Editorial Keep the Change

STEVENGISLAM |

Keep the Change

Those of you who have been familiar with this publication for some of the 30 years that it has been in existence, will probably have noticed a few changes in recent times.

When I took over the position as Editor a little over two years ago, I found a company that was losing its place in the world. A sense of despondent complacency had set in amongst the “downstairs” staff – that being all of us except the boss, who had his own floor above us. Upstairs, there was a frustration that things were not chugging along as they always had. Whereas downstairs, on the front line, it had become apparent that the business model, which worked like a dream back in the mid-nineties, wouldn’t be sustainable for very much longer.

The company had long been held back by its owner who seemed, almost ideologically, to prefer the status quo to new ideas. The status quo, in this case, involved a lot of sales. On the phones. Like in 1999. The former owner’s priorities were made apparent by the fact that this was a magazine with an editorial team consisting of one person, and a sales team of around seven. Advertising space was prioritised over writing and journalism. This unusual writer to salesperson ratio appeared to be born out of a genuinely held belief in certain economic principles, as well as a deep-rooted suspicion of anything that appeared too “lefty” – a definition which included most things environmental as well as any criticism of the corporations and industries that were doing things that they shouldn’t be, not to mention writers themselves.

Despite efforts by myself and my colleagues to explain that there was not one but two transformations happening simultaneously, the old guard found it difficult to get on board. It was assumed that all this green nonsense was a passing fad, and that the company had already completed its own digital transition when it got its own website – in 2003.

To my mind, the company was experiencing a micro version of what I’d previously seen happening on a macro scale. An inflexible old guard, which had gotten wealthy from the old ways, tenaciously holding on, and acting, albeit unwittingly, as an obstacle to the changes that needed to be made. I use the word ‘unwittingly’, because of course, they genuinely and sincerely believed that they were acting as a bulwark. The last defence against some Green-meets-Red, Soviet-style future, where eco-authoritarian leaders, driven by the politics of envy and of fear and enabled by handwringing, tree-hugging, do-gooders take power, ultimately eroding civil liberties, destroying the economy, and punishing the wealthy.

Rip it up and start again

When the change came, it came suddenly. One strange summer morning, about six months into my tenure here, it was announced that we no longer had jobs and the company was closing its doors. While the news hit hard for our small team, it transpired to be the necessary catalyst to make the changes we needed to.

With a new, younger, more open-minded ownership taking over the helm, Industry Europe was now free to cover the stories that mattered. Although this also meant that we then had the task of rehauling the entire publication, both online and in print. It’s been a slow, sometimes shaky, but incredibly worthwhile process, which at times felt like we were turning around a massive container ship in a narrow waterway. But now at least, Industry Europe is facing in the direction that we want it to go in.

In fact, once again, our story is a micro version of a much bigger trend: Companies hastily but definitively changing their ways, driven by fear of climate change and the increasingly strict government regulations that try to combat it.

Despite the misgivings of our old leader, Industry Europe does not represent a left- or right-wing perspective. We stand for businesses and industries that are doing their best to clean up their acts in terms of emissions and pollution. We do not stand for mere lip service. We stand by companies and investors who put their money where their morals are. We don’t stand for hypocrisy, nepotism, or vacuous PR speak. We stand for transparency in terms of the way employees and host communities are treated. We don’t stand for human rights abuses along any link of the value chain.

When we punch, we do it upwards – if a company, especially a giant multinational, is doing something unethical or illegal, it’s our job to report it. It’s also our job to champion those firms which are lighting the way forward, as well as keeping an eye on the stragglers at the back. And it’s our job to report on the governments and politicians that are not making the cut, as well as those that are taking a cut for themselves.

Of course, it’s not a case of good vs. bad. Our world is far too complicated for that, especially at this point in history. The low-level rumblings that threatened to become crises towards the end of the last century - namely climate change and social inequality - are coming to a head at the same time as a brand-new crisis emerges in the form of Covid-19, while simultaneously the fourth industrial revolution is bringing technological innovation at a speed never before witnessed. Add to this heady mix the lengthy tragicomedy of Brexit – itself a manifestation of a polarised world which has only served to further muddy the waters - and the perfect storm is upon us, providing pertinent parallels between the trajectories of our publication and our planet.

All together it creates a dizzying and exciting - if sometimes slightly overwhelming - situation for all of us. As Industry Europe enters a new era, just as our world is doing, our mission is to keep our eyes on the major developments and technological breakthroughs, to do our bit to help get through these changing and challenging times. While nobody is expecting anything like a utopia, there is a chance that the world we are presented with once the dust has settled is a cleaner and fairer place. n

Comment

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