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How to tap the competitive advantage of being ‘bad’
The attention economy increasingly rewards companies willing to flout the conventions of polite woke society.
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Being “bad” can provide companies with a dark glamour that simultaneously attracts the right sort of people and filters out the wrong sort, says the writer.
PHOTO: AFP
Adrian Wooldridge
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We live in an age of goody-goody business. Companies wear their compassion on their sleeves in the form of ever more elaborate rainbow flags and inclusivity statements. Shareholder capitalism has been replaced by a lengthy list of virtue-signalling successors: “Shared value capitalism” (Michael Porter), “conscious capitalism” (John Mackey) “compassionate capitalism” (Marc Benioff), inclusive capitalism (Lynn de Rothschild) and ESG- and DEI-flavoured capitalism (almost everyone).
Driving all these buzzwords, manifestos and TED talks is the idea that the best way to do well is to do good. Doing good boosts profits by producing happy workers and delirious customers. Doing “bad” does the opposite by alienating workers and poisoning customer relations. People, profits and planet can fructify all at once.
