In what seemed like a bold, inspiring statement, Jeremy Hunt commented to Robert Jay QC that the business model of the print newspaper did not make sense.
Actually, anyone with a reasonable understanding of management will understand that the way to get around declining sales of newspapers would be to diversify your product, if in a mature market which is not growing much; this would be easy to do, if Hunt were able to invest in the infrastructure to support high speed broadband. However, being a true free marketeer, one assumes that he can rely on big corporates such as Virgin, who are largely supportive of the Tories, to enter into a mutually beneficial strategic alliance. So, taken as a whole, Jeremy Hunt’s statement does make sense.
Jeremy Hunt then went to elaborate how the people were looking to these problems to be solved, but there existed solutions in existing law. He described how there could be a new PCC, but Hunt did not at any point opine whether there should be any further laws. Ideologically, the concern is that Hunt’s new PCC would not have any ‘teeth’, in much the same way a replacement for the Human Rights Act would not be legally enforceable. Perhaps, the new PCC could ‘nudge’ principal stakeholders into action, such as reasonable behaviour. Reasonable behaviour would almost certainly in this definition encompass *excluding* illegal behaviour such as phone hacking of celebrities and other citizens. Unless of course you believe in absolute shareholder primacy.
One half of Hunt’s model so far therefore appears to support sustainability. It would make sense if the other half of Hunt’s model could also embrace sustainability. Corporate social responsibility – or acting with a concern for people and planet, as well as profit. I take this to mean including all members of society in what you’re doing. Where Hunt is clearly correct is that a corporates with pending or active litigation, where its Directors could even be brought under the auspices of foreign legislation such as the FCPA, should indirectly be punished by market forces. It is still uncertain whether corporates of their own accord can do this with a bit of nudging – the behaviour of some companies such as ENRON suggests perhaps not. The question as to whether the UK should introduce direct legislation – making widespread disclosure and transparency targets of CSR information available for investors – to give teeth to bodies such as the new PCC.
I think Jeremy Hunt doesn’t understand CSR. His concrete thinking of money prevents him from understanding how the News International crisis began in the first place. To this extent, I have grave doubts about his solution, or lack of it thereof.
