The end of The Soviet Union 2.0
In a united front that the west has formed in order to rally against the evil and tyranny of one man, both multinational and global conglomerates have a very precarious decision to make. Stand up and oppose the war, simply by closing your company’s doors for business in Russia that may very well mean a loss of revenue in the short term. Or turn a blind eye, and continue to reap the benefits of Putin’s Russia and hope that the world doesn’t notice and punishes you for it. Who will be in the right side of history?
Since the war started, we all became amazed by the quick response and zero to no hesitation from all sorts of companies around the world in immediately stopping their business relationships with Russia as a way to protest the war. The technology sector delivered the first blow with companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft shutting out Russia in a matter of hours. Then came those other companies whose withdrawal would take into account physical locations, employees and in some cases joint ventures with Russian based companies like the one shared between BP and Rosneft.
Some have taken advantages of their most recent technological discoveries, and without a moments hesitation made those technologies available to help fight the war. One clear example, was Elon Musk’s company Starlink who was quick to respond to Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s tweet; requesting the world’s richest man to help Ukraine’s defense by repositioning it starklink satellites, and giving them unlimited internet access in order to better repel the Russian invasion. I don’t know about you, but that really made Elon Musk score a ton of points in my book.
Others lagged behind worrying that their closing of businesses would hurt their companies dearly, such is the case of McDonalds whose more than 850 restaurants represent roughly 9% of the companies total revenue. After some hard thinking, McDonalds finally decided to temporarily shut down all of its operations in Russia; with the realization that 9% loss of revenue could be less meaningful than what would’ve happened if the entire world boycotted their restaurants in its other 38,000+ locations, were the company could stand to loose even more revenue. On top of that, the company decided to continue to pay the wages of all of its employees while the restaurants remained closed (points for McDonalds!). Uniqlo had the same dilemma, and it wasn’t until the company came under heavy criticism that its CEO Tadashi Yanai finally decided to close all of it stores in Russia.
On the other hand, take a company like PepsiCo who has built a strong relationship with Russia for decades. They decided to stop selling Pepsi products in fear of backlash from the west, but still continues to sell everyday products like milk and diapers calling it a “humanitarian” effort. Sure stopping the sale of Pepsi products is great, but you can’t parade that to the world and still conduct business under the table simply by using the excuse that your products are a necessity for the Russian people. Harsh and extreme measures must be taken in order to achieve a common objective in my opinion.
Still others remain, but hopefully it wont be too late until they realize that continuning to do business with the “bad guys” could be catastrophic for the well being of their firms in the long run. One clear example is Deutsche bank, whose CFO said it was not “practical” and that it hinged on the banks duty of care to clients that still operate in the country. As of today, this is a list of the companies that have pledged to stop business in Russia.
Social Media and the digitalization of the world has brought both great power and responsibility to every consumer around the world. Access to information and world developments reach us in real time. Both Companies and governments can’t hide things from us anymore, because as they have found out the world will punish them for it. It is our moral duty to call out those who have done wrong. There is still a lot of work to be done, but it brings a big smile to my face and an insurmountable sense of pride, to see how the world has rallied and united in a moment in history when everyone seemed to look out for their best interests at home and loose sight of the greater good of planet earth. We are one planet and one people, spread love and not war.
“We shall not fail or falter. We shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.” — Winston Churchill.
RH
