change.gov & Doing Business

change.gov & Doing Business

Should Doing Business be on the issues list at change.gov? My idea is to add a section called Doing Business, or to add a Business Focus flag to every issue. I think this would help encourage very valuable input from the business community.

Here are a few business-oriented thoughts I had while going through parts of the change.gov website.

Would tax credits push costs up?
While looking at the education page, it occurred to me that tax credits for college students could be an incentive for colleges to raise costs. Would that be inflationary?

Employee ethical rewards
I worked for a couple of insurance companies and had very conflicted feelings about the good I was doing. I think this concern countered my desire to do a good job. Do ethics pay? I'd like to think they do, and hope to see more effort put into making it happen, making it a part of our everyday lives.

Buyer confidence
I'd like "buyer beware" to be the exception more than the rule. I've cut my spending in part because I've lost confidence in the products and services. Paying extra for warranties makes me think the product is faulty. Discounts make me think a business is trying too hard to mess with my head.

Corporate Transparency
Could the transparency demonstrated at change.gov be used to advantage in the corporate world? Are there transparency lessons from the business world that should be noted?

Cost of research
Science communities are pushing here and there for freeing up research for all to use, and universities are becoming more closely linked to corporations. What's going on, what does it mean, and what questions need asking?

Profit vs Non-Profit Investment
There's economic incentive to develop medical treatments, but curing a disease could put a company out of business. What to do? And, would it be reasonable to buy stock in a non-profit somehow?

I agree, Don, that The last thing we need to do in this economic environment is make business even less productive, unquote. I think . . . no, I can imagine, that many liberal and conservative objectives can profit from each other's input.

Like the ethical job satisfaction I mentioned above. Research I suspect can show that it's profitable to invest in it, and that an employee who is "ethically satisfied" is a better citizen. Could be a win-win thing for many industries. If the health insurance industry is in for a ride, this might pop up on someone's radar as a way to help the transition.

Buyer Beware: well, if more companies were more up-front about their products, and eventually I regained my confidence along with others who may feel as I do, wouldn't that be good for business?

Here's an economic and environmental issue that concerns me. Call it Near Beer for your car.

Companies are working to find enzymes from mushrooms and fungi that can process plant waste into ethanol. But, the enzymes found so far can't break down lignin, which protects seeds until they can sprout. They are working hard to develop one that does so. Well, that seems like an efficient and cost effective plan that also produces a threat to every plant on earth.

Isn't this more short-term thinking that in the long run could cost a whole lot more than it saves?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=az5PYSl7vUE4



Don, my focus for now is like, give change a chance. This is what we have to work with, the populace has some excitement going, so I'll go with the possibility of mixing in and contributing. It feels more practical. But, yes, it certainly is a point, that a business with ways to tackle any of these points is one I'd hope would succeed.

Kuwi, yes, what about those non-profitable ventures? Do you know much about how non-profits are put together?

Well, darn. So many questions, so little time.

Okay, there's always Wikipedia as a starting point. Which is itself an NPO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization

Here's an excerpt on accountability of NPOs. In the OP of this thread, one thing I asked is, could there be a way to let NPOs have stakeholders. Well, that's not at all the intent of the laws governing them. But, could there be something in between a for-profit and non-profit, say a maximum return on investment that would be an incentive yet hold the costs down?

The National Association of Parliamentarians has raised concerns about the implications of this trend for the future of openness, accountability, and understanding of grassroots concerns in nonprofit organizations. Specifically, they note that nonprofit organizations, unlike business corporations, are not subject to market discipline for products and shareholder discipline over their capital; therefore, without membership control of major decisions such as election of the board, there are few inherent safeguards against abuse.[6] [7] A rebuttal to this might be that as nonprofit organizations grow and seek larger donations, the level of scrutiny rises, including expectations of audited financial statements.

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