A Little Synthesis

We are roughly halfway through this semester, and I find myself searching for some kind of unifying theme in everything we’ve read. I’m trying to go deeper than the obvious “lots of things are wrong and we ignore them at our peril.” Without question, the latter is true, but I think we’re striving for a deeper understanding. After all, we students are going to end up with more letters after our names when this is all said and done.

The problem with synthesis is, in order to form a cohesive statement about whatever, you must simplify, often to the point of losing any kind of relevance. Such is the case with the above statement. It’s a message we’ve heard many times and while accurate, doesn’t hint at the underlying complexity of the issues with which we’re faced. I’ll concede that limitation and still try for something simple and meaningful.

I was tempted by an obvious one: We (I’m still not sure how wide a net I’m casting with “we”), mostly, are not stupid, lazy, inconsiderate, or greedy, but we are shortsighted. Just like everything we depend on can be traced back to the natural world, so too can all of the issues we’re facing today be traced back to this characteristic. Myopia may not be the primary cause of every issue we tackle in this class, but it contributes to and/or exacerbates them all, from ecosystem degradation to financial fraud.

This is OK, if not true and accurate. The bigger and more important consideration is where this myopia comes from. The what matters little without understanding the why. Again, I don’t have the answer, and I suspect if it’s my intention to find it, I could spend the rest of my life doing so. Even if the above is OK, I still wasn’t satisfied.

As I’ve mentioned many times, the outdoor retail sector has some outstanding examples of companies that are doing well with sustainable business practices. The more I learned about these companies, the more I wondered what made them different, i.e. why weren’t all businesses like them? I chalked this reaction up to a lot of things, but mostly to naiveté. While not a total novice, until this degree, my business education was limited and informal. I expected this degree to give me better insight into why those companies were unusual.

This has not happened.

For me, this is a more satisfying theme tying together everything we’ve covered so far. I still cannot figure out why sustainable business and business as usual are not synonymous. It’s not that what we’re reading is obvious, although some of it is. It’s not that it’s more or less complicated. It is both. It’s not that it’s easier or more difficult. Again, it will be both. It is that it makes so much sense, on every level that matters.