Opening Plenary Business Roundtable: Pay-to-play Politics and the Role of Business in Reform, Elizabeth Doty, Founder, Leadership Momentum; Matt Patsky, CEO, Trillium Asset Management and former VP at Lehman Brothers; John Wass, Chairman and Founder of American Promise, CEO, Profit Isle, Inc.
Investment groups don’t want money to distort the marketplace. Companies with less competitive products have better financial performance than they should.
It’s not good for businesses either. They compete on ability to buy influence rather than product innovation. Someone can also outbid you. You need to spend time managing political issues rather than managing the company. It’s like working in some foreign countries where you have to pay off the right people. Except in the U.S. it’s called a campaign donation. It’s legalized bribery, and not ethical. Business leaders are often highly sympathetic personally, but can’t take visible stands due to other pressures.
The system is broken and all by itself the system is going to spin and spin right down the hole.