MAGA’s vision of corporate life will struggle
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Last Monday, as President-elect Donald Trump announced The US government would now recognize only two genders, male and female, a triumph of corporate diversity, loudly applauded in Davos.
It was aimed at a boss who had just told an event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum about a transgender employee who had long dreamed of adopting a girl and buying a house for her mother.
“She texted me a few months ago and said, ‘I’ve done both,'” said the boss, visibly pleased with the opportunities women now had at a company trying to make its workforce more diverse and inclusive.
The name of this awakened business warrior? Priya Agarwal Hebbar, chairperson of Indian zinc miner Hindustan and non-executive director of the Mining and Energy conglomerate founded by her father Anil Agarwal.
For the avoidance of doubt, the idea of a boss waking up makes about as much sense as Trump taking up yoga.
Hebbar was by no means the only leader at Davos to make it clear that the vision of corporate life would be disavowed by MAGA, who found the diversity and environmental measures they adopted years ago made financial sense.
“We’re not going to change course,” Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told the FT in an interview at the Alpine gathering. “We think building a recruitment group that’s diverse, that’s global, that thinks about all aspects of the business, that’s positive, that’s just good business.”
Ralph Lauren boss Patrice Louvet was quick to say, “It would be very short-sighted not to represent the consumers we serve, and we serve a very broad and diverse range of consumers.”
Yet Davos also pointed to Trump’s war on what he later called “Absolutely The follies of DEI’s “discriminatory” measures cannot be ignored. I didn’t hear a single CEO at the World Economic Forum gathering using language like Trump’s. But the nod to the president’s vow to make America a “merit-based nation” was evident.
“We have to create an environment where people feel included and It must be a meritocracy where everyone has a chance to succeed,” said Rich Lesher, global president of the Boston Consulting Group. one forum event.
Trump’s approach may embolden some business leaders to follow Meta, McDonald’s, Walmart and other major U.S. corporations that have already scaled back their DEI programs amid Trump’s return.
And it’s easy to imagine that executives itching to end work-from-home policies may be inspired to act after Trump Day One order to get federal workers back to their offices five days a week.
But things are more complicated when it comes to Trump’s push to make fossil fuels work again.
Wall Street banks have already pulled back from net-zero alliances following Trump’s re-election, prompting speculation in Davos that the future of corporate sustainability banking divisions may not be bright.
And a number of executives have said that privately they might talk less about saving the planet and more about boosting “resilience” when it comes to their climate work.
Nevertheless, 40 top executives met in the Swiss ski town to advance moves in their sectors that support and protect nature. “It suggests there is another side to the ESG story,” said Jack Hurd, head of nature at the World Economic Forum.
Other leaders also said that years of experience have shown the financial wisdom of carbon reduction measures.
“It’s incredibly beneficial from an economic point of view,” Jesper Brodin, CEO of IKEA’s main retailer Ingka Group, told me as Davos drew to a close.
Cutting emissions from supply chains and operations has focused attention on resources and costs, which in turn have helped ingka’s revenue grow 24 percent since 2016, while carbon emissions fell 30 percent, he said.
Andrew Forrest, the Australian billionaire who decided to turn his mining group Fortescue Iron Ore into a green industry showcase, had a similar story. Although he is only a third of the way through his decarbonisation plans, he said the economic case for it is clear.
The companies that jumped on the anti-ESG bandwagon and said, “We’re just going full steam ahead, it’s an iceberg,” were in for a shock, he said. “You’re going to be like the Titanic because the climate doesn’t care about our politics, and it’s getting worse.”