August 11, 2011--The Un-Fortunate 500

Whatever happened to the time when business leaders were Leaders? When they did more than obsess about their companies' bottom line? When they also cared about the country and acted, in part, accordingly?

Do you remember Thomas Watson of IBM and Jack Welch of GE and Lee Iococca of Chrysler and David Kearns of Xerox and David Rockefeller of Chase? Men, and they were at the time all men, who were comfortable playing an active public advisory role in the governance and leadership of their country.

There are a few today who are active beyond the interests of their companies, but mainly in philanthropic roles. Bill Gates of Microscoft is the current best example, devoting most of his time and a substantial portion of his cash to the generally good work of the Gates Foundation.

But where are these guys and, finally, women now that their country is facing a crisis in leadership? Hunkered down in the corporate bunkers, I suspect, hoping that this too shall pass.

Yes, President Obama like other recent presidents trots them out periodically for a photo-op about one thing or another; but when was the last time they played a substantial role in helping the larger economy or spoke out singly or as a group on any issue of substance? I may have missed this, but what I have heard is silence and witnessed is passivity.

There is the Business Roundtable whose membership is composed of most of America's leading CEOs, and in the past the Roundtable did more than host summer networking meetings and run seminars for themselves. As a group the BRT took influential positions on national issues. The Roundtable, for example, used to advocate and even sponsor dramatic reform of the nation's public schools.

They say about themselves that--

[The Roundtable is] an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 13 million employees. BRT member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and invest more than $114 billion annually in research and development – nearly half of all private U.S. R&D spending. Our companies pay more than $179 billion in dividends to shareholders and give nearly $9 billion a year in combined charitable contributions.

One would think that we would be now hearing from this powerful group about how to address our economic crisis. How we need to see government policy focused on creating jobs and cutting into our long-term debt by restructuring entitlement programs, the Pentagon, and, heretically, by sensibly increasing national revenue. Even raising some taxes. Including their own.

Frankly, a restored economy would be in their own narrow, corporate self-interest. I don't imagine they like what they see in the global markets or what is happening to the values of their own companies' shares.

So where are they? I know, on vacation like Congress and the president. I hope they aren't enjoying themselves.