Are the “Big Five” under threat of extinction?
Greetings Bullogers
Having worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, when people referred to the “Big Five” they were usually speaking in the context of a weekend safari trip to see some of the continent’s most popular wildlife species — lions, leopards, buffalo, elephant and rhinoceros. In recent years it has been used to describe a very new species, but some would argue, no less dangerous. Namely, the global tech giants Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft. These five companies alone make up approximately 20% of the total value of the Fortune 500 and their combined market capitalization of amounts to an eye watering $5.5 trillion. What’s more, none of these companies even existed when I started my career in business. OK, that was a while ago and admittedly I’m no spring chicken, but you get my point.
Like me, you no doubt watched with fascination as the CEOs of these companies, most of them billionaires, were grilled by Congress in what I think was more theatre than something that will actually drive change. The focus to date has of course been on their size and their apparent abuse of monopoly power, not to mention some fairly dubious business practices that seek to thwart competition from smaller rivals. Might it make more sense if these goliaths were broken up into smaller pieces?
Yes, size does matter, but I’m more interested in what they are doing for society and how they have the potential to do so very much more. This great blog by Mark Johnson in the Harvard Business Review (thanks Amanda Gardiner) sets out very well what the world might look like if these organizations’ had purpose as their main goal rather than just lining the pockets of shareholders.
Indulge me for a moment with a seemingly impossible dream: what if Google, or Apple or Facebook for that matter, freed their organizations even temporarily of the burden of having to filter every new idea through the lens of profit maximization. What if these five CEOs allowed their entire workforces to let their imaginations run wild on what they could do individually and indeed collectively to make the world a better place? I’m not talking about not empty PR statements such as “we exist to make the world better” and so on, but really engaging, empowering and inspiring employees to think out of the box for a while, perhaps a good year. Let me go further: what if we, the public, were challenged to dream big in a global innovation contest, funded by these Big Five as part of their license to operate, to come up with the most creative ways possible that they could solve any of the social or environmental crises we face. Let’s face it, there are plenty to choose from. They could view it as something of a goodwill gesture in return for not being broken up (just yet).
Another one of my Utopian business dreams? Well, perhaps. But frankly, the world does not need another trillion dollars on Google or Amazon’s market cap — but that’s what we’ll get with a laisser-faire approach. I’d even argue that Google and Amazon shareholders don’t need that trillion dollars either (the latter share price having grown by a staggering 120,000% since its IPO in 1997). Might these shareholders be prepared to forego a bit of cash in return for a greater degree of certainty that their kids or grand kids will still have a planet to live in and won’t be forced to go about their lives wearing something akin to an astronaut’s helmet to keep them safe? After all, what’s the point in having piles of cash if you’re too frightened to venture to the shops to spend it? That dream holiday is more of a nightmare if it comes with a lengthy period of quarantine when you come back.
Unlike their African mammalian counterparts, I don’t believe the Tech Big Five are yet an endangered species, but they can certainly expect growing scrutiny on their role in society and calls from many quarters, for them to be broken up. They have created some incredibly innovative products and services and enabled unprecedented economic growth in the past two decades, that have enriched themselves and their investors. It’s now time for them to turn their attention, scale and innovation capacity to improving the way the world works and lives.
This article is an extract from the August edition of The Bullog*, my monthly blog. To read the full blog or to sign up to receive The Bullog directly each month visit www.gibbulloch.com
Not bulldog, nor is it bulls**t although I’ll let you be the judge of that! It’s a brief synopsis on recent articles, events and opinions from my world and the things that have caught my attention over the past month
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