Corporations take credit for leaving Russia with dubious evidence
HOW’S THE BOYCOTT GOING?
As corporations lined up to pull out of Russia back in the spring, they made sure to issue press releases to reap as much credit from it as they could. Operating in Russia was not “consistent with McDonald’s value;” Coca-Cola’s “hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine;” British-American tobacco prides itself “on our values and our ethos;” “Fast Retailing is strongly against any acts of hostility.” Etc, etc, etc.
There’s a problem with this: the PR boost from the press release only lasts for a day or two, but the drop in revenues is forever. Values can be annoyingly expensive, and there has to be a temptation to sneak back when no one’s paying attention.
So, I’m intrigued by the idea behind the Moral Rating Agency, which apparently aims to assess to what extent companies are actually living up to their promises, by rating them on a scale from “Sprinting Boycotter with Power” to “Shameless failing to use its power.”
- “The goal is to provide consumers, shareholders, and the media with transparent information on corporate behavior so they can boycott companies’ brands and shares, in order in turn to cause companies to boycott Russia while governments are failing to force them to do so,” it says.
- “The companies don’t just fail to exit properly. They often also exaggerate or spin up their paltry efforts. Russia is such a hot potato that companies are ‘moralwashing’ to hide their inaction or incomplete action. And, when they do admit to keeping an activity going, they are masterful at coming up with excuses. I wish they would spend as much energy leaving Russia completely as they spend pretending that they already have,” said founder Mark Dixon, who previously founded Breaking Views.
Full disclosure, I know nothing about these people, but Dixon is right that there is a problem with how difficult it is to keep track of how well companies are living up to their professed values, and it would be good if rating agencies could find a way to assess them in the same way they do for creditworthiness.