association is now our liability and our responsibility. A single bad apple ruins the brand equity barrel—not least when the public bloodlust for all things EA is considered. Do we really want to be the makings of just another bad Netflix documentary?
I have worked in and alongside global programs via corporate philanthropy, international relations and political parties. I have helped to manage the oversight of programmes ranging from £50k to £50mil in valuation and have seen how paperwork and wraparound scrutiny mechanisms are supposed to increase exponentially with each added zero. This is the only way of safeguarding beneficiaries, of behaving ethically: failing to step up to this bureaucratic burden risks the poor programmatic design or fiscal mismanagement that does unthinkable harm to those who come to depend upon the hope and means to social mobility that these interventions purport to providing.
I would be delighted to leverage this experience and help EA in its current crisis and—it must be stated—was glad to see that when I did raise these initial concerns with EA leadership, they were responded to positively and I was immediately invited to meet with the governance team. That said, my concerns still stand so the offer does too :)
Let’s get our house in order folks.